Funding crisis facing UNHCR

UNHCR on Thursday warned it only had two weeks of finances left to assist more than 750,000 refugees in the Great Lakes region. In a statement received by IRIN, the agency said that in spite of having only US $3.4 million available, new camps were needed in Tanzania, Gabon and the Central African Republic in light of more than 50,000 refugees fleeing fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Congo in the last three weeks alone. "Contributions are not even meeting all the needs of long-time refugees, much less the newest arrivals," High Commissioner Sadako Ogata warned. UNHCR said 600 refugees a day were fleeing DRC to Tanzania to escape fighting between Congolese rebels and local opposition groups, and over 14,000 Congolese had fled the north into remote areas of the Central African Republic in the past few weeks. Furthermore, conflict in the Republic of Congo had pushed thousands of refugees into neighboring Gabon since the start of the month. Almost 100,000 Congolese refugees are now crowded into two refugee sites in western Tanzania and aid workers feared a rise in tension in the camps, the statement added.