RWAMWANJA, Uganda -- 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 ca.