Satellite images show how the tiny Ugandan village of Bidi Bidi became the world’s largest refugee camp

People who fled fighting in South Sudan are seen walking at sunset on arrival at Bidi Bidi refugee’s resettlement camp near the border with South Sudan, in Yumbe district, northern Uganda December 7, 2016Reuters

• Satellite imagery from Bird.i shows how the world’s largest refugee camp has grown dramatically in size since 2016.
• Bidi Bidi, in Uganda, is home to over 285,000 refugees who have fled famine and violence in South Sudan.
• New satellite technology has the potential to map previously unmapped and unconnected populations, and help policymakers decide where to distribute resources.

LONDON — In 2017 Bidi Bidi in Uganda became the world’s largest refugee camp, as people fled from neighbouring South Sudan to escape the worsening food crisis and violence in their home country.

In February last year, the United Nations formally declared a famine in parts of South Sudan, and has been warning since 2016 that the country’s raging conflict could become a genocide. Bidi Bidi camp now houses over 285,000 refugees.

New satellite imagery from tech startup Bird.i shows how the camp has grown with the worsening refugee crisis, as well as how vegetation in the region has changed in response to the influx of people pouring across the Ugandan border.

At the start of 2016, Bidi Bidi was a small village, surrounded by grassland:

Bidi Bidi, August 2016.Copyright © Birdi Ltd. – Image © 2018 DigitalGlobe, Inc.

By the start of 2017, the land had changed substantially, as refugees flooded over the border in their thousands. Each speck seen below is a dwelling, and new roads can clearly be seen:

Bidi Bidi, February 2017.Copyright © Birdi Ltd. – Image © 2018 DigitalGlobe, Inc.

By the end of 2017, the camp had grown much denser:

Bidi Bidi, December 2017.Copyright © Birdi Ltd. – Image © 2018 DigitalGlobe, Inc.

Satellite technology of this sort allows dwellings in previously unconnected areas of the world to be tracked: Bird.i said it was possible to pinpoint every house in Bidi Bidi to estimate numbers. Although this is not the startup’s main business, Founder Corentin Guillo said such analysis can be used as part of research and development activities.

One company that has started doing this is Facebook, which is using satellite imagery to trace where in the world the 4.2 billion people who don’t have internet connections are, in enough detail to pick out individual dwellings.

This has allowed them to better map the world’s population, and the tech giant has shared its findings with the UN and the World Bank. Such data is invaluable for planning where to send resources such as medical supplies.