Uganda struggles to feed more than 1.7 million refugees as international
support dwindles
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[October 31, 2024]
By PATRICK ONEN
RWAMWANJA, Uganda (AP) — For months, Agnes Bulaba, a Congolese refugee
in Uganda, has had to get by without the food rations she once depended
on. Her children scavenge among local communities for whatever they can
find to eat.
“As a woman who’s not married, life is hard,” Bulaba told The Associated
Press. Some locals “keep throwing stones at us, but we just want to feed
our kids and buy them some clothes,” said the mother of six, who often
works as a prostitute to fend for her family.
Uganda is home to more than 1.7 million refugees, the largest
refugee-hosting country in Africa, according to the United Nations
refugee agency. Despite being renowned for welcoming those fleeing
neighboring violence, Ugandan officials and humanitarians say dwindling
international support coupled with high numbers of refugees have put
much pressure on host communities.
Approximately 10,000 new arrivals enter Uganda each month, according to
U.N. figures. Some have recently fled the war in Sudan, but most are
from neighboring South Sudan and Congo.
Bulaba is among tens of thousands in Rwamwanja, a refugee settlement in
southwestern Uganda. As in other settlements across the east African
country, refugees there are given small plots of land to cultivate as
they are slowly weaned off total dependence on humanitarian food
rations.
Since 2021, as funding consistently declined, the U.N.’s World Food
Program has prioritized the most vulnerable groups for food assistance,
in food items or cash, which can be as little as $3. After spending
three months in Uganda, refugees are eligible to get 60% rations, and
the number falls by half after six months. Only new arrivals get 100%
food assistance, leaving the vast majority of some 99,000 refugees in
Bulaba's settlement vulnerable to hunger and other impoverishment.
In 2017, the Ugandan government and the U.N. held a summit in Kampala,
the capital, and appealed for $8 billion to deal with the sharp influx
of refugees from South Sudan at the time. Only $350 million was pledged.
Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
visited Uganda last week in a trip partly aimed to underscore the
funding shortage.
The international community “should not take Uganda’s generosity and the
global public good it provides for granted,” Grandi said in a statement
at the end of his visit. “Services here are overstretched. Natural
resources are limited, and financial support is not keeping pace with
the needs.”
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U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, third
left, gestures as he talks with refugees at Rwamwanja Refugee
Settlement in Kamwenge District, Uganda, on Oct. 21, 2024. (AP
Photo/ Patrick Onen)
He also said international support
"is urgently needed to sustain Uganda’s commitment to refugees,”
urging donors and humanitarian partners to “come together with the
government to address the needs of refugees and the generous
communities hosting them.”
Refugees in Uganda have access to the same hospitals as locals, and
their children can attend school. While this helps integrate them
into the Ugandan community, sometimes the competition for limited
resources sparks tension. However, violence is rarely reported.
Hillary Onek, the Ugandan government minister in charge of refugees,
said during Grandi’s visit that local officials need support to help
refugees become more self-reliant. Though he said the country was
“overloaded” with refugees, he cited several training options to
help refugees become self-sufficient, including carpentry,
bricklaying and metal welding.
“We are trying to be innovative,” he said. “Given the fact that
funding for refugee programs dwindled over the years, there is not
enough money to meet their demands, not even giving them enough food
to eat.”
Onek said the alternative is “to survive on your own, using your
skills, using whatever capacity you have.”
But Bulaba, the Congolese refugee who has been in Uganda since 2014
after fleeing violence in her home country with her two children,
said she can't find a job. She has since had four other children who
often go barefoot and without appropriate clothing. She misses the
cash-for-food stipend she used to get.
“For us to eat, we look for work, but there’s no work,” she said.
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Associated Press writer Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda,
contributed to this report.
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