UN To Expand Aid Plan For Sudanese Refugees Fleeing To Libya, Uganda

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, announced on Tuesday that it is expanding its aid plan to include Sudanese refugees fleeing to Libya and Uganda Sudanese.

This comes as more people fled the 14-month-old civil war in Sudan.

Sudan is facing the world’s worst displacement crisis, with about 12 million people forced to leave their homes and more than 2 million seeking refuge in other countries. The UN’s new plan now includes seven African countries that are hosting large numbers of Sudanese refugees.

There are concerns that the Sudanese refugees arriving in Libya could potentially attempt the dangerous journey to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea if aid is not provided. The UNHCR are expecting around 149,000 Sudanese refugees to reach Libya by the end of the year and estimates 55,000 for Uganda (a country that is already hosting 1.7 million refugees from other crises).

“It just speaks to the desperate situation and desperate decisions that people are making, that they end up in a place like Libya which is of course extremely, extremely difficult for refugees right now,” UNHCR’s Ewan Watson said while speaking to reporters in Geneva. He noted that most refugees arriving in Libya were from Darfur, where ethnic violence has worsened.

Watson added that since last year, at least 20,000 Sudanese refugees have reached Libya, with arrivals increasing in recent months, and many thousands more yet unregistered. He also said that at least 39,000 Sudanese refugees have arrived in Uganda since the war started.

“Refugees and families are forced to sleep in the open and medical facilities just can’t keep up with the growing needs that we are facing,” Watson said, adding that the UN plan is currently less than 20 per cent funded.

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