The elections last month in Central African Republic brought a fresh wave of political violence affecting more than 200,000 people who are now displaced, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “The continuing volatility has hampered the humanitarian response and made access to the internally displaced more…
Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed agreed to meet with an African Union delegation on Friday, but the prime minister would not permit the AU team to meet with Tigray leaders to help bring an end to the fighting in the country’s north. Liberia’s former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, along with former leaders…
Dozens of African migrants were rescued this week from what international migration agencies say is the largest shipwreck this year off the Libyan coast, but the death of at least 45 others has renewed attention to policies that fail to protect Mediterranean Sea migrants. The International Organization for Migration (IOM)…
Social media provocations have been blamed for a spike in clashes among the Zaghwa people living in eastern Chad, causing at least 8,300 people to flee into Darfur regions of neighboring Sudan, according to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. The Zaghwa live in a region that stretches across the…
Filippo Grandi, head of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), has completed a three-nation tour of the Sahel, meeting with heads of state and other leaders focused on the security and humanitarian crises. Grandi wrapped up his mission in Burkina Faso, meeting with President Roch Marc Kaboré after stops in…
Another bombing on the outskirts of Tripoli – impacting civilians for the fourth time this week – drew a fresh appeal from the United Nations representative in Libya for their protection. The Institute of Applied Engineering, located near hundreds of people sheltered in the Al-Nasser Migrants Center in Al-Zawiya, was…
There was a time when the withered Lake Chad region was the focal point of what climate change on the African continent looked like, and what it could or would mean for migration. Some 2.6 million people are displaced there, according to the most recent numbers from the United Nations…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
The United Nations said Friday that the situation in Democratic Republic of Congo, where more Ebola response workers were killed in attacks this week in and around Beni, has become untenable for civilians and the health and humanitarian aid workers seeking to help them. Armed groups have been targeting civilians…
Migrants trapped in deteriorating conditions in Libya may be headed to Rwanda, following the announcement Tuesday of a deal between the central African nation, the African Union and the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, to evacuate them. “Under the agreement, the Government of Rwanda will receive and provide protection to…
Congolese refugees who fled to Angola to escape fighting between armed groups and military forces in 2017 are beginning to return home, according to Angolan officials and UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. Some 8,000 refugees have been on the move for the past week, with more than 1,400 already…
The United Nations refugee agency responded quickly on Tuesday to a decision made by Italy’s parliament that will impose harsher penalties against those people and organizations involved in migrant search and rescue on the Mediterranean Sea. The UNHCR said that under the changes, fines for private vessels that rescue migrants…
What is being called the single greatest loss of life on the Mediterranean Sea this year has claimed an estimated 150 migrants traveling by boat from Libya, according to early reports from the United Nations refugee agency on Thursday. The shipwreck happened off the coast of Al Khoms, between Tripoli…
A new report on the world’s refugees finds the number of people fleeing their homes because of conflict, persecution or other harrowing circumstances exceeded 70 million in 2018 – and it’s the highest level in almost 70 years. That’s according to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, which released its…
Humanitarian workers say they’re working to repatriate Somali and Ethiopian refugees who are trapped in Yemen, but problems with the flight permissions necessary to evacuate them were hampering the effort. “The flight delays are putting thousands of migrants’ lives at further risk,” said Mohammed Abdiker of the International Organization for…
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, raised the alarm on Tuesday over increasing violence in Nigeria, this time in a northwest region where conflict is not related to the Islamist extremism that plagues Borno state. Rather, the violence is sparked by communal and ethnic violence, vigilantism and kidnappings for ransom in…