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GENEVA - 20 Jun 2013

UNHCR: Sudan among five leading countries in citizen displacement

The UN has said that number of refugees around the world has reached to 7.6 million in 2012, the highest figure since 1994.

A report issued by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says that 55 per cent of the world’s refugees come from five countries: Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan and Syria. The report notes that developing countries are hosting about 88 per cent of the refugees, an increase of 11 per cent on the figure of 10 years ago.

A report issued by NGOs and civil society organisations on the eve of the celebration World Day for refugees on 20 June indicates that the war in the Sudanese Blue Nile region has had a terrible impact, explaining that approximately one-third of the state’s population are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, in addition to 150,000 refugees in Ethiopia and South Sudan, and 200,000 internally displaced.

The organisations further urged parties in the conflict in Sudan to cease fire in order to allow organisations to deliver aid assistance to those affected.

Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that these figures are alarming, and “reflect individual suffering on a large scale”.