UGANDA

Key Facts

Urgent assistance needed by 3.4 million people

1.6 million displaced from homes

Food insecurity affects 5.3 million

Healthcare reaches only 44% of population

7.3 million children vulnerable

Current Situation

Uganda faces mounting humanitarian challenges that remain largely invisible to the world. While hosting 1.5 million refugees with remarkable generosity, its own people struggle. Climate disasters strike with increasing frequency, destroying crops and homes. Political repression silences dissent. Rural communities face chronic hunger while children miss school to fetch water. Northern regions, scarred by decades of conflict, struggle to recover as development funds disappear into corruption channels. For millions of Ugandans, daily life means impossible choices between medicine, school fees, or food as the gap between rich and poor widens into an unbridgeable chasm.

Underlying Causes

Political Repression and Corruption

The government’s increasingly authoritarian approach has led to shrinking civic space, restricted freedoms, and misallocation of resources meant for development. Anti-corruption measures remain weak, allowing public funds to be diverted from essential services. The 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act has further entrenched state-sanctioned discrimination and persecution.

Climate Crisis and Environmental Degradation

Uganda is experiencing more frequent droughts and floods, devastating crops and livelihoods. Areas like Karamoja regularly face severe food shortages. Deforestation and wetland destruction have accelerated these problems.

Regional Conflicts

Instability in neighboring countries continues to drive refugee influxes, straining local resources and host communities. While Uganda maintains an open-door refugee policy, services are stretched beyond capacity.

Humanitarian Challenges

Food Insecurity and Malnutrition

Over 5.3 million Ugandans face food insecurity. In the Karamoja region, acute malnutrition rates among children exceed emergency thresholds at 21%. Agricultural communities struggle with erratic rainfall patterns while rising food prices have made staples unaffordable for many urban poor.

Collapsed Healthcare Systems

Rural health facilities lack basic medications, equipment, and qualified staff. Maternal mortality remains high at 336 deaths per 100,000 live births. Disease outbreaks including Ebola, measles, and cholera occur regularly, overwhelming the fragile healthcare infrastructure.

Mass Displacement

Uganda hosts over 1.5 million refugees while approximately 100,000 Ugandans are internally displaced due to natural disasters and localized conflicts. Settlement conditions are crowded with limited water, sanitation, and shelter resources.

Gender-Based Violence:

An estimated 51% of women experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Child marriage affects 34% of girls, while harmful practices like female genital mutilation persist in some communities. Support services for survivors remain severely underfunded.

Child Protection Concerns

Children face multiple threats including child labor (affecting 28% of children), trafficking, sexual exploitation, and recruitment by armed groups. Over 2 million children are out of school, and many more receive poor quality education.

LGBTQ+ Persecution

Uganda’s LGBTQ+ community faces one of the world’s harshest legal environments. The 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act imposes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.” Since its passage, documented cases of violence have increased by 1,700%.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Crisis

Journalists trying to report from Somalia face threats, detention, and violence. Without them, the suffering is hidden. Without truth, accountability disappears.

Limited Humanitarian Access

Relief organizations face bureaucratic obstacles, funding shortfalls, and occasionally security concerns when delivering aid. Vulnerable populations in remote areas often receive inadequate assistance.