Tanzania — humanitarian situation

Tanzania hosts 130,924 refugees and asylum seekers as of July 2026, primarily from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, with 89,574 residing in Nyarugusu Camp and 41,350 living in urban areas and settlements across Dar es Salaam, Kigoma, Katavi, and Tabora regions UNHCR. The country continues to receive new arrivals fleeing violent clashes in eastern DRC, with 175 asylum seekers registered in July 2026 alone UNHCR. This influx occurs against the backdrop of the rapidly escalating Bundibugyo ebolavirus outbreak in eastern DRC, which has become the largest and fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in that country with 5,001 confirmed cases and 2,378 deaths as of mid-August IOM. The outbreak, declared a public health emergency by WHO in May 2026, is increasingly affecting cross-border movements including humanitarian workers, cargo, and commercial travel throughout the region OCHA. WFP maintains life-saving assistance to 87,917 refugees in Nyarugusu Camp through General Food Distribution at 50 percent rations while keeping supplementary feeding programmes at full capacity WFP. The reduced ration levels reflect ongoing resource constraints affecting food security programming for the refugee population. Tanzania's humanitarian response capacity has been strengthened through recent national preparedness initiatives, including environmental sustainability training and emergency simulation exercises conducted in June 2026 with 40 participants practicing newly developed standard operating procedures for logistics coordination (WFP, Logistics Cluster). These exercises tested the National Humanitarian Logistics SOPs and engaged the National Logistics Working Group established to enhance emergency preparedness. Migration remains a defining feature of the broader East and Southern Africa region, which hosts more than 12.7 million international migrants and over 16 million internally displaced persons IOM. Tanzania and IOM are strengthening cooperation on safe and regular migration, labour mobility, migrant protection, and climate-related mobility as the region faces growing migration pressures IOM. Looking ahead, Eastern Africa confronts compounding risks from an intensifying El Niño event expected during the October-December rainy season, with 48.5 million people requiring humanitarian assistance regionwide and more than 40 million facing acute food insecurity OCHA.