NEWS: Fire Sweeps Ugandan Refugee Camp, page 1

A fire at the Agweng refugee camp in Uganda on Friday afternoon, has left six people dead, and up to 10,000 with very little food, and no shelter. It is thought that approximately half the camp, situated in a remote part of the Lira region of northern Uganda, was destroyed in about half an hour, as winds fanned the flames.

news.bbc.co.uk
"People have lost all their belongings.. and now they are fearing for what they will eat," Karen Bevan-Mogg of the humanitarian agency Medecins sans Frontieres told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

This month, camp residents have been harvesting from the fields - storing their crops in sacks or up on the roofs to dry in the sun, she said.

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This fire was a cruel blow to the refugees of Agweng. Just when it seemed they were beginning to help take care of themselves, a fire destroys a large portion of what little shelter they could find, and burns the harvested crops that they worked so hard for. Now they will have to start over, and live in the open until aid agencies can bring in supplies like plastic sheeting for shelter.

The death toll, though still tragic, could have been many times worse, and it is a miracle that out of the 26,000 refugees at the camp, only six died.

[edit on 22-1-2005 by TrickmastertricK]