Arua, Uganda | Michael O’Hagan | AFP | The EU pledged 85 million euros ($95 million) to Uganda on Thursday as UN chief Antonio Guterres urged donors to give 20 times that amount to help the country deal with nearly one million refugees from South Sudan. Guterres visited a refugee …
Read More »UPDATE: Record 65.6 million people displaced worldwide
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Devastating conflicts, violence and persecution in Syria, South Sudan and elsewhere left a record 65.6 million people uprooted from their homes by the end of 2016, the UN said Monday. That number marks a jump of just 300,000 from the end of 2015, but is …
Read More »UNHCR: 65.6 million people forced to flee
Uganda receives most new refugees worldwide, new displacement figures show Oslo, Norway| NRC | The Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council has called for worldwide support for Uganda that received the largest number of new refugees last year of more than half a million people. “The system protecting refugees will …
Read More »Australia declares game-up for ‘fake refugees’
Sydney, Australia | AFP | Australia Sunday gave 7,500 boatpeople until October to prove they are genuine refugees or be kicked out, declaring the “game is up” for illegal arrivals ripping off taxpayers. Before the conservatives took power and adopted a tough line on the issue in 2013, an estimated …
Read More »UN: 4,600 people flee their homes in DR Congo daily
UN worried about DRC. Up to 4,600 people flee their homes in DR Congo daily Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | An average of 4,600 people flee their homes every day in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN said Monday, warning of a dramatically deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country. A …
Read More »Burundi refugees find hope in ‘at home’ bar in Rwanda
Kigali, Rwanda | AFP | Outside Rwanda’s national stadium is a bar that has become a second home for Burundian refugees fleeing their country’s two-year-old political crisis. The clues are in the name, “Imuhira” meaning “at home” in Burundi’s Kirundi language, in the voices of those who gather on the …
Read More »South Sudan war strains Uganda’s generous refugee policy
Yumbe, Uganda | AFP | Michael O’Hagan Ugandan motorbike taxi driver Sadiq Agotre grumbles as he waits for a rare client among thousands of South Sudanese refugees hoping to receive food rations in the outskirts of his town. “Business is not good. These people don’t have money,” he says, gazing out …
Read More »In Pajok, South Sudan: ‘We buried Jacob, Paul and Amos’
Ngomoromo, Uganda | AFP | Michael O’HAGAN | In the no man’s land between South Sudan and Uganda wind lashes though scrubland, whipping hot dust into the eyes of David Otong Oroma and his sister as they struggle to push their heavily laden motorbike over the border. The pair fled …
Read More »Another 6,000 flee ‘terrifying’ violence in South Sudan
Over 6,000 flee ‘terrifying’ violence in South Sudan town near Uganda: UN Juba, South Sudan | AFP | Fighting in the South Sudan town of Pajok sent over 6,000 people fleeing this week, with refugees recounting the slaughter of civilians by government forces, the UN refugee agency said Friday. Fighting …
Read More »President Trump’s new travel ban: key points
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump’s administration issued a revised immigration ban Monday that temporarily freezes US visa issuance to anyone from six mostly-Muslim countries and halts for 120 days all refugee arrivals. Here are the key points: – What’s new in the revised order? – Iraq, …
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