Focus on Uganda

Hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled to northern Uganda following violence in South Sudan. Uganda is currently the largest refugee hosting country in Africa.

We are working to provide medical care, mother and child health services, and water and sanitation activities for South Sudanese refugees who have fled to Uganda.

Although the number of new cases per year has been declining, seven per cent of the population (about 1.5 million people) is HIV positive.

We offer point-of-care viral load testing in Arua regional hospital, which facilitates rapid detection and early treatment, leading to an improved outcomes for patients.

In Kasese, we run a clinic providing basic and comprehensive healthcare to adolescents, including sexual and reproductive health services, and HIV and tuberculosis (TB) prevention, screening and treatment.

South Sudanese refugees : Imvepi and Bidibidi refugee camps — For water supply, MSF has built artesian wells. The water is then distributed to various water tanks throughout the camp, such as this one in Bidibidi camp. Access to safe drinking water is one of the main challenges in refugee camps, and MSF continues to develop its activities in this area. © Noy / MSF

MSF in Uganda

In Uganda, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) addresses gaps in healthcare for adolescents and responds to the needs of refugees. In 2022, we also assisted with COVID-19 vaccinations and responded to an Ebola outbreak.

Our activities in 2022

At the beginning of the year, our teams continued to support the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Kasese district, reaching 270,000 adults. Our support included setting-up vaccination centres, securing the supply of oxygen, and ensuring infection prevention and control.

Later in the year, we sent a team to Nyakabande camp to assist refugees from the conflict in North Kivu in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition to setting up a health centre, we constructed latrines and shelters, provided clean water, and distributed essential items such as hygiene and cooking kits.

When an Ebola outbreak was declared in September, our teams managed the construction and installation of six Ebola treatment centres. As well as managing and supporting treatment, we worked to prevent the spread of the outbreak by sending outreach teams to conduct health promotion, infection prevention control measures and water, sanitation and hygiene activities, and provide epidemiological expertise, in five districts of the country: Mubende, Kassanda, Kampala, Masaka and Jinja.

In Kasese district, we continued to run a dedicated clinic for adolescents aged 10-19 inside a Ministry of Health centre. The clinic offers a broad range of medical services tailored to adolescents’ needs, including sexual and reproductive healthcare, with a specific focus on pregnant teenagers, treatment for HIV and sickle cell disease, as well as social and mental health support. Our teams also provided sexual and reproductive healthcare and mental health support to the mainly South Sudanese refugees living in Omugo and Imvepi camps.

In 2022, we handed over to the Ministry of Health the HIV project that we had been running for the fishing communities in Kasese since 2015. We also started the handover of our HIV and tuberculosis programme in Arua district, which we aim to complete in 2023.