Nakivale Refugee Settlement

Nakivale Refugee Settlement is one of Africa's largest and oldest refugee settlements. It houses more than 63,000 refugees from countries including DRC, Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya and Burundi

We stopped in Mbarara to buy soap, mosquito nets for the camp; then back on the road back towards Ntungamo and then the turn off which said 75km to Nakivale.  It was a dirt road and so slow progress ~ 2 hours through a very fertile region, lots of cattle and pretty towards the lake.  As we approached the camp there were more and more people travelling by foot in either direction, also a scatterings of flimsy housing, stick, mud and plastic.  These apparently belong to refugees who have been given some land and permission to stay in the area. 
On entering the camp we were shown to the commandant’s office and greeted by one of the assistants.  As we had not made an appointment or got the relevant letter from the office in Mbarara, we were not expected and so could not see specific areas.  We were asked to which group we wanted out donations to go and had we had previously informed of our choice we would have been able to give directly.  We agreed that the donation should be to vulnerable women and children at their discretion.  The asst commandants would not give specific information on numbers of refugees as we did not have clearance.  We were then allowed to tour the area on foot, and were guided by some residents.  The camp is divided into national areas, and we were mainly in the Congolese and Ethiopian areas.  Some of those we met had been there for 5, 8 and 16 years as a result of various conflicts.

They spoke of the lack things to do, not enough food and money for education, there are schools on site which are free but better schools are off site.  The residents looked better clothed than those in Ruhanga and certainly as well nourished. But they are with out a home or prospect of moving on although they have their cultural groups for support.

It would have been good to have had lunch at one of the restaurants but we were all too polite to suggest it.  The settlement looks reasonably well organised some residents are employed in this organisation, those we spoke with have command of up to 7 languages and appear reasonably well educated,  there did seem a lot of babies, the birhrate is a problem but although health care is available it is often some distance away and birth control not always readily available.

We returned to the bus after about an hour, and were given the option of taking the ‘short cut’ home!

This consisted of more dirt track road, we eventually saw a big swollen river and James informed us that this was the Tanzanian border, some short cut, we continued beside and above it for some time and then moved away from it, at which point we turned around and asked directions and then took off on what looked like only a foot path.  Apparently to take us right down to the river and a crossing, via punt, not quite as gentle as on the Cam; no one had a passport, not that any was there to check, and so did not cross.

We then had to get back to the road; this was not a 4x4 we were in, expert driving by Nicolas and continued on the dirt track, we were then informed we were looking across in to Rwanda.









James, and the rest of us were a little concerned about where we were so Nicolas passed over a bank note, upon which was the map of Uganda that seemed to be our guide! We  boneshakingly continued, until we came to a halt, to check, something under the front wheel, it was then a very slow drive to Ntungamo to the gorge, where they fixed the breaks.