KAMPALA, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is scheduled to visit a refugee settlement in Uganda before he sets out to represent the African Union (AU) at the Global Refugee Forum on Dec. 17-18 in Geneva, Switzerland.
A State House statement issued here on Wednesday said President Obiang will over this weekend visit Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement in the midwestern Ugandan district of Kiryandongo.
Obiang is the official AU champion of 2019 on finding solutions to forced displacement in Africa.
The visit to the settlement is aimed at getting firsthand experience on how Uganda has successfully handled the refugee crisis, according to the statement.
Uganda, according to the UN refugee agency, is the third largest refugee-hosting country in the world after Turkey and Pakistan. The east African country hosts 1.36 million refugees by June 2018. Most of the refugees in the country are from neighboring South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.
Obiang's visit to Uganda also comes at a time when Equatorial Guinea becomes the 29th AU member state to deposit its instrument of ratification of the Kampala Convention.
The Kampala Convention is a regional legally binding instrument for the protection and assistance of internally displaces persons. This year marks the tenth anniversary since the Convention was signed.
