UNHCR: 5.5 million Syrian refugees, 70% in poverty
After ten years of conflict, half of the Syrian population has been forced to flee home, the UN refugee agency UNHCR has highlighted. 70% are living in poverty.
After ten years of conflict, half of the Syrian population has been forced to flee home, the UN refugee agency UNHCR has highlighted. 70% are living in poverty.
Many displaced Syrian children are unable to imagine a future in their homeland, according to a report by Save the Children. A large number also struggle with discrimination and access to education.
The UNHCR has helped 3,000 Malian refugees move back into Burkina Faso's Goudoubo refugee camp. The same refugees had been forced to abandon the site nine months earlier following a series of violent attacks.
Accounts of civilian casualties have been emerging from Ethiopia's war-torn Tigray region. Humanitarian organizations are increasingly worried about living conditions for the survivors of the conflict.
The year 2020 is not yet over, but already the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has estimated that the number of the forcibly displaced "surpassed 80 million at mid-year." This is according to a report on trends in global forced displacement released on December 9.
The Iraqi government has said that it has launched an "emergency plan" to provide shelter for tens of thousands of displaced people after the Baghdad authorities decided in October to close refugee camps.
The organization Save the Children said thousands of children are forced to live among unexploded bombs, dead bodies and rubble, after the closure of camps for displaced people in Iraq.
Amid political tensions in Ivory Coast, more and more Ivorians are fleeing into neighboring countries like Liberia, UNHCR reports. Their number has risen to over 8,000 in just one week.
On the sixth anniversary of the Yazidi genocide at the hand of IS in Iraq, Germany's development minister has called for further commitment for those affected. The Yazidis' central council in Germany, meanwhile, sharply criticized the international community for a lack of willingness to clear up the atrocities.
The UN migration agency is calling on the international community to provide funds for aid in Central Sahel. Over a million people have been displaced and over three million are struggling with food insecurity in the region, IOM says.
Pope Francis appealed to the international community in his latest Sunday address, to help migrants stuck in Libya and bring an end to the fighting in that country.
In recent weeks, violence worsened in the Sahel region of Africa, causing hundreds of people to flee and putting greater pressure on host communities. UNHCR has issued a warning about the humanitarian situation in the area.