Forgotten in a Protracted Crisis: South Sudanese Refugees in Ethiopia’s Gambella Region Face New Hardships as Aid Withers

Gambella is one of the largest refugee settlements in Ethiopia. The remote western region is home to nearly 400,000 people who fled conflict and flooding in neighboring South Sudan. Many of those that fled the conflict are women and young children. They are among 1.1 million refugees from across the region Ethiopia is sheltering. In Gambella, the ongoing humanitarian response to support the South Sudanese refugees under strain as humanitarian resources have dwindled in recent years, with funding gaps suddenly reaching crisis levels following abrupt cuts of U.S. foreign aid earlier 2025.

Since 2014, Oxfam has been on the ground in all seven Gambella camps making clean and safe water a reality for thousands of people.  Over the last decade, Oxfam has maintained borehole wells, water treatment systems, and pipelines that serve tens of thousands of families. Thanks to these efforts, women like Nyalok – a mother in Kule refugee settlement who lives with a physical disability – no longer have to walk for hours just to fetch a few jerrycans of water​.

However, aging infrastructure and dwindling funds are catching up with these life-saving services. Much of the water system in Gambella was installed in the mid-2010s and was never meant to support the surging population.  “The existing water supply system is proving insufficient to meet needs,” explains Oxfam Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Coordinator (WASH), Ameha Hailu, noting that on some days it can barely deliver 9 to 8 liters of water per person – well short of the minimum humanitarian standard of 15 liters per day​. This shortfall forces families to ration every drop, compromising drinking, cooking, and hygiene.

Earlier this year, an abrupt pause in United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sent shockwaves through humanitarian programs worldwide. In Gambella, these fears are becoming reality. Although Oxfam does not directly receive U.S. government funding, our operations in Gambella are indirectly affected because a portion of our WASH work is funded through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which in turn receives significant support from the U.S. government. Following the broader suspension of USAID assistance—which significantly affects UNHCR’s global operations—UNHCR revised its funding commitments in Gambella, including a 50% reduction in its 2025 budget allocation to Oxfam.

Oxfam is currently delivering life-saving WASH services to seven refugee camps in Gambella—providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene education to over 388,000 refugees, many of whom are women, children, and older people. 

The critical services -daily water production and distribution, latrine construction, hygiene promotion, and maintenance of essential infrastructure—are foundational to preventing disease and upholding basic dignity. “We can sustain these operations through June 2025, but without renewed funding, our ability to continue will be compromised.” 

According to Gabriel Gitonga Munene, a UNHCR program officer in Gambella calls “the cut has created a time of upheaval. Disruption itself isn’t always bad—but when it happens suddenly and without proper planning, it can be dangerous. That’s what we’re facing in Gambella.” The impact goes far beyond one agency, Munene emphasized adding that “this isn’t just affecting UNHCR – it’s a domino effect across the entire humanitarian landscape in Gambella, critical services are vanishing.”

One key government partner feeling the strain is Ethiopia’s Refugees and Returnees Service (RRS), the national agency that manages refugee settlements. “In the camp, [RRS] are responsible for administration, registration, and protection services,” explains Mr. Mezgebework Gebremariam, Head of the RRS Gambella branch office. “We work closely with partners like UNHCR and Oxfam, on humanitarian efforts and development interventions.  

When UNHCR is affected by a funding cut, we are also affected. For example, camp registration updates and social services are being cut.” Says Gebremariam “This cut will result in different challenges – schools, health, and other activities will be affected. The cascading effect of the U.S. aid pause has begun to reach into every corner of life in the settlement, essential programs in education and health are trimming down. Some international NGOs have left Gambella due to lack of funds, and those remaining face agonizing choices. Oxfam has so far managed to keep its water programs running – in part by drawing on our own reserve funds and emergency appeals – but the outlook is uncertain. “Oxfam isn’t just a technical partner here,” Munene from UNHCR notes. “They’ve also filled the gaps through their own fundraising. If we had to rely solely on UNHCR funds, the WASH programme would face serious gaps.” If new funding does not come through in the next few months, even Oxfam’s work may be forced to scale down. 

This reflects our operational reality—while we’ve managed short-term continuity, the current funding gap puts core WASH services and key staffing positions at risk beyond June. 

Mr. Puch Thijok, the chairman of Jewi refugee settlement and himself a 46-year-old refugee, describes an atmosphere of growing anxiety. “In 2024, the food ration has been cut, because of lack of fund” he says; “one item from before is gone – a flour called CSB+ (corn-soya blend) is no longer provided.” Corn-soya blend is a lifeline nutrient, especially for children, and its loss is already being felt. What’s worse, Thijok adds, “we are hearing rumors that after some time we won’t have food [at all].” Since last year, refugees in Gambella have been surviving on just 60 percent of the recommended daily food ration, and now they are at risk that the ration will be reduced further to 50 percent in the coming distributions​. Half rations mean half the calories and nutrients, a dire prospect in settlement where people have no other means to adequately feed their families.

Clinics that once offered at least primary care and essential drugs are now often empty shelves, as supply pipelines and NGO health projects are disrupted. Education, too, is imperiled – Thijok, added “schools in the camps lack books and even chalk, and teachers (many of whom are refugees) worry their incomes may vanish, which in the future will force them to abandon the classrooms.”

Amid these hardships, refugees continue to demonstrate remarkable resilience and solidarity. “We are sensitizing refugee communities about what’s coming,” says Munene. “They need to know things will not be the same. This is a call for resilience – and for strengthening community-led responses in the absence of full-scale humanitarian coverage.” Refugee leaders like Thijok are doing their best to keep people informed and calm, even as uncertainty grows. But resilience has its limits. “There is no hope that we rely on now, since we can’t go back to South Sudan – South Sudan is still at ethnic conflict,” Thijok says quietly. “Our only hope is to stay here.”  

What makes the situation in Gambella particularly painful is that it’s no longer front-page news. “Gambella is not considered an ‘active’ emergency anymore,” Munene points out. “It’s a protracted crisis – and those often suffer most when donor attention shifts elsewhere.” Refugees here have been in exile for years; some children have been born and raised in these camps. The initial influx from South Sudan’s war has tapered off, and without dramatic new events, international focus has moved on. 

But protracted does not mean solved. The needs remain immense, and in fact they are growing as infrastructure ages and refugees exhaust their meager resources. “Gambella remains one of the most underserved regions in Ethiopia,” Munene notes. “It’s underfunded, often overlooked, and has long struggled with structural challenges in health, education, and infrastructure.” The local host community in Gambella – which is itself a poor, rural population – shares many of these struggles. They too rely on the regional hospital, on the water system, on roads and markets that have been supported by humanitarian presence. “If humanitarian organizations pull out now, the consequences could be devastating – not just for refugees, but for the host communities as well,” Munene warns.

One striking example is water: The municipal water system in Gambella town was built over a decade ago to serve a population of around 5,000. Today, Gambella town and the surrounding settlements together count over 400,000 people. Without international support, a small-town water utility cannot cope with that. Refugees would have to turn to the river or unprotected wells, risking disease, and host communities would face more competition for scarce water. This kind of strain is mirrored in schooling, healthcare, and employment – refugees and nationals alike will suffer if aid is withdrawn abruptly. In short, the region is not yet resilient enough to absorb the shock of a major humanitarian drawdown.

Oxfam and our donor partners are determined not to let that happen. As Munene says, “If today organizations like Oxfam exited Gambella, the impact would be immediate and severe. These aren’t luxury services – they’re life-saving interventions.” Oxfam knows that lives are on the line and are doing everything possible to adapt and advocate. Through local partnerships and innovative community-led projects, Oxfam is still striving to make programs more sustainable. But stop-gap measures will not replace the need for robust funding. That is why we are urgently calling on international donors and stakeholders to remember places like Gambella during this global aid pause.

The situation in Gambella highlights what is at stake when humanitarian funding dries up, even indirectly. It is a story that can be told in many other refugee camps and communities across the world in 2025: The refugees of Gambella are among the millions of people caught in the ripple effects of geopolitics and budget cuts, and their basic survival hangs in the balance. 

“Humanitarian aid should never be about politics – it is about human lives and dignity” says Munene as Hailu, the WASH coordinator at Oxfam in Ethiopia puts it, “Gambella’s refugees have already lost so much. We can’t let funding shortfalls be the reason they lose access to water, health, and hope. This is the moment for global solidarity.”

Oxfam in Ethiopia remains committed to working with UNHCR, RRS, and all our partners to uphold the dignity and rights of refugees in Gambella. We urge the international community to join us in this commitment. Lives depend on it.

Sources: Oxfam interviews from field; Oxfam and partner/donor statements on the impact of the US foreign aid pause.