Nakivale (Uganda): Nearly 10,000 new refugees welcomed in precarious conditions

SOS Médias Burundi

Nakivale, April 26, 2025 – More than 10,000 asylum seekers, mainly Congolese and Burundian, have just been granted refugee status in Uganda. But in Nakivale, their daily lives remain marked by alarming precarity.

More than 10,000 refugees, mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, have been transferred to the Nakivale camp in southwestern Uganda. They had previously been confined to the Nyakabande transit center, not far from the Congolese border.

Since their resettlement in the Juru area, they have faced extremely difficult living conditions.

“No drinking water, no food assistance, no sustainable shelter,” they complain.

A UNHCR truck brings them drinking water once a week. But resources are insufficient: more than 10,000 people must share three 1,000-liter tanks, or barely three liters of water per person each week. “We draw water from rivers or stagnant puddles. We’re exposed to all sorts of diseases,” says one refugee.

Deprived of food aid or financial support, many refugees try to survive by stealing agricultural produce from nearby fields. “They take bananas, cassava, potatoes. Some have been beaten, others imprisoned,” says a community leader, who is pleading for emergency aid.

This crisis comes as the UNHCR has just reduced its food and cash assistance following the suspension of USAID, a US fund that financed more than 50% of its humanitarian operations in the region. Nakivale camp currently houses more than 150,000 refugees, including 33,000 Burundians.

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Refugees collect water from a stream near Nakivale camp in Uganda (SOS Médias Burundi)