South Sudanese refugees in Uganda get new lease of life

South Sudanese refugees are building a new life in Uganda with the help of loan schemes that allow them to develop their own businesses.

The four-year war in oil-rich South Sudan, a country only founded in 2011, has forced more than a third of its 12 million citizens to flee their homes. Tens of thousands have died, some in ethnic killings, others from starvation and disease.

Leon Ssenyange reports.

Peace talks restart

South Sudanese rebels accused the government army of attacking one of their bases overnight as a new round of peace talks between the warring sides opened in the Ethiopian capital on Monday.

Rebel spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said government troops attacked a rebel base in the town of Lasu in the south of the country late on Sunday.

"They are in the IO base," he said, referring to the name of the rebel group. Army spokesmen were not immediately available to comment when called by Reuters on Monday afternoon.

TRT World spoke to Douglas Johnson, a scholar on South Sudan. 

Earlier on Monday, army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said four aid workers from the French organisation Solidarites International had been kidnapped a day earlier by rebels near the western city of Raja. The organisation said on Monday it had lost contact with three members of its team on Saturday.

The talks in Addis Ababa have been convened by the East African bloc IGAD and are aimed at bringing the warring sides back to the negotiating table after a 2015 peace deal collapsed last year during heavy fighting in the capital, Juba.