1.8 million Africans displaced during 2001

At least 1.8 million Africans fled their homes due to conflict during 2001, the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) has said in its latest global report on refugees and displaced people.

'The World Refugee Survey 2002', which was released on Thursday, said those who fled in 2001 brought to at least 13.9 million the number of Africans who "remained uprooted at the start of 2002 as a result of long-term violence and repression." Sudan, it added, was the largest source of uprooted people, with 4.4 million of its people displaced.

The USCR estimated that some 1.1 million people fled Liberia and Sierra Leone. Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, and Somalia also provided large numbers of displaced people.

DRC, Kenya and Sudan also figured among the five African countries hosting the largest numbers of refugees. The other two are Tanzania and Zambia.

The Washington D.C-based organisation deplored the fact that peace efforts in numerous countries had not brought genuine peace. Other obstacles, including insufficient funding from the international community, hampered the work of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other aid agencies.

The situation will remain "unchanged for the foreseeable future unless peace negotiations and post-conflict humanitarian assistance prove to be genuine efforts, rather than half-hearted gestures," the USCR said.

The 2000 report contains reports on refugee situations in 38 African countries and reviews 133 countries worldwide. The USCR is a nonprofit humanitarian organisation that works for the protection and assistance of refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons around the world.

[For more information about USCR and its report, please visit http://www.refugees.org]