The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has urged Uganda to protect refugees after a two-year-old South Sudanese child was killed in the northern part of the country.
In brief statement issued on Saturday, UNHCR said law enforcement authorities must ensure protection of refugees in refugee settlements.
The child was killed in Palabek refugee settlement in the northern Ugandan district of Lamwo, but motive of the killing remains unclear.
“This is a terrible tragedy and there is no justification for such a senseless act of barbarism,” Joel Boutroue, the UNHCR representative in Uganda said in the statement.
The number of South Sudanese refugees currently living in Uganda has exceeded one million, according to the UN refugee agency.
The conflict in South Sudan, now in its fifth year, has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than two million civilians.
