A Struggle for Resources: Refugees and Natives in Uganda

“By 2015, Uganda had become the third largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, after Ethiopia and Kenya, with more than half a million refugees. That number is rising rapidly”. Refugees have fled to Uganda from countries in conflict like Sudan, Somalia, South Sudan, Burundi, and several others. This influx has resulted in a cultural melting pot of various ethnicities and religions. The largest refugee settlements are located in northern Uganda, proximate to South Sudan. Other sizeable settlements can be found along the Tanzania / Rwanda border in the south and southwest of Uganda. “At 31 May 2014, the asylum seeker/ refugee population was 379,668 individuals in the settlements and Kampala with an additional population in various transit centers while they wait for longer term assistance in the settlements.”

Native Ugandans are known to welcome refugees into urban settings, like the capital of Kampala, instead of banishing them into the rural landscape – tendencies that are not uncommon in neighboring countries. The social and political environment has brought on a population surge within the country, resulting in pressing challenges in regards to land availability, resource usage, and infrastructure.

In a settlement like Adjumani, home to the country’s largest number of refugees, land area and availability of resources are starting to become a challenge. In a settlement like Nakivale, home to more than 150,000 refugees, the organization American Refugee Committee (ARC) has taken the challenge on, providing a successful system of water to the settlement for drinking and sanitation purposes. “We distribute an astounding 1.1 million liters of water per day in Nakivale, ensuring that families have access to this basic human need.” This example is just one of many where organizations send help in the form of resources help refugee communities. When a sustainable and healthy environment is provided within a camp setting, refugees are enabled to create their own community until they can either return to their home country or make a new life through citizenship to a new nation.

With the help of the world organizations, refugees may be provided with homes, food, education for children, and work contributions to the local communities and agriculture. In most cases, the Ugandan people are empathetic to the refugee population because the nation is recovering from some political turmoil itself. Many have known the feeling of uncertainty in regards to basic necessities such as a safe and reliable shelter to call home.

However, with the rapid increase of people coming into Uganda, natives cannot always be as supportive as the government would like. This, in part, is because the Ugandan government tends to use land of native farmers and citizens to house arriving refugees. “Many here are subsistence farmers and they complain that they have had their land taken away to make room for the refugees. […] And this is the challenge for Uganda's refugee policies.” Although natives are trying to support refugees by giving them their family land and resources to work and create a temporary shelter to stay in, the livelihood and future for Ugandan citizen’s children can become uncertain. This can be very frightening for most people. The population of Uganda is already high and if more refugees continue to use the nation as a temporary home, the struggle for land and work can bring about a new challenge that can be harmful for the country as well as the bordering nations.

Currently Kenya is a leader of refugee resettlement and shares its eastern border of Uganda. However, the country is threatening to close up camps and force refugees to look elsewhere for security. This could lead to more refugees traveling to Uganda. According to Charity Ahumuza, of Makerere University in Kampala, “…people will think: “If Kenya can say no, why Uganda should be generous?” In this critical time of population growth and concurrent natural resource and land depletion, it is urgent for Ugandan government and supporting world organizations come up with balanced and efficient solutions that consider the wellbeing of both refugees and natives.