The director of the regional office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Tuesday (7) that the war in Ukraine should not forget the need for Europeans to help displaced people and refugees from regions south of the Sahara.
Millicent Mutuli, UNHCR’s regional director for West and Central Africa, warned of accelerating population displacements and increasing jihadist attacks in countries in the Sahel region, a vast area that runs through Africa from east to west, south of the Sahara.
Forced displacement of people in West and Central Africa has quadrupled since 2015. In total, 7.4 million were internally displaced and 1.6 million sought refuge in other countries.
Mutuli wants the European Union to “commit to continuing to pay attention to Central Africa and the Sahel region” and continue sending resources, but currently focuses its attention on Ukraine, where there are eight million internally displaced people and 6.9 million refugees abroad.
Mutuli also highlights the risk that these migration movements will increase if Europe “does not respond to the urgent needs of the most vulnerable populations”.
Blocking grain exports from Ukrainian ports particularly threatens refugees and displaced persons, as “although there is a famine, tensions are created among the local population”.
source: Noticias
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