Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) – A joint mission of the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations High Commissioner for the Refugees (UNHCR), which recently visited the Mbera camp in Mauritania, has called for support for Malian refugees there, according to a joint communiqué by the UN agencies on Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - To raise awareness of the plight of refugees and find new ways to reconnect refugee families in some of the most remote areas in the world, Ericsson and Refugees United will run a series of developer competitions leading up to World Refugee Day, on 20 June, 2013. Full text...

Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced on Wednesday the opening of a fourth camp in Burundi to better cope with the continuous arrival of refugees from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who are fleeing from armed groups or inter-ethnic rivalries in their country. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) – Thousands of Chadian refugees and internally-displaced persons who ran away from inter-tribal fighting in Sudan, are facing yet another threat with the advent of the wet season, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Geneva-based UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday that new tribal clashes in Sudan's Darfur region had driven about 50,000 refugees into Chad, describing the movement as "the largest number in years". Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - Over 32,566 nationals from the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC), who have found refuge in North Congolese province of Likouala since 2009 due to violence in their homeland, have returned home, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Wednesday. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - At last 718 former fighters of the Congolese rebel movement M23, who had sought refuge in Rwanda, have been moved away from the border with DR Congo, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement Monday. Full text...

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) – Members of the National Union of Mauritanians Repatriated from Senegal (UNRMS) have condemned last Thursday's dissolution, by President Mohamed Abdel Aziz, of the National Agency of Integration of the Refugees (ANAIR), saying that the agency has not yet completed its mission. Full text...

Algiers, Algeria (PANA) - Some members of the Mouammar Kadhafi family, who had taken refuge in Algeria since the fall of former government, have voluntarily moved on to Oman for the same purpose, Amar Belani, spokesman of the Algerian Foreign Affairs department, confirmed Tuesday.Full text...

Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - The Japanese government is to give US$5 million for the care of refugees and returnees in Burundi, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said in a statement in Bujumbura Friday. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The UN refugees Agency (UNHCR) said hundreds of Sudanese have walked for five days on foot to South Sudan, where they are now being sheltered by the agency. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The UN refugee agency announced on Wednesday that some 107,500 African refugees and migrants made the perilous sea journeys from the Horn of Africa to Yemen in 2012. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - An influx of Sudanese and Somali refugees has been recorded in five camps in Ethiopia, with fresh arrivals expected due to the crisis in Sudan's Blue Nile state, aid agencies warned Wednesday. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC) in Zambia has announced the relocation of 195 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who recently fled into the country to seek safety. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Amnesty International (AI) have expressed concern over Kenya's recent plans to confine asylum seekers to refugee camps in the northern parts of the country. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - Some 10,000 former Angolan refugees are to be integrated locally in Zambia, a development that has been described by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, as a landmark decision that will bring hope and durable solutions to the former refugees who have opted to remain in Zambia at the end of the voluntary repatriation. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) – The United Nations says thousands of people from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been pouring into South Sudan since last week following a deterioration of security in their home country. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) – A new group of about 250 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) arrived in Rwanda on Tuesday after a fresh outbreak of violence in several localities of eastern DRC, official sources told PANA in Kigali. Full text...

Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - Police in the Malawi capital, Lilongwe, Sunday arrested 42 Ethiopians as they tried to flee to South Africa. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Tanzania has successfully completed its role to ensure the orderly return of the last batch of Barundi refugees it hosted for the last two decades, leaving the challenge in the hands of authorities in Burundi to resettle them in their areas of origin. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Faced with expanding humanitarian crises in the Middle East and parts of Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa, donor nations Tuesday pledged US$ 550 million towards the work of the UN refugee agency in 2013 in helping millions of people worldwide, the agency said in a news dispatch from Geneva, Switzerland. Full text...

Niamey, Niger (PANA) - More than 1,000 Nigerians, fleeing violence blamed on the Boko Haram Islamic sect, arrived in Diffa region, 1,500 km east of Niamey, between 30 November and 5 December, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its newsletter. Full text...

Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - Malawi President Joyce Banda has said the southern African country should re-consider the future of refugees and asylum seekers because they are monopolising businesses, a statement analysts said could trigger xenophobia. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Tuesday appealed for US$ 2.8 million to assist in the voluntary return and reintegration of 37,000 former refugees from Burundi, currently living in Tanzania. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the agency is expecting an influx of refugees, fleeing Sudan, as the rainy season subsides, PANA reported on Friday, quoting an ICRC brief statement. Full text...

Bujumbura, Burundi (PANA) - Since 31 Oct., 963 Burundians who found refuge in Tanzania have been repatriated, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Monday. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Zambia's 2012 programme and operational budget of US$ 9.6 million is not adequate to provide both essential services and durable solutions for the refugees, outgoing UNHCR Representative in Zambia, Joyce Mends-Cole, disclosed Friday in Lusaka. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The International Organization for Migration (IOM) Tuesday launched an appeal for funds, totalling US$ 6 million, to enable it provide a range of emergency relief services to hundreds of internally-displaced persons (IDPs) and impoverished host families in Mali. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The number of Somali refugees in a series of camps in an arid, harsh area of south-eastern Ethiopia has passed the 170,000 mark, making Dollo Ado the world's second largest refugee complex, the UN refugee agency says in a news dispatch from Dollo Ado. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan ( PANA) - Ambassadors of seven European countries have paid a visit to the Darfur region where they met with internally-displaced persons (IDP), representatives of the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and Sudanese government officials, the European Union (EU) said in a statement Monday. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has revealed that Hepatitis E has caused the death of 22 people in South Sudan, mainly in camps of internally-displaced persons and refugees. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - More than 25,000 Congolese refugees have returned to their homes in the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) under a voluntary repatriation programme that was launched in May by the UN refugee agency, the agency said in a statement received by PANA here Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The head of the UN refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, warned Monday that the UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies are under increasing strain from a combination of simultaneous major new conflicts and unresolved old ones. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The UN refugee agency said fighting between rebel fighters and a militia group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has forced 3,000 people to flee across the border into southern Uganda's Kanungu district over the past 10 days. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has said it is airlifting over 900 Ethiopian nationals stranded in Yemen, but said thousands remain behind in need of similar assistance. Full text...

Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria (PANA) - Officials of the Liberian government have arrived in Nigeria's South-west city of Ijebu-Ode to issue the new ECOWAS passports to Liberian refugees who have opted for local integration, PANA reported Thursday. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Some 15,000 refugees from Burundi remaining in Tanzania will be repatriated before the end of this year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – The 2012 Nansen Refugee Award has been won by Hawa Aden Mohamed, the founder and director of the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development (GECPD) in Puntland, north-eastern Somalia, the Geneva-based United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced Tuesday. Full text...

Oru, Nigeria (PANA) - After staying in Nigeria for close to two decades as refugees, many Liberian citizens have opted to return to their homeland under the voluntary repatriation programme of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), PANA reported Monday. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) – The World Food programme (WFP) is to reduce by 25% its humanitarian aid to Congolese refugees in Rwanda because of low levels of its stock.Full text...

Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) - The Permanent Secretary of the National Committee for Refugees (CNR) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mrs. Berthe Zinga Ilunga, has hailed the government's political will to ensure the voluntary repatriation of Congolese living in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - In a letter to Rwandan officials, which was made available to PANA here, the resident representative of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Kigali, Abdoulaye Balde, on Monday warned against the spread of hunger in the four camps hosting a growing number of Congolese refugees in Rwanda. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), on Friday expressed alarm about the health situation of more than 100,000 refugees spread out across two states in South Sudan.Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - A tripartite mission to Guinea, to evaluate regional projects for the resettlement and reintegration of Community citizens displaced by conflicts in the region, has rounded off after nine days, an ECOWAS Commission statement said. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The World Food Programme (WFP) said it had carried out the first in a series of airdrops to replenish diminishing food stocks for more than 100,000 families in South Sudan, who have fled fighting in Sudan. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said it might be forced to close shop in South Sudan because of lack of funds, leaving hundreds of displaced persons to their fate. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - Some 178,000 people have returned to their homes in Darfur following the relative stability in many parts of the area since January 2011, according to a Mid-Year Review (MYR) of the UN and Partners' Sudan Humanitarian Work Plan. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenya''s Kakuma Refugee Camp has surpassed its capacity of 100,000 residents, creating serious concerns as more refugees continue to arrive, the UN refugee agency reported Tuesday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its partners are scaling up efforts to reverse the "alarming” rates of malnutrition, disease and death in two camps hosting Sudanese refugees in South Sudan, as they also struggle to cope with logistical problems amid the rainy season. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The World Food Programme (WFP) on Thursday announced it plans to airdrop lifesaving assistance to refugees located in parts of South Sudan which have limited infrastructure. Full text...