Refugee issues continue to concern UNHCR

Sudan had the second-largest number of refugees in Africa, after Burundi, at the start of 2001, and attempts to find solutions to this and other problems had borne limited fruit, UNHCR reported on Tuesday. The civil war in Sudan had shown few signs of abating and continued to drive thousands of Sudanese refugees into neighbouring countries, it said. Last year, some 30,000 new Sudanese refugees fled to Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia - which, together, already hosted some 340,000 refugees from Sudan, UNHCR stated. With no end in sight to the protracted military, political and social crisis in southern Sudan, Sudanese refugees remained a source of major concern, the refugee agency stated. In particular, UNHCR cited the case of 36,000 refugees living inside the Central African Republic near the Sudanese border, and whose prospects of returning, it said, remained bleak.

In addition to generating the second-largest number refugees worldwide, Sudan was also hosting the second-largest number of refugees in Africa (after Tanzania), at the start of this year, according to UNHCR. As of January, Sudan was hosting 414,800 refugees, while Uganda and Kenya were also in the top 10 African host countries, with 238,040 and 213,610 refugees respectively. As of 1 January, there were 5.3 million people of concern to UNHCR in Africa of an estimated 21.1 million worldwide. The Africa figure included 3.6 million refugees, 1.3 million internally displaced people and 300,000 former refugees who had recently returned home, it said. In view of the various refugee situations within East Africa and Horn of Africa, UNHCR said it would maintain its presence in the seven countries of the region, but would also make efforts to consolidate camps with reduced caseloads in Sudan, Djibouti and Ethiopia, and to close several field offices in Somalia.