AFGHAN REFUGEES BEGINS TO ARRIVE UGANDA

AFGHAN REFUGEES ARRIVES UGANDA

■ The first batch of Afghan refugees numbering 51 have arrived in Uganda.

The Uganda Foreign Ministry revealed via a statement that the Afghan evacuees landed on Wednesday at Entebbe International Airport aboard a private chartered flight.

The statement also said that the Afghan refugees will temporarily be hosted in Uganda before onward movement to the US and other countries. But the duration of their stay in Uganda was not mentioned.

The evacuees include men, women and children who have undergone Covid-19 testing and will go into quarantine, the statement says.

The evacuation followed the US government’s request to Uganda to take in some of the people fleeing the crisis in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover.

Last week, a Ugandan junior government official told the press that Uganda was to take in 2,000 Afghan refugees at the request of the US government.

Uganda hosts more than one million refugees who have fled several conflicts and other disasters across eastern Africa.●