Press Conference | United Nations
Monday, 14 April 2025 - full copy:
Sudan: Massive violation of Human Rights
A UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) official said that one in three Sudanese are displaced, and one in six internally displaced persons globally come from Sudan.
UNHCR’s Regional Director for East and Horn of Africa and Great Lakes Mamadou Dian Balde spoke to reporters today (14 Apr) via video link, on the humanitarian needs inside Sudan and in neighboring countries, as one of the largest displacement crises globally with nearly 13 million people forcibly displaced.
Balde said, “Countries have been hosting refugees. Regional countries, neighboring countries have not closed their borders. They've been receiving the refugees.”
“Communities that don't have enough have shared what they have. And that's really the true spirit of solidarity. And this is what we see happening in the region,” he highlighted
The UNHCR official also said, “as we speak today, over 70,000 have reached Uganda. Uganda has problem of its own, and Uganda has thankfully opened and kept these borders open despite receiving 1.8 million refugees as we speak, they have added to that 70,000 Sudanese refugees and, Libya over 200,000.”
Balde also stressed that only 10 percent of the Regional Refugee Response plan is currently funded.
He called for the support for the 111 partners who are part of the Plan.
The UNHCR official thanked the various partners who have contributed, stressing that however with only 10 per cent of the plan funded reaching the fifth month of the year, “the level of support to have food, to have water, to have protection services, education, shelter, housing, this level of support is going to be extremely, extremely low.”
Balde explained that request of the Regional Refugee Response plan is 1.8 billion US dollars to be able to serve 4.9 million refugees and immediate hosts in neighboring countries.
He added that the 111 partners that are coordinate aid, a third of them are national partners, “people who are closer to the realities, in addition to international NGOs as well as national NGOs and the UN organizations,” the UNHCR official said.
Balde reiterated the need for ceasefire stressing that us that the Sudanese refugees want “a normalcy so that they can return home and take care of themselves.”
Transcript
Follow along using the transcript at video: https://youtu.be/oPAQ8yRx9Z0
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