Why Sustained Support for Refugees in Gambella Matters More Than Ever?

By Charles Ossey

At just one month old, NyapilikaJany was fighting for her life in Jewi Refugee Camp in Ethiopia’s Gambella Region.

Born weighing only 2.1 kilograms, the South Sudanese refugee infant was diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition and a respiratory infection. Her mother, Nyabel Deng, who fled conflict and sought refuge in Ethiopia in 2014, faced the terrifying possibility of losing her daughter.

Fortunately, help was available. Through a stabilization center supported by Action Against Hunger, Nyapilika received therapeutic feeding, medical treatment, nutrition counseling, and follow-up care. Within just nine days, her condition improved dramatically. Today, she is a healthy, growing child.

Stories like Nyapilika’s remind us why humanitarian assistance matters. They remind us that investments in nutrition, healthcare, water, sanitation, and protection services save lives every day.

Yet they also raise a troubling question: How many children like Nyapilika will not receive that opportunity if humanitarian resources continue to decline?

As the world marks World Refugee Day under the theme “Until Everyone Is Safe,” this question becomes more urgent than ever. Safety means more than protection from conflict. It means having enough food to eat, access to healthcare when a child is sick, clean water to drink, and the opportunity to live with dignity and hope.

Safety Means More Than Crossing a Border

Ethiopia has demonstrated remarkable generosity in hosting refugees fleeing conflict and violence. According to Refugees and Returnees Service, Gambella Region hosts nearly 400,000 refugees, representing more than 92 percent of the country’s refugee population, most of whom have fled instability in neighboring South Sudan.

The Government of Ethiopia, through the Refugees and Returnees Service, deserves recognition for advancing refugee protection and promoting self-reliance. Progressive policies and partnerships are helping refugees access livelihood opportunities and participate in local development initiatives. These efforts provide an important foundation for building sustainable futures.

However, these gains are increasingly under pressure.

Food Shortages Are Worsening in the Camps

Across the seven refugee camps in Gambella, families face worsening food insecurity, deteriorating nutrition outcomes, overstretched health services, inadequate water and sanitation facilities, and limited livelihood opportunities.

Food insecurity has become one of the most urgent challenges. According to the 2025 Standardized Expanded Nutrition Survey, food rations last only between 15 and 22 days per month for many refugee households. As a result, between 41 and 73 percent of families report skipping meals, borrowing food, selling productive assets, or engaging in risky coping strategies to survive.

For Nyabiel Deng Wie, a 25-year-old refugee living in Jewi Camp, the impact is deeply personal. “Sometimes we go two months without receiving food rations,” she says. “When food runs out, families suffer from hunger.”

The consequences are increasingly visible in children’s health. The same survey found that one in every six refugee children was suffering from acute malnutrition, placing them at greater risk of illness, developmental delays, and death.

Last year alone, Action Against Hunger treated more than 5,240 children with severe acute malnutrition and nearly 9,645 children with moderate acute malnutrition across refugee camps in Gambella. This year, nutrition facilities are reporting malnutrition admissions up to twice as high as those recorded during the same periods in 2024 and 2025. Every increase represents a child like Nyapilika whose life can be saved when treatment is available.

Essential Services Under Pressure

Health services are also under growing strain. Refugees report shortages of medicines, overstretched health workers, limited referral services, and insufficient resources to respond to growing needs.

“Previously, the health services were good,” says ChoulThoat, an elderly refugee in Jewi Camp. “Now people are often given only pain medication without proper tests or treatment. Many sick people are not referred for advanced care, even when their condition is serious.”

Access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene supplies remains another pressing concern. Seasonal flooding regularly damages infrastructure and contaminates water sources, increasing the risk of disease outbreaks.

“We no longer receive soap or other hygiene materials,” says Nyabiel. “It has become difficult to keep ourselves and our children clean.”

Livelihood opportunities have also become increasingly limited. While Ethiopia’s refugee inclusion policies have created pathways toward economic participation, many refugees still face barriers in accessing employment and markets. Reduced humanitarian operations have further limited income-generating opportunities.

The Funding Gap Behind the Growing Needs

The root cause behind many of these challenges is a severe funding shortfall.

Led by RRS and UNHCR together with 38 partners and refugee-led organizations, the 2026 Refugee Response Plan requires US$577.8 million to support 1.68 million refugees and host community members across the country. However, only 23 percent of the required funding has been secured so far.

Behind these figures are human lives. Funding shortfalls do not simply reduce budgets. They reduce food rations, limit healthcare, interrupt nutrition treatment, weaken protection services, and reduce opportunities for self-reliance.

What Is at Stake?

The consequences of continued underfunding are clear. More children will suffer from malnutrition. More families will resort to harmful coping strategies. Disease outbreaks will become more likely. School attendance will decline. Women and girls will face greater protection risks. Years of progress will be reversed.

Yet refugee communities continue to demonstrate remarkable resilience. Parents continue to prioritize their children’s futures. Refugees continue to seek opportunities to work, learn, and contribute to society.

We know timely nutrition treatment saves lives. Healthcare prevents deaths from treatable illnesses. Clean water reduces disease outbreaks. Livelihood opportunities strengthen resilience and reduce dependency.

Most importantly, we know that investments in refugees deliver results. NyapilikaJany is living proof.

A World Refugee Day Call to Action

As we commemorate World Refugee Day, let us remember that refugee protection does not end when families cross a border. The theme “Until Everyone Is Safe” is both a promise and a responsibility. It challenges governments, donors, humanitarian organizations, and all of us to ensure that refugees have access not only to safety, but also to the services and opportunities they need to live with dignity and hope.

Until refugee children can access food, healthcare, clean water, education, and opportunities to thrive, our work is not done.

Because until everyone is safe, no one is truly safe.

Charles Ossey is the Country Director for Action Against Hunger Ethiopia.