The International Red Cross has begun a huge distribution of aid to one million people in famine zones in Somalia controlled by Islamist militants. <P>A continuous operation will transport the food in lorries from the coast deep into areas controlled by al-Shabab. <P>The Red Cross says it is i...

In Somalia, UNHCR and our partners stand ready to assist displaced people from Afgooye as they arrive in Mogadishu. Since 22 May, some 14,000 people have been displaced from Afgooye as a result of military activity in the area which started a week ago. The humanitarian community has a contingency...

A year ago this June, desperate Somali refugees began pouring into neighbouring countries, driven from their homes by conflict, human rights abuses and the worst drought in decades. This latest chapter has been another stark reminder of the Somali population’s tragic and prolonged suffering spanning...

The flow of refugees and migrants from the Horn of Africa across the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea towards Yemen continues to exceed previous records. In the first seven of 2012, more than 63,800 people made this perilous journey compared to 48,700 during the same period last year - a 30 per cent inc...

The number of Syrian refugees registered or assisted by UNHCR in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey has almost tripled since April 2012 and now stands at 112,000. Three quarters are women and children. This actual number of Syrian refugees is thought to be significantly higher, as many people seek to...

Somalia's refugee exodus crossed a new threshold this past week, with more than a million people now having fled the country for the surrounding region, according to the latest UNHCR data. The most recent arrivals continue to cite insecurity and dwindling food resources as the main reasons for their...

Conditions in South Sudan’s refugee camps have continued to worsen over the past few days under the strain of continuing large refugee inflows and flooding from torrential rains. The health situation has at this point become UNHCR’s priority concern, and we are watching closely for possible outbreak...

This past weekend UNHCR successfully completed the voluntary repatriation of 38 Tanzanian refugees from Zanzibar who had been residing in Mogadishu for the past 11 years. The group, comprising 12 families, were flown on two special UNHCR-chartered flights from Mogadishu to Zanzibar on Friday 6 Ju...

Six months ago refugees began fleeing Mali to Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso. Today, political instability in Bamako and insecurity in northern Mali continue to trigger the flight of thousands of refugees to neighbouring countries and other parts of Mali. Over 365,000 people are estimated to hav...

Conflict is normally cited by displaced Somalis as the main reason for flight, but in recent weeks we have seen an increase in IDPs and refugees also citing difficulty in providing for themselves. Over the past seven weeks we have registered some 6,000 Somalis who have cited such difficulties - usua...