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OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT
As of 30 June 2024, the East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes (EHAGL) region was host to 5.4 million refugees and asylum-seekers. Additionally, there were 20.8 million internally displaced in the region as a result of conflict and climate related disasters. Some 230,000 refugees have been documented as having returned to their countries of origin this year.
It has been over a year since the start of the conflict in Sudan and the humanitarian situation continues to worsen, with the displacement figures growing week after week and spreading throughout the region. The displacement caused by the war is now at more than 10 million people, including more than 7 million new IDPs and at least 2 million refugees and returnees in neighboring and nearby countries, constituting a complex protection crisis and the largest humanitarian emergency in the region.
El Niño-triggered heavy rains and severe flooding have devastated different locations in the EHAGL region, leading to mass displacement and impacting hundreds of thousands of refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and host communities. Even though flooding is an annual phenomenon, this year has been particularly challenging. With above-normal rainfall forecasted from June to September 2024, the situation is expected to dramatically worsen, posing a grave risk to millions more by year’s end. Displaced populations are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of these extreme weather events, exacerbating their already precarious living conditions. This crisis unfolds amid ongoing conflict in Sudan, compounding instability and suffering across the region and beyond.
While emergency coordination platforms and contingency plans are in place to prepare for and respond to the floods, securing resources is crucial to sustain the current response and activate contingency plans in anticipation of further flooding in the second half of 2024. On 28 June, UNHCR launched a flood appeal for nearly $40 million to assist and protect 5.6 million refugees, returnees, internally displaced people and local communities in Burundi, Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda, South Sudan and Sudan.