UNHCR reports on refugees in Africa

There were 7.2 million people of concern to UNHCR in Africa at the beginning of 1998, the UN refugee agency said in its December Africa Fact Sheet. Of these 3.5 million were refugees, 1.5 million internally displaced people (IDPs) and 2..2 million former refugees who have recently returned home. The largest group of refugees in Africa is from Sierra Leone, UNHCR said, putting the number of Sierra Leoneans who have fled their country at 440,000, most of them in Guinea which is now home to 470,000 refugees of various nationalities. Another 419,000 refugees come from Somalia, 374,000 from Sudan, 320,000 from Eritrea and 300,000 from Burundi, UNHCR said.