Ethiopian Informer
ADDIS ABABA: December 18 (EI) – The President of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who is also an official champion of the African Union Commission (AUC) on refugees, has called for greater solidarity with Uganda, as the country’s hosts the largest refugee population in Africa.
The Equatorial Guinea President made the urgent call after his official visit to a refugee settlement in Uganda’s Kiryandongo district that was organized by the AU Commission Department for Political Affairs in partnership with the governments of Uganda Equatorial Guinea, according to an AU statement issued on Tuesday.
Forced population movements caused by various factors is one of the major challenges facing the African continent in recent years. The situation also forced the AU Commission and its 55 member states to undertake different measures to bring about durable solutions to the pressing issue.
The African continent, under the leadership of the AU Commission and cognizant of Africa’s forced displacement crisis, had also dedicated this year as the “AU Year of Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons: Towards Durable Solutions to Forced Displacement in Africa.”
Obiang, who is the AU Commission’s official champion of 2019 on finding solutions to forced displacement in Africa, also over the weekend paid a visit to a refugee settlement in Uganda to show solidarity and support to Uganda, which is the third-largest refugee-hosting country in the world.
“President Obiang was able to witness first-hand the remarkable resilience of the Refugees as well as the heartwarming hospitality of the host community. Uganda has been a hosting refugee for decades, relying mostly on their own resources and few stakeholders,” an AU statement issued on late Tuesday read.
The Kiryandongo refugee settlement in Uganda is the second refugee camp visited by the Equatorial Guinea President this year.
In June this year, Obiang had also visited Tsore refugee camp in Ethiopia’s Benishangul Gumuz regional state, which mainly hosts refugees from Ethiopia’s war-torn neighboring nation South Sudan. Ethiopia is Africa’s second-largest refugee hosting nation, next to Uganda.
According to the AU, the visit highlights the situation in Uganda, which is hosting more than 1.3 million refugees who have fled conflict and other calamities from neighboring countries.
Recent figures from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) show that the East African country is the third-largest refugee-hosting country in the world after Turkey and Pakistan, as the country hosts 1.36 million refugees by June 2018. Most of the refugees in Uganda are from neighboring South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.
The Equatorial Guinea President also “called for greater solidarity with the government and the people of Uganda.”
Obiang also emphasized “the urgent need to efficiently address the root causes of displacement while commending Uganda for its Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework approach, which focuses on the humanitarian and development needs of both refugees and host communities,” the statement read.
The AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Minata Samate Cessouma, also during the occasion acknowledged “the tremendous work done by some international organizations and the host African countries” in terms of providing refuge to vulnerable affected people as well as bringing a durable solution to the continent’s displacement crisis.
The AU Commissioner also “called on more rallying around the efforts towards finding durable solutions to forced displacements in Africa,” an AU statement quoted Cessouma as saying.
Noting the year 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Organization for African Unity (OAU) – the predecessor of the AU – Convention on refugees and the 10th anniversary of the Kampala Convention, Cessouma also congratulated those that have domesticated the two continental conventions.
She also called on those that have yet to do so, to sign, ratify and domesticate the conventions “for better protection and assistance to displaced populations.”
Photo — African Union Commission (AUC)
