Vol. III. 1 January 1970
LivingWellUgandaCommunity. Water. Health.

West Nile Under Pressure: Refugee-Hosting Districts and the Health Facilities Trying to Keep Up

In Adjumani, Yumbe and Terego, refugee arrivals continue and the funding gap widens. LivingWellUganda visits three health centres serving both refugee settlements and Ugandan host villages.

By Peter SsemakulaAdjumani, Yumbe & Terego Districts7 min read
A crowded outpatient queue at a health centre serving both a refugee settlement and a Ugandan host community in West Nile.
Adjumani, Yumbe & Terego Districts. 22 April 2026.
AccountabilityHealth & Communities

The refugee response in West Nile has never truly slowed. Two years of successive funding shortfalls at the Uganda Refugee Response Plan level have now started to show up in the places that matter most: the outpatient queue, the maternity ward, the antimalarial stock card.

The health centre as the shared institution

Uganda's settlement model integrates services, which means the health centre serving Bidibidi settlement in Yumbe also serves the Ugandan sub-county around it. When drug supply thins, both populations feel it at the same window. Clinical officers we spoke to describe rationing consultations rather than turning patients away.

We do not ask who is a refugee and who is a host. We ask what is in stock this morning.
Clinical officer, health centre III, Adjumani

What district officials want prioritised

District health officers are consistent: predictable medicine supply through the National Medical Stores pipeline, a top-up staffing allocation that recognises the population load, and a maintenance line for the water and sanitation infrastructure that keeps outbreaks off the ward.

Sources & further reading
  1. UNHCR Uganda - UNHCR
  2. Office of the Prime Minister - Department of Refugees - Government of Uganda
  3. Uganda Ministry of Health - Government of Uganda
  4. ReliefWeb - Uganda - ReliefWeb
Peter Ssemakula
Humanitarian Correspondent, Arua
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