Uganda said on Tuesday it had agreed to a request from the United States to take in temporarily 2,000 refugees from Afghanistan fleeing after the Taliban takeover.
The country has long experience receiving people escaping conflict and currently hosts about 1.4 million refugees, mostly from South Sudan.
“The request was made yesterday by the US government to H.E. (President Yoweri Museveni) and he has given them an OK to bring 2,000 (Afghan) refugees to Uganda,” Esther Anyakun Davinia, Uganda’s junior minister for relief, disaster preparedness and refugees, told Reuters.
“They are going to be here temporarily for three months before the US government resettles them elsewhere.”
It was unclear when they would start arriving.
Albania and Kosovo have also accepted a US request to temporarily take in Afghan refugees.
UNHCR
Refugees in Uganda
Uganda holds more refugees than any other country in Africa because of its proximity with countries affected by civil wars.
The Taliban have returned to power 20 years after a US-led intervention ousted them in 2001.
The Islamist group was able to seize control after most foreign troops pulled out.
The lightning advance of the Taliban over 10 days prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, many arriving in the Afghan capital, Kabul, others heading for neighbouring countries.
Kabul was the last major city to fall prompting Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country on Sunday.
Many desperate residents then headed to the airport where US troops were organising evacuations for foreigners and vulnerable Afghans.
More than 90% of Uganda’s refugees come from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
Refugees live in settlements or villages alongside local residents and some are given plots of land and allowed to work.
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