Kampala Hostels… Cramped Rooms Revealing a Widening Tragedy
By: Um Naeem Elnoor
In the heart of Uganda’s capital, Kampala, far from the bustling main roads and busy markets, dozens of hostels have emerged in recent years as temporary shelters for thousands of Sudanese fleeing war, unrest, and insecurity.
Yet behind these modest walls lies a harsh world that only those who enter can witness.
I personally visited several of these hostels, entering their cramped rooms and sitting with exhausted young men and women. The scenes I witnessed are impossible to ignore or forget.
Each room accommodates only two or three beds, yet it is overcrowded with heavy breaths and hearts weighed down with worry. The mattresses are fixed but small, and some residents sleep on the edges of the beds or on the floor beside them, as part of the daily struggle to survive.
Despite the simplicity of these spaces, the pain within is deep and silent.
These young people arrive in Kampala with no clear plans or opportunities and find themselves trapped in these hostels, which often turn from temporary stations into long-term residences lasting months or even years. They live between attempts to find work, efforts to endure, and struggles not to collapse under the weight of reality.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking stories I encountered were those of individuals who died alone in their rooms, without companions or relatives. Their bodies are discovered only two or three days later, when the stench begins to spread through the narrow corridors.
No official body documents their deaths, no organization intervenes, and no state asks questions…
We, the Sudanese, are left to search, question, and wonder: “Where did they go? What happened? Why did no one notice?”
These hostels are not merely temporary homes; they are mirrors reflecting the vast disarray experienced by an entire generation—a generation that paid the price of war alone and faces exile without support or protection.
Worse still, the support organizations expected to assist are often mired in favoritism, nepotism, and personal connections.
Yet, amid all this suffering, a spark endures…
The Sudanese determination to persevere,
The diligence of young women striving to earn a living,
And the attempts of young men to rise again despite setbacks,
With our collective effort to ensure we do not lose more of our people.
Kampala bears witness to stories that bring tears to the eyes, yet telling them is necessary.
It is a duty to those who passed away in silence and to those still fighting to survive.
And I will continue to write… for them.
