120 Ugandan Aid Workers Return Home
About 120 Ugandan aid workers working with various humanitarian organizations including the United Nations (UN), its agencies and other non-governmental organizations in Africa have returned home.
The returnees jetted in on Saturday from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Ethiopia aboard Uganda Airlines from Kinshasa and Ethiopian Airlines from Addis Ababa.
They will be put under institutional quarantine at 25 of the 37 quarantine centres in Entebbe and Kampala including Speke Apartments in Kitante.
The 25 centres, all private hotels have been accredited by the UN and the other organizations including diplomatic missions to accommodate their staff who will return to Uganda during the pandemic.
President Yoweri Museveni suspended passenger flights to and from Uganda on March 23rd, 2020 to combat the spread of COVID-19. However humanitarian, emergency, domestic and cargo flights were allowed to continue operating.
Last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs halted repatriation flights from July 4th, 2020 for another two weeks to decongest the 37 quarantine centres and also to ensure that the Ministry of Health is not overwhelmed by the number of Covid-19 suspects and patients across the country.
By July 4, 804 stranded Ugandans and legal residents had returned from Afghanistan, India, United Kingdom and Southern Africa among other countries.
However, over 1,500 are yet to return in the coming weeks when repatriation flights resume including the 300 from Canada and the United States of America.
The ministry of foreign affairs registered about 2,400 Ugandans who got stranded in 66 countries across the world and will return to Uganda in phases.
