(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.