Leaders inspect a house that was burnt during a past violence in Palorinya, Obongi District | Credit | Felix Warom Okello

The UN refugee agency and the government of Uganda have relocated 650 refugees from Palorinya camp in Obongi district to Palabek settlement in Lamwo District.

Uganda’s Daily Monitor reports that the relocation process that started early last month ended with the last batch last Friday.

This follows clashes in July between South Sudanese refugees in Palorinya settlement that left three people dead and six others injured.

The July fighting was sparked by an accusation of food theft from a farmland.

About a hundred homes were torched and more than 20 people were arrested following the incident.

“Religious leaders, cultural leaders, refugee leaders and security were engaged in several dialogues with the two tribes but they all fell on deaf ears,” said David Wangwe, Palorinya refugee settlement camp commandant.

“The two tribes vowed never to keep together and we were left with no choice but to relocate them.”

Lamwo refugee settlement has a population of about 54,000 South Sudanese refugees who fled home in March 2017.

In the past two years, there have been incidents of reported clashes between South Sudanese refugees themselves.

In December 2019, four people were killed and 16 others wounded in Uganda’s northwestern district of Adjumani when refugees clashed among themselves.