Day: February 6, 2023

The populaon of refugees in the DRC has decreased from 523,458 to 520,547, a decrease of 0.6% due to the inacvaon of southern Sudanese (1633) absent during the verification of November and December 2022 as well as 1248 cases of inacvaon and spontaneous departures of Central Africans.

Asylum seekers increased from 1,242 to 2,152, an increase of 42%, mainly Burundians. 735 Congolese (ex-refugees) were repatriated to the DRC from countries of asylum. Finally, 103 Burundian refugees were repatriated during the month.

 

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the country with the largest internally displaced population in Africa

DRC hosts over 0.5 millions refugees and asylum seekers.

Lack of a proper civil registration system puts many at risk of statelessness in DRC. UNHCR joins the United Nations Legal Identity Program to help the DRC government put in place a strong registration system that is inclusive for all types of populations, ensuring that no one is left behind

 

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

The EU has allocated €181.5 million to humanitarian aid in West and Central Africa this year, as the region continues to be plagued by protracted crises resulting from conflicts aggravated by other factors, such as climate change and the global rise in food prices. New allocations were announced for Burkina Faso (25.5 million euros), Mali (26 million euros), Mauritania (6.5 million euros) and the Central African Republic (20.5 million euros), in addition to a regional allocation of 500,000 euros. These sums come on top of the EU funds already pledged for Nigeria (€34 million), Niger (€25 million), Chad (€26.5 million) and Cameroon ( 17 million

 

The announcement was made at today’s EU-ECOWAS ministerial meeting in Brussels, attended by Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner for Crisis Management. From the aforementioned budget, up to €111 million will benefit ECOWAS member countries.

 

EU humanitarian aid to West and Central Africa will focus on the following actions:

 

provide life-saving assistance to conflict-displaced populations and the communities hosting them; support victims of human rights violations, including survivors of sexual and gender-based violence and children affected by conflict; provide food assistance to the poorest households and communities, with emphasis on the lean season and hard-to-reach areas, and treat children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition; providing health care to populations outside the reach of health authorities, and improving access to drinking water and sanitation; support emergency educational programs for displaced children and those unable to attend school; strengthen disaster preparedness actions, such as early warning systems and climate change resilience measures. In addition, the Commission has already asked the budgetary authorities for an additional allocation of EUR 32 million. If approved, €25 million could be earmarked for ECOWAS member countries.

 

Context

 

West and Central Africa, which are among the poorest and most fragile regions in the world, continue to suffer from a series of severe, long-lasting humanitarian crises caused by conflict and exacerbated by disasters. other factors, such as food insecurity, chronic malnutrition, natural hazards, recurrent epidemics and the increasingly visible effects of climate change.

 

The region is currently experiencing an unprecedented food crisis, aggravated by the increase in food prices of between 40 and 60% last year, due to local factors, such as low rainfall, as well as trends planetary. Several countries in the Sahel and Central Africa are heavily dependent on grain imports from Russia and Ukraine.

 

Moreover, the countries of West and Central Africa are extremely vulnerable to hazards linked to weather phenomena, such as droughts and floods, phenomena which are further intensified by climate change. Some of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change are in the region, including Chad and the Central African Republic.

 

Source: European Commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations

GENEVA (6 February 2023) – The UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Central African Republic (CAR), Yao Agbetse, will conduct an official visit to the country from 7-17 February 2023.

 

The visit is in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 51/37,which mandated the expert to assess, monitor and report on the situation and make recommendations relating to technical assistance and capacity-building in the field of human rights.

 

During his mission, the expert will meet government officials and Institutions, representatives of civil society and the UN system, as well as members of the diplomatic community. He will visit the countryside to meet with local authorities and various actors and partners operating in these localities, with particular emphasis on the situation of children.

 

The UN expert will hold a press conference to share his preliminary observations of the visit on 17 February. Access will be strictly limited to journalists. The time and venue of the press conference will be notified later.

 

Agbetse’s observations from the visit will also be discussed at the Human Rights Council’s 52nd Session in March 2023.

 

ENDS

 

Mr. Yao Agbetse (Togo), Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Central African Republic, is a human rights lawyer, researcher and teacher who has devoted the last 25 years of his life to justice and human rights, including the rights of the child. He has implemented human rights programs at the national level and has provided legal and technical advice for the development and monitoring of national human rights laws and policies, particularly in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and Togo. He has created a space and tools for dialogue and joint efforts by state actors and CSOs. In the DRC, Côte d’Ivoire and Mali, it has implemented DDR programs, trained army and police chiefs, and provided support to mandate-holders and United Nations operations, including participating in the interactive dialogue under item 10 during sessions of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. He provided first-hand and factual information to UN experts to help them assess human rights challenges in different countries and made specific and workable recommendations to ensure accountability and access to Justice. The mandate of the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Central African Republic was established by the Human Rights Council on 27 September 2013.

 

Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

 

Source: UN Human Rights Council