With a long history of hosting refugees and asylum seekers since 1959, Uganda is currently Africa’s largest refugee hosting country. At the end of October 2018, Uganda was hosting 1,154,352 million refugees and asylum seekers from over 10 countries: 785,104 from South Sudan, 284,265 from DRC, 33,657 from Burundi, 22,064 from Somalia, 14,313 from Rwanda and 14,949 from other countries.1 The refugee population in Uganda is diverse and includes 10 nationalities, with over 82 percent being women and children. Currently, there are 30 settlements spread out in 12 districts, including Kampala.2 Some of the refugees hosting districts are among the most vulnerable districts in Uganda.
Beginning in mid- 2016, Uganda received three simultaneous large scale refugee influxes with refugees coming primarily from South Sudan, DR Congo and Somalia: between end of June 2016, up to July 2018, Uganda received 958,260 refugees. This is historically the largest influx Uganda has received. Despite the scale of the concurrent emergencies, Uganda has been able to keep its borders open and maintain its villagestyle settlements in a non-camp setting, where refugees live within host communities because of the country’s concerted focus on comprehensive approaches to its response.
Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees