ReliefWeb

5.72 million people displaced in eastern Africa

As at the beginning of April 2012, there were 5,715,096 refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the eastern Africa region.1 This represents an overall increase of 291,882 people (5.4 per cent) between 30 September 2011 and end-March 2012. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Somalia continue to host more than one million IDPs each, while Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania host more than 250,000 refugees each. Attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) constitute a major trigger for the internal displacements in eastern DRC. OCHA estimates that 73 per cent (340,984) of the 466,637 IDPs in Orientale Province resulted from LRA activities. In addition, the ongoing fighting between the Congolese army and armed elements in DRC’s North Kivu Province precipitated major displacements of more than 10,000 Congolese refugees into Uganda during the reporting period. Ethiopia also witnessed an influx of Sudanese and South Sudanese refugees fleeing internal conflict in Blue Nile (early September) and Jonglei States (late December) respectively. Generalized insecurity resulting from the conflict in Somalia has forced more than 760,000 Somalis to live in protracted refugee conditions across the region. 75 per cent (520,432 people) of the total Somali refugee population in the region (761,709) are hosted in Kenya. In addition, the region was experiencing the most severe drought in 60 years during the reporting period, resulting in population displacements across borders.2 Uganda and Kenya have meanwhile registered significant progress in their IDP resettlement programmes, with increased numbers of returns recorded.