Refugee needs increase in east, central Africa

(Vatican Radio) The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has voiced concern about the plight of refugees in east and central Africa. UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming says the UN agency is increasingly concerned about the still unmet needs of the refugees arriving in Chad, Cameroun and Ethiopia from the Central African Republic and South Sudan.

“The crisis in South Sudan and the Central African Republic have together caused one of the biggest refugee and … internal displacement situations that Africa has seen in many years. Together, they have forcibly displaced some 1.8 million people across the region, in a region that has very sparse support mechanisms and infrastructure,” she said.

She says that in Ethiopia, refugees are arriving in terrible states due to lack of food inside South Sudan and because they’ve had to walk long distances to reach the border areas.

UNHCR says the increasing number of refugees are outpacing available humanitarian resources. UNHCR has so received only 9 per cent of the $112 million it’s asking for in 2014.

Listen to the report by Gordon Martin: