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OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT
The East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes (EHAGL) region is currently hosting 5.3 million refugees and asylum seekers, as of the end of March 2024. Additionally, a further 18.5 million people are internally displaced in the region as a result of conflict and natural disasters. Some 123,000 refugees have been documented as having returned to their countries of origin in the first quarter of the year.
One year since the start of the conflict in Sudan, the humanitarian situation continues to get worse, with the displacement figures growing week after week and spreading throughout the region and beyond. The displacement caused by the war is now at more than 8.5 million people, including 6.6 million new IDPs and at least 1.8 million refugees and returnees in neighbouring countries, constituting a complex protection crisis and the largest humanitarian emergency in the region.
After the Horn of Africa experienced a long and devastating multi-year drought period, the region is now facing the extreme effects of the El Niño phenomena, with increased rainfall. Displaced people continue to be on the frontlines of the climate emergency with limited resources for emergency response and recovery programs. The IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre and the World Meteorological Organization forecast indicate wetter than usual conditions between October 2023 and April 2024 across most parts of the Greater Horn of Africa. This may contribute to further displacements, damage of infrastructure, disease outbreak, food insecurity and deaths. These climatic conditions are anticipated to also move inwards to the Great Lakes region.
The region continues to deal with a difficult protection environment with protracted and ongoing conflicts and displacements that have resulted in mixed movements across the region and beyond. As of January 2024, all new UNHCR multi-year strategies at country level will incorporate route-based activities in countries along the two key routes identified for the region, including to North Africa and via the Central Mediterranean route to Europe.
Source link : https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/unhcr-operational-update-east-and-horn-africa-and-great-lakes-region-january-march-2024
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Publish date : 2024-06-03 12:32:36
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