Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Uganda + 1 more

Uganda Refugee Response Monitoring Settlement Fact Sheet: Agojo (June 2018)

Attachments

Agojo opened in 2016 in response to the influx of South Sudanese refugees fleeing insecurity in their country of origin. It is located 16km west of Adjumani town and was established in order to ease the congestion at Nyumanzi Transit Centre, which was severely overstretched at the time.
South Sudanese refugees were thus relocated to Agojo where over 3,000 of them have now settled. The settlement is no longer receiving new arrivals.

Gaps & Challenges

  • Access to health services is limited for both the refugees and the host community due to the long distance to the health center that is outside the settlement. Refugees often have to travel up to 6km to reach the facility. Patients are unable to receive appropriate treatment due to the inadequate equipment, insufficient stock of medication, limited hospital beds and absence of emergency services. Pregnant women are particularly affected by the lack of ambulance and emergency services and FGD participants reported some women give birth on the side of the road.

  • There is limited water availability across the camp with refugees only being able to fill up two jerry cans per day. The amount of water trucked has decreased and there is only one functional manual borehole and no piped water system. This leads refugees to walk long distances to access potable water in the host community where they have to pay or risk tensions with the communities. Moreover, the FGD participants reported finding the water to be of poor quality.

  • Delayed and untimely distribution of food has meant refugees often go over a month without receiving their food rations. The food distributed is of poor quality and is often expired. Moreover, due to delayed registration of new arrivals and family reunification cases, FGD participants reported that missing names on the food roster led to many refugees not receiving their food rations .

  • Infertility of the soil combined with the lack of land available has prevented refugees from sustaining themselves through agriculture. Refugees reported that renting land is expensive and complicated with few of them having received out of season seeds and non-climate specific seeds further limiting their farming capacities.

  • Educational opportunities are limited. Refugees reported high tuition fees many households cannot afford, which is exacerbated by insufficient scholarships and vocational training opportunities. Parents reported they often sell their food rations to supplement school fees. Education services are of low quality with insufficient teachers, poorly equipped classrooms and a language barrier that further inhibits students' learning capacities.

  • Refugees reported they only received two saucepans and two jerry cans upon arrival, which are now worn out. Their mosquito nets, clothes and mattresses are also reported to be worn out. The delayed distribution of non-food items (NFIs) has meant that adolescent females experienced delays in receiving sanitary materials and soap, leading to health issues and deteriorated hygienic conditions.