Somalia is at the heart of one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today. Twenty years of conflict and waves of drought have uprooted a quarter of the country’s 7.5 million people. As the region faces its most severe drought in 60 years, the Somali exodus is growing fast. The refugees urgently need medical aid and high-protein, high-energy food. They also need clean water, shelter and basic services in the camps.

As the protracted emergency enters its sixth year, the South Sudan situation remains the largest refugee situation on the African continent. There are over 2.2 million refugees in Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a further 1.8 million people displaced internally in South Sudan. The situation continues to be characterized as a children’s crisis with children constituting over 65 percent of the refugee population.

In September 2019, with the aim of bringing decision making closer to the point of delivery, UNHCR opened its Regional Bureau for the East, Horn of Africa and Great Lakes Region (EHAGL). It is located in Nairobi, Kenya and covers 11 operations: Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Within the EHAGL region, two situations are managed by the Bureau: the Sudan Situation and the South Sudan Situation. The Bureau has accountability for strategic decision-making, regional prioritization, oversight of integrity issues, and quality assurance, and possesses the technical capacity to support country operations in a wide range of sectors such as education, child protection, economic inclusion and durable solutions.

The on-going conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have caused and continue to cause internal and external displacement of populations. In 2017, some 100,000 Congolese fled to neighbouring countries as refugees, due to widespread militia activities, unrest and violence, joining the 585,000 already in exile. The security conditions in DRC, especially in the eastern and central parts have continued to worsen since the beginning of 2018. Because of this, the Congolese refugee population is now among the ten largest in the world. Nearly 55 per cent are children, many crossing borders unaccompanied or separated. Existing camps and sites in many asylum countries are saturated, and available basic services are stretched to the limit. The situation requires support, adequate resources and collaboration so that effective protection and assistance can be delivered efficiently to Congolese refugees.

Since the start of the conflict in Sudan in mid-April, large numbers of civilians have been forced to flee, including people who were already internally displaced and refugees from other countries who had sought safety in Sudan. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled into neighbouring countries or returned home in adverse circumstances – notably to the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan. Others self-relocated within Sudan.