The government of Uganda has announced the suspension of four officials following reports of their roles in inflating refugee figures.
The Guardian reported that the country’s commissioner for refugees Apollo Kazungu and three of his senior staff are currently being investigated over the allegation.
Those suspended are accused of colluding with the United Nations (UN) and the World Food Programme (WFP) to inflate the number of refugees in the country in order to divert aid.
The Ugandan Daily Monitor has also reported that the allegations were brought forward by the UN country representative Rosa Malango who claimed to have doubted the numbers of refugees. She also raised issues with the trafficking of women and children, and fraud.
Only 7,000 people were counted as refugees requiring aid but that figure was inflated to 26,000 needing leading to questions being raised about where the money and resources for the missing 19,000 had gone.
Uganda is home to around 1.4 million refugees with many coming from countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
The latest scandal has forced the United States, European Union and UK to have threatened to withhold funding to the country.
Source: Africafeeds.com
