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Uganda Sudan
Uganda's relations with Sudan have been strained,
primarily
because of long-standing problems with refugees. According
to the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an
estimated 500,000 Ugandans fled to Sudan between 1978 and
1988.
After Sudan's civil war began to intensify in 1983,
several
thousand Sudanese--perhaps tens of thousands--fled to
northern
Uganda. Resolving even basic logistical problems caused by
the
movement of so many people proved difficult, especially
for two
governments beset by economic crises. To help ease the
situation,
Khartoum and Kampala in April 1988 signed a memorandum in
which
they agreed to repatriate approximately 60,000 Ugandan
refugees
from Sudan. Those who refused repatriation were to be
moved to
camps well inside Sudan to prevent them from participating
in
cross-border raids into Uganda.
In June 1988, Uganda claimed that the Sudanese People's
Liberation Army (SPLA), which opposed the government in
Khartoum,
had intruded into Arua and Moyo districts in the
northwest.
According to Ugandan officials, SPLA troops assaulted,
kidnapped,
and murdered civilians. They also burned and looted
several
villages, apparently in search of food and supplies. To
lessen
the resulting tensions, the Ugandan-Sudanese Joint
Ministerial
Commission in September 1988 issued a statement addressing
problems of security, trade, customs, health, transport,
telecommunications, and wildlife conservation, and the two
governments pledged to work toward cooperation.
In November 1988, the UNHCR announced that the UN had
repatriated 11,000 Ugandans, and the UNHCR reiterated the
understanding that Ugandan refugees still in Sudan would
be
located well inside the border but could return home in
small
groups whenever they wished. The UN also carried out a
two-month
emergency foodlift from Entebbe to Juba in southern Sudan
and
delivered 5,000 tons of supplies to famine victims. UN
aircraft
also ferried emergency humanitarian supplies provided by
the
Catholic Relief Services and the Norwegian Church Aid.
Despite the substantial efforts of the Ugandan and
Sudanese
governments and international relief agencies, the refugee
problem continued to overshadow relations between Uganda
and
Sudan. In February 1989, the UNHCR determined that about
15,000
Ugandan refugees still in Sudan were waiting to return to
Uganda.
Almost 18,000 Sudanese refugees remained in northwest
Uganda, and
that number was increasing rapidly in response to Sudan's
continuing civil war. Providing food, shelter, water,
medical
assistance, and transportation for this growing number of
refugees threatened to drain both resources and energy
from the
Ugandan and Sudanese governments for several more years.
Despite Uganda's attempts to contribute to a peaceful
solution to the Sudanese civil war and the conclusion of a
barter
trade agreement with Sudan in September 1989, tension
between the
two countries continued to mount. Sudan accused Uganda of
aiding
the antigovernment SPLA, and in November 1989 Sudanese
aircraft
bombed the town of Moyo in apparent retaliation.
Relations improved somewhat after Sudanese president
Lieutenant General Umar Hasan Ahmad al Bashir visited
Kampala in
December 1989. The two leaders signed a nonaggression pact
which
committed each country to refrain from using force against
the
other and to prevent its territory from being used to
launch
hostile actions against the other. To enforce this pact,
Sudan
deployed a military team of nine officials to Uganda to
monitor
security along the common border. President Museveni also
renewed
efforts to facilitate the peace process in Sudan. Despite
these
steps, however, many Western observers remained skeptical
about
the long-term prospects for good relations between the two
countries.
Data as of December 1990
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