Foreword from the Regional Director
"We commend the Government of Rwanda for passing its first-ever law relating to the “prevention, suppression and punishment of trafficking in persons and exploitation of others"
Welcome to the October edition of IOM, the UN Migration Agency, Bulletin for the East and Horn of Africa.
On 18 October, we published the second migration trends analysis for the East and Horn of Africa. The report, “A Region on the Move: Mid-year trends report - January to June 2018” provides an inclusive overview of current migration trends across the East and Horn of Africa region. The region witnessed significant internal and cross border displacement in the first half of 2018. Like in the previous years, conflict and insecurity were key drivers of forced movement.
As the Ebola outbreak continues in the DRC, IOM is taking a regional approach to prevention and containment efforts, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and relevant governments.
We continue to support the Government-led response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo while at the same time, assessing and accelerating support in neighbouring countries. The DRC’s latest Ebola outbreak was declared on 1 August 2018, the tenth in 40 years. We are keeping a watchful eye on Burundi, South Sudan, Rwanda and Uganda; all of which share land and water borders with the DRC’s most affected provinces of North Kivu and Ituri.
Rwanda is a source, transit and, to a lesser extent, destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. We therefore commend the Government of Rwanda for passing its first-ever law relating to the “prevention, suppression and punishment of trafficking in persons and exploitation of others”. This makes the trafficking in persons a criminal offence. IOM has continued to work closely with the government on counter-trafficking.
In South Sudan, IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) team, together with partners, concluded a biometric registration exercise in mid-October 2018 which registered 32,113 displaced people living in Juba’s two protection of civilian (PoC) sites. Biometric registration provides for a more accurate picture of the population living in a special displacement zone and enables agencies to plan assistance in a more targeted and accountable way.
We thank our partners and governments across the region for their valuable efforts and partnership with us in providing development and humanitarian assistance in the region.