Kampala, Uganda – When Benedict and his family arrived in Uganda of the Democratic Republic of Congo at the end of 2024, the Jesuit refugee services became its compass, offering more than a simple food aid. The English lessons he received have transformed a foreign place on the navigable for independence. Thus, the news of last week of the organization closed the organization.
“I don’t know what to do,” he says. “Everything stopped. I’m stuck now.
With a cut help, he and his wife, with their two infants and a teenage girl, survive declining rations, mainly rice, beans and posho, a form of corn flour. Benedict, who asked that only his first name be used for fear of being stigmatized, expects food aid to end soon.
On the day of the inauguration, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, published a decree interrupting all American aid activities. Since then, the American agency for international development, which has played a fundamental role in the supply of direct aid and the financing of other international aid organizations, has been quickly dismantled. This week, all the USAID employees based on the international level were suddenly called home, and almost all workers, including those of the United States, were put on administrative leave, then said that they would be dismissed. The closure of the USAID was characterized as a 90 -day break in all foreign aid activities while the government has examined the programs. The decree indicates that American foreign aid programs “are used to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries which are directly opposite to internal harmonious and stable relations to and between countries.”
Uganda welcomes the fourth largest population of refugees and asylum research in the world and the largest in Africa. About 1.8 million refugees and asylum seekers live in Uganda, mainly South Sudan and the DRC. A small number of these people, like Benedict and his family, live in Kampala, but most are in 13 refugee colonies distributed across the country, according to the Prime Minister’s office, which supervises refugee services.
The history of Uganda as a refugee host dates back to his colonial era under British domination. In the early 1940s during the Second World War, the country hosted thousands of Polish refugees. In 1959, he welcomed Tutsi refugees from Rwanda after an uprising against the Tutsi monarchy of Rwanda.
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Now an average of 2,500 people arrive each week due to continuous conflicts and climate -related problems. Between October and December 2024, nearly 35,000 people arrived in Uganda, mainly from South Sudan and the DRC. Until now, in 2025, 14,800 additional refugees have been recorded, explains Frank Walusimbi, head of communications associated with UNHCR, the United Nations Agency for Refugees in Uganda. The country’s refugee policy is unique in that it allows people to move and work freely, even to use plots of land. Refugees have access to health services equal to Ugandan nationals – an advantage which is a head of hope for many.
In 2024 alone, the United States contributed more than $ 86 million to humanitarian refugee programs in Uganda. These programs, however, were already tense due to the drop in funding. In 2017, the UNHCR operated on a budget of nearly $ 220 million for $ 1.4 million in Uganda only, according to a memory of politics in 2024 published by the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations, a group of reflection independent based in Brussels. At the end of 2023, the organization’s budget in Uganda fell to $ 141 million, despite growth in the refugee population.
An UNHCR report at the end of 2024 shows that less than half of the organization required $ 363.3 million to support refugees in Uganda, even if the number of people in need swollen at 1.7 million. As of January 31 of this year, the organization could only guarantee 9% of its required amount. Although support in the United States has been stable in recent years, the country being a higher funder allocating more than $ 2 billion in 2024 only, the overall financing of UNHCR, drawn from governments around the world, fell From $ 1 billion from 2022 to 2023.
The funding crisis has serious humanitarian consequences. Since July 2022, critical services have been considerably under-funded, which means that refugees have trouble accessing essential resources such as food, water, soap, medicine, education and hygiene.
The request of the Global Press Journal for an interview with the Ministry of Uganda for Rescue, preparation for disasters and refugees has not received an answer.
Arthur Musombwa, program director of the Congolese Refugee Community Center, said that the apparent closure of the USAID has left many members of his community feeling trapped, confused and desperate, while looking at the opportunities disappear. Food services, health and legal services, education, financial support for start -up companies – everything has disappeared, he says.
“I am concerned that some refugees, especially young people, will get involved in criminal activities such as prostitution and theft,” he said.
JRS, the Jesuit organization that helped Benedict, refused to comment.
Moses Aya, a 26 -year -old South Sudan refugee, received an entrepreneurship training from another refugee organization in the hope of winning a cash subsidy of $ 600 to start a retail company in Kampala.
“I expected the money to be good at the end of February, but the organization closed last week. Now hopes for training and money have disappeared, “he says.
While Benedict worked on his skills in English and was trying to obtain a subsidy to refugees to start her retail store in Kampala, her 16 -year -old daughter, Sarah, who also asked that only her first name be used, found her own A path to go in JRS ‘sewing program, everyone breaks a promise of future independence. The two hoped to earn money that would transform their lives.
Now Benoît wonders if Uganda can support the growing number of refugees entering every day. He is particularly concerned about refugees from his country of origin, the DRC, where an extremely violent conflict is underway between the M23 armed group supported by Rwanda and the Congolese government. Thousands of people died last week when the M23 pushed to Goma, the key city in the east of the DRC.
In the DRC, Benedict had a fabric shop where he sewn and sold clothes. Life was difficult because of the conflict, so he and his family have gone from the unpredictability of the war – to be taken in another cycle of uncertainty in a foreign country. Benoît, like so many refugees, hopes peace so that he can go home.
But now he does not have the assurance that he can take care of his family even in Uganda.
“I don’t know what we will eat next week,” he says.