• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Inside one of the most crowded islands on Earth where more than 500 people live in space smaller than soccer pitch

Home> News> Travel

Published 14:18 15 May 2024 GMT+1

Inside one of the most crowded islands on Earth where more than 500 people live in space smaller than soccer pitch

The tiny island sits on the the border between Uganda and Kenya

Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton

When you think of overcrowded places, the likes of Paris, Rome and New York might come to mind - but this tiny island definitely takes the cake.

Located on Africa's Lake Victoria is a place called Migingo Island and when we say tiny, we mean tiny.

The body of land is less than 0.5 acres big. To put that into perspective, that's around the size of half of your average soccer field.

Migingo Island is home to over 500 people. (CARL DE SOUZA/AFP via Getty Images)
Migingo Island is home to over 500 people. (CARL DE SOUZA/AFP via Getty Images)

Advert

Migingo Island awkwardly sits on the the border between Uganda and Kenya, meaning no one's quite sure who actually owns it.

With this in mind, it's said that a bilateral commission is going to examine the land to determine if it should be handed to Uganda or Kenya.

The move comes after both countries previously decided to create a joint commission to determine where the border is - but nothing came of it.

The island's been co-managed by Uganda and Kenya ever since.

Advert

The tiny island is less than 0.5 acres in size. (Recep Canik/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
The tiny island is less than 0.5 acres in size. (Recep Canik/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

The ongoing dispute over ownership of Migingo has been hailed as Africa's 'smallest war'.

As you can imagine, because the island is so small, everything on it is very close together.

Residents on the island live side-by-side in metal shacks. As well as homes, there's reportedly has four bars, a makeshift hair salon and several brothels, according to the Mirror.

Advert

While there might be four bars, there's allegedly only one sanitation facility available.

A woman cleans her bar on Migingo Island. (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)
A woman cleans her bar on Migingo Island. (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)

The main type of work available on the island is fishing, with species such as Nile Perch being plentiful the deep waters surrounding Migingo.

And it's the fishing that draws some people to the minuscule island.

Advert

Speaking to The Guardian in 2018, Migingo resident Isaac Buhinza said that he went to the island because 'my friends who were here before used to come back home with lots of goodies' from their fishing trips.

Living on the island rather than travelling there from nearby countries saves fishermen fuel and gives them access to wholesalers.

Fishing opportunities draws people to the island. (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)
Fishing opportunities draws people to the island. (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)

It's thought that fisherman can make a decent living on catching Nile perch, with the price of the fish going up 50 percent in recent years (as of 2019).

Advert

According to Kenyan fisherman Kennedy Ochieng, large good quality fish could bring in excess of $300 per kg in international markets, Al Jazeera reported.

While Nile perch is still in abundance around the island, other fish stocks have sharply diminished.

Featured Image Credit: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images

Topics: Africa, News, Travel

Niamh Shackleton
Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton is an experienced journalist for UNILAD, specialising in topics including mental health and showbiz, as well as anything Henry Cavill and cat related. She has previously worked for OK! Magazine, Caters and Kennedy.

X

@niamhshackleton

Advert

Advert

Advert

  • Inside ‘hell on Earth’ prison where Bryan Kohberger will serve life sentence after brutal murder of four Idaho students
  • Man visits 'world's most densely populated island' with a width smaller than a soccer field and what he saw shocked him
  • Inside little-known forbidden islands near New York that have been abandoned for more than 60 years
  • Inside Dubai’s eerie mostly empty 300 manmade islands that were built for the super rich

Choose your content:

2 mins ago
an hour ago
2 hours ago
  • 2 mins ago

    Researcher reveals telling evidence in Shroud of Turin mystery after it was thought to be Jesus' burial cloth

    The question of whether Shroud of Turin is authentic has long been the subject of debate

    News
  • an hour ago

    Actor reveals shocking aftermath of filming graphic orgy scene in controversial horror

    The actor processed the scene a certain way

    Celebrity
  • an hour ago

    People point out disturbing issue as Trump administration announces plans to build $200,000,000 'state ballroom'

    The multimillion-dollar ballroom will be built alongside the White House's East Wing

    News
  • 2 hours ago

    Twins share shocking change to face after one of them smoked and the other didn't

    The study examined the facial features of the twins

    News