Since 2014 the number of refugees in the world has become a hot button topic with millions of displaced persons seeking to reach Europe from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, and other war-torn countries. However, contrary to the lopsided media coverage the European Union is not the only area in the world dealing with the systemic constraints of a massive uptick in refugees fleeing for their lives. Since the start of the South Sudanese Civil War in 2013, southern neighbor Uganda has borne the brunt of nearly two million South Sudanese fleeing the conflict with the overall number of refugees in Uganda set to surpass one million in total soon according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and it is starting to take a toll. The reason for such a high number of accepted refugees in one small area is that Uganda has a formal open door policy to refugees which prevents them from turning them away.
Making matters worse is that the conflict in South Sudan shows no signs of abating, with 50,000 to 300,000 fatalities so far and the number of civilians displaced increasing as well which will only strain the Ugandan use of resources further. The reason that the conflict is continuing to worsen is that factions have divided along ethnic as well as political lines with some outside observers accusing South Sudanese Security forces of ethnic cleansing activities and sexual abuse of civilians which the government headed by Salva Kiir Mayardit has aggressively denied. There is fear due to budgetary constraints and lack of effective outside help that even those South Sudanese who do flee their war-torn homeland successfully will face famine and disease as supplies to refugee camps dry up. Whether or not the Ugandan refugee policy will be amended to stop the complete collapse of the refugee system remains to be seen, in one of the African continent’s worst humanitarian catastrophes in recent memory.
