UNHCR Operational Update - East and Horn of Africa, and the Great Lakes Region (October - December 2023) - Sudan

OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

The East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes (EHAGL) region was hosting 5 million refugees and asylum-seekers, by the end of December 2023. One out of every six refugees globally is hosted in the region. Additionally, there were 19.4 million people internally displaced in the region as a result of conflict and natural disasters. More than 578,000 refugees were documented as having returned to their countries of origin in 2023.

Millions of people in the region continued to flee their homes due to conflict, extreme climate-related events and political violence. The ongoing conflict in Sudan that continues to displace people, conflicts in parts of Ethiopia, Somalia and neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and floods and droughts due to climate change have exacerbated existing difficulties in providing basic services to displaced people, feeding families, educating children and supporting livelihood activities.

On the positive side, hundreds of pledges were made at the second Global Refugee Forum in December 2023 by government and a wide range of stakeholders from within and outside the region on multiple aspects of refugee response and towards the objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees.