Over 300,000 new displaced reported

The number of people reported affected by crises in the Great Lakes region has increased by some 390,000 since mid-February, according to the latest data compiled by the Office of the UN Regional Humanitarian Advisor. The sharpest increase was in the number of internally-displaced persons (IDPs), with over 308,000 new IDPs reported during the period. This increase was largely due to a series of assessment missions carried out in the Republic of Congo and in DRC, which identified new pockets of displaced persons, the report said. There were now some 301,800 IDPs in the Republic of Congo, including some 130,000 "missing" IDPs in the Pool region. In DRC, most of the estimated 484,000 IDPs were in forested areas from where there was little concrete information on the actual magnitude of humanitarian problems, it added. The total number of affected people in the region was now estimated at 4.12 million, according to the report, which is dated 6 May. This figure includes a total of 2.38 million displaced persons, 902,047 refugees, 828,735 vulnerable people and 12,193 unaccompanied children.