Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Sierra Leonean refugees at Oru camp in South West Nigeri a, who have opted for local integration as one of the durable solutions to their problems, Thursday staged a peaceful protest at the United Nations High Commissi on for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Lagos, insisting on not collecting the 75,000 n aira, welfare package promised them by the refugee agency last year (US$ 1=150 na ira) "The proposed local integration lacks the basic provisions like accommodation, healthcare and livelihood. Full text...

Luena- Angola (PANA) -- The Angolan Migration and Foreigners Services (SME) repat riated 174 illegal aliens in the eastern Moxico province back to their countries in 2009, according to the Angolan News Agency (ANGOP). Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- More than 107,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have fled to the Republic of Congo since early November of last year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) Tuesday expressed concern ov er the escalating violence in Somalia, saying the widening strife in the lawless nation was having a devastating effect on the civilian population. Full text...

Oru- Nigeria (PANA) -- Sierra Leonean refugees in Nigeria, who opted for local in tegration, have rejected the United Nations High Commission for Refugees' (UNHC R ) welfare package of N75,000, saying such an amount was too meagre to cater for p ost-integration challenges. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) â" Eritrean refugees -in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, hav e urged the international community to denounce a recent statement by their home government concerning their situation and instead listen to their plights. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- A new documentary film, highlighting the sufferin g of Eritrean refugees, will be unveiled in Nairobi 16 November, the French embassy said on Friday. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- More than 2,000 Angolan refugees in Zambia have been rep atriated to their country this year, Angola's Ambassador to Zambia, Pedro De Morais Neto, di sclosed here Wednesday. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The UN refugee agency is appealing for US$ 2. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The UN refugee agency on Friday afternoon sent home the final group of long-term Burundian refugees in Tanzania who wanted to return, a landmark operation in ending one of the world's most protracted refugee situations. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- Some 14,955 Mauritanian refugees, consisting of 3,888 families, have been repatriated from Senegal to Mauritania since the end of January 2008, under a tripartite agreemen t signed in November 2007 by both countries and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), PANA reported. Full text...

Luanda- Angola (PANA) -- The representative of the United Nations High Commission er for Refugees (UNHCR), Bohdan Nahadjlo, has pledged that international agencie s will provide logistic support to Angolan refugees returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The African Union (AU) opened a visionary summit here on Thursday to address the festering problem of forced displacements on the Africa n Continent, the UN said in a press statement from the Ugandan capital. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday commended Afr ican leaders for their determination to adopt a convention that would address th e plight of forced displacement on the continent. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Cabinet ministers from across Africa gathered in Kampala , Uganda, Monday to address the challenges of forced displacement confronting th e continent, PANA reports from here. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has called for a mult i-model system of managing refugees and internally-displaced people (IDP) through academic and vocational training, to e nable them gain skills that can help them transform their lives in future. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Trouble is brewing in parts of Kenya after the expiration of a 14-day ultimatum, issued by Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, for th e closure of all camps for the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced peo p le (IDPs), who were uprooted from their homes during the 2008 poll violence. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The UN refugee agency has advised some 2,300 Congolese r efugees at a camp in central Burundi to shelve plans to return this week to Sout h Kivu province in eastern DR Congo (DRC) because of conflict in the area. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The number of Burundi refugees repatriated from three sp ecial settlements in western Tanzania has passed the 50,000 mark, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has said. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is to cl ose down the Gihinga camp for Congolese refugees in central Burundi on 30 Septem b er and transfer them to Bwagiriza in the east of the country. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- The Gambian government has issued passports to 2,156 Sie rra Leonean refugees who fled their country during the civil war that erupted 10 years ago, official sources told PANA here Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- More than 12,000 civilians have been forced from their h omes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following a wave of attacks b y the rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- UNHCR's work in Italy, to protect the rights of asylum s eekers, has been honoured with the agency being awarded the Terre e Pace peace p r ize. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- The number of displaced persons in the Democratic Re public of Congo (DRC) has reached the two million mark, according to the United N ations Office of Coordination for Human Affairs (OCHA) in Kinshasa, the capital. Full text...

NewYork- US (PANA) -- UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres , has called on the international community to offer more help to support Somali refugees. Full text...

Dadaab- Kenya (PANA) -- UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antأ³nio Guterres, whi le visiting a sprawling, overcrowded camp complex in north-east Kenya, put a spo t light on the "dramatic" Somali refugee crisis and called on the international co m munity for more help. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The fighting in Mogadishu and central Somalia is pushing thousands of Somali civilians to risk their lives to cross the Gulf of Aden and seek asylum in Yemen, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said here Tuesday. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- The Namibian government has said that it will not all ow back into the country a group of 41 Congolese refugees, effectively slamming the door against the group, which fled the country two week s ago citing security threats. Full text...

Ndjamena- Chad (PANA) -- The Chadian Minister for Human Rights and Freedom, Abderamane Djasnabaille, said on Tuesday in Ndjamena that Chad was sheltering ab out 40,000 refugees from the Central African Republic in the south of the countr y . Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- Botswana has refused to admit into the country a grou p of 41 refugees who were spirited away from a refugee camp in Namibia last week e nd by a local human rights organization over ‘security fears’. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- Forty-one refugees from Namibia’s Osire refugee camp are stranded in a 'no man’s land' between Namibia and Botswana after they were secretly transported by a local hum an rights organization citing ‘security fears’. Full text...

Lomé- Togo (PANA) -- A group of 136 Togolese who took refuge in Ghana were Wednes day voluntarily repatriated back home by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UN H CR), PANA learnt Thursday from official sources. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Tanzanian authorities must ensure that thousands of Buru ndian refugees who have been living in the Mbatila camp are not sent back to the i r country under coercion, as suggested by recent reports, Amnesty International ( AI) said Monday. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said almost 170,000 people had fled Somalia's capital city of Mogadishu following fighting that erupted early in May, and expressed 'g rave concern' about spiralling violence and the worsening displacement crisis in the Horn of Africa nation. Full text...

Oru- Nigeria (PANA) -- Several African refugees at the Oru Camp in South West Nig eria have chided the United Nations High Commission For Refugees (UNHCR) for not taking adequate care of their welfare and abandoning them to their fate in their hours of needs. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- The UN Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Saturday hail ed the progress achieved by Burundi in the repatriation of the country's refuge e s, in a press release issued here on the occasion of the celebration of the Worl d Refugee Day. Full text...

Conakry- Guinea (PANA) -- The 4,000 Ivorian refugees in Guinea could go back to t heir country willingly during the first quarter of 2010 if the results of next N o vember elections are accepted by all, a representative of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Guinea, Dillah Doumaye, said Thursday. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said 42 million people were forced to flee their homes due to conflict and p ersecution in 2008. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR ) has begun a programme to distribute identity cards to some 110,000 Sudanese re f ugees over the age of 18 living in camps in eastern Chad. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- The National Commission for Refugees (CNR) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Angola Embassy to DRC, as well as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) will from Monday begin a census to check number of Angolan refugees in the District of Kin s hasa, a statement from CNR said on Friday. Full text...

Bujumbura- Burundi (PANA) -- A voluntary repatriation operation for Burundian refugees living in neighbouring Rwanda started on Monday with the return home of 529 refugees, a press release from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bujumbura said. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The final phase of the repatriation of tens of thousands of Burundians who fled to Tanzania in 1972 got underway this week. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- A demonstration march was held in Paris, France, to deman d the return, in decent conditions, of Mauritanians who had taken refuge in Mali and Senegal since the 1989 inter-communal riots. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Burundi, an important host country for refugees over the past four decades, has now established a specialized office for asylum seekers. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- UN refugee agency, UNHCR, Tuesday expressed concern here over what it called a growing trend by the Kenyan authorities to forcibly return Somali asylum seekers to their country. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The UN refugee agency Friday began the relocation of tho usands of Somali refugees from a transit centre in Dolo Ado, south-east Ethiopia , to the newly-opened Bokolmanyo camp, further inland from the border with Somali a , the UN refugee agency said. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The election of a new Somali president earlier this year has failed to stem the flow of Somalis seeking refuge in the overcrowded Dadaab refugee camps in north-east Kenya, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said here Satur d ay. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Six Iraqis, detained in Mauritius since last Nove mber, were released Thursday on bail following the intervention of the UN High C o mmission for Refugees (UNHCR) which offered them the status of refugees Wednesda y , PANA learnt from a judicial source. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Six Iraqis, who have been languishing in Mauritia n jail, since their arrival in November 2008, were Wednesday granted refugee sta t us under the initiative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UN H CR), PANA learnt from their lawyer in the Mauritian capital. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Zimbabwe and Somalia lead African counties with high number of refugees seeking asylum in industrialised countries, UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said in a statement PANA obtained here Tuesday. Full text...