BY ABDIYARE SALAD
East Africa today hosts one of the largest refugee populations in the world. From the sprawling settlement of Bidi Bidi in Uganda to Kenya’s Kakuma and Dadaab camps, millions displaced by war, persecution, and hunger are struggling to rebuild their lives.
Conflict in Sudan, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to drive new arrivals into already overcrowded settlements, while climate change deepens food insecurity and erodes livelihoods.
Humanitarian agencies and host governments have worked tirelessly to keep people alive, but the gaps are overwhelming.
Violence, poor healthcare, economic exclusion, and barriers to education define the daily lives of refugees. Unless stronger and more coordinated responses are mobilized, the promise of protection risks fading into permanent crisis.
Violence and Gender-Based Risks
For women and girls, the end of flight does not mean the end of danger.
Refugee settlements across Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia report widespread cases of gender-based violence (GBV). Women fetching water or firewood face the threat of assault; inside homes, the stresses of poverty and displacement fuel domestic abuse.
We need more safe shelters and counseling,” says Amina, a refugee in Kakuma, Kenya.
“Many women suffer in silence because there is nowhere to turn.
The conflicts refugees flee from—whether in Sudan, South Sudan, or eastern DRC—often use sexual violence as a weapon of war. Survivors who arrive in camps carry deep trauma but find little support.
Safe shelters are few, psychosocial services overstretched, and stigma pervasive. Families struggling with desperation sometimes resort to early or forced marriage for their daughters, believing it is a form of protection or economic relief. Instead, it perpetuates cycles of abuse and lost opportunities.
Gaps in Healthcare and Reproductive Services
Healthcare is another fragile lifeline. Uganda’s policy of integrating refugees into national health services is commendable, but in rural settlements like Bidi Bidi, facilities are overwhelmed.
Clinics run out of medicines, staff are too few, and specialized care is almost nonexistent.
Reproductive health is particularly neglected. Pregnant women often travel long distances to health centers only to find no midwife or equipment for safe delivery.
Access to contraception is inconsistent, limiting women’s ability to plan their families.
Adolescents, meanwhile, struggle to obtain reliable information on sexual and reproductive health, leaving them vulnerable to unsafe practices and exploitation.Chronic conditions add another burden.
Refugees living with HIV, diabetes, or hypertension face treatment interruptions when drug supplies falter. With conflicts in Sudan and DRC sending more people across borders, these fragile health systems are stretched even thinner.
Economic Marginalization
Despite their resilience, most refugees remain locked out of formal economic participation. Host governments fear competition for scarce jobs, and legal restrictions often prevent refugees from working.
Even in Uganda, where refugees have greater freedoms, access to land, capital, and documentation remains limited.
“Some days we eat once, some days not at all,” says Joseph, a South Sudanese father of four in northern Uganda.
As international aid budgets shrink, rations are cut, leaving families in survival mode. Many turn to precarious informal labor, where exploitation is common. Women, in particular, may resort to transactional sex to secure food or money, further exposing them to abuse and health risks.
Economic marginalization not only entrenches dependency but also risks fueling tension with host communities, who face their own poverty. Without targeted investment in both refugee and host populations, resentment can easily grow.
Barriers to Girls’ Education
Education, often described by refugees as their only hope for a better future, is out of reach for many children—especially girls. Overcrowded classrooms, too few teachers, and inadequate resources plague schools across the region.
Those who do attend school face long walks that expose them to harassment, and the lack of proper sanitary facilities drives many adolescent girls to drop out. “I want to be a nurse,” says 14-year-old Grace in Uganda’s Palorinya settlement.
“But if I cannot stay in school, my dream will end.”
Girls face additional challenges. Families struggling to survive prioritize boys’ education, while girls are kept home for household chores or married off early. Those who do attend school often walk long distances, facing harassment or violence on the way.
The lack of proper sanitation facilities pushes many adolescent girls to drop out once they begin menstruation.
In contexts where conflict and displacement already rob children of stability, the denial of education is a wound that lasts for generations. It closes the door to opportunity and traps families in cycles of poverty.
Conflict and Climate Change: A Double Burden
The refugee crisis in East Africa is not only shaped by violence but also by climate change.
Prolonged droughts in the Horn of Africa have left millions food insecure, while flash floods displace entire communities and destroy fragile infrastructure in settlements.
These environmental shocks intersect with conflict.
The wars in Sudan, South Sudan, and eastern DRC continue to push families across borders, swelling the population of camps that already lack food and water. Refugees are on the frontlines of both man-made and natural disasters, yet the resources to support them are dwindling.
The Need for Stronger Humanitarian Responses
The cumulative weight of these challenges underscores the urgent need for stronger humanitarian responses.
Donor funding has stagnated, forcing aid agencies to make impossible choices between food, health, and education. Host governments—though praised for their relative openness—are overstretched and cannot carry the burden alone.
A sustainable response requires more than emergency relief. It demands long-term investment that bridges humanitarian aid with development goals: expanding healthcare systems, ensuring quality education, supporting livelihoods, and addressing gender inequality.
Programs must be designed with climate resilience in mind, recognizing that refugees will continue to face environmental shocks alongside displacement.
The international community also has a responsibility to share the load. East Africa shelters millions of refugees but receives far less attention than crises in other regions.
Without renewed political will and financial commitment, the lives of refugees will remain defined by scarcity and insecurity rather than dignity and hope.
The Road a head
The plight of refugees in East Africa is not only a humanitarian issue but also a moral test for the global community. Violence, poor healthcare, economic exclusion, and barriers to education are woven into daily survival, compounded by the pressures of conflict and climate change.
These are not temporary challenges but systemic ones that demand urgent, sustained action.
Refugees fled their homelands seeking safety. What they need now is dignity, opportunity, and justice. Whether the world is willing to provide that remains an open question.
We came here to survive,” says Mary in Nakivali refugee settlement “Now we need a chance to live.”
Her words capture what lies on the road ahead — a future that is still uncertain, but one that could change if the world is willing to act.
