VOA常速英语:大量南苏丹难民涌入乌干达

The buses keep rolling in, bringing more and more South Sudanese from border points in northern Uganda to refugee settlements,their new homes for the foreseeable future.

Here in Busia, only a short footbridge separates South Sudan from Uganda.The newcomers often arrive malnourished, thirsty and exhausted.

“I need to leave Yei because there is a lot of shooting, looting, so we are tired.That is why we need to leave Yei, so that we rest a little bit.”

Many of these new arrivals are from Yei and other places in the Equatoria region, which has experienced intense fighting.Overall more than 816,000 South Sudanese refugees have come to Uganda fleeing violence.

“I came to Uganda because life is hard and risky.We do not move because people were killing us, chasing us to the bush, burning us inside our houses.Here, we have a secure life.”

And with the violence comes hunger, another push factor.

“There’s no more food; people are starving; there’s no medical access.There are no roads for the food to get into town.When people are bringing the food from the rural areas, the armed men collect it and the people are suffering in the town.”

While life at home was difficult, refugees say, so was the journey to Uganda.

“For 14 days, we walked day and night, surviving on wild fruits and stagnant water.”Fabian Richard Wani trekked for 10 days with his wife, children and a group of orphans from Yei to the Ugandan border.But he says he still has hope for his country.

“And I am looking for the future of the country.And for us to receive the peace, we need to be Godly fearing people and the leaders should also accept their mistakes and they see the suffering of their own citizens so that the future of the country will be very bright.”

Refugees in the Ugandan settlements are given a 50-meter by 50-meter plot of land to be used for shelter and small cultivation,in addition to food, water, non-food items, health services and children’s education.

Jill Craig, VOA news, in northern Uganda.