WINDHOEK- Home Affairs Minister, Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, has expressed concern about the surge in the number of refugees in Africa and the lack of adequate general support they receive.
Inadequate food rations and lack of other forms of humanitarian aid are some of the issues the minister raised while addressing the 65th annual session of the Executive Committee (EXCOM) of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland last week.
Namibia is among other member states of the EXCOM of the UNHCR and the country is worried by the significant number of people who are forced to flee their homes within their countries and across the borders due to conflict, violence and other reasons including terrorism.
Iivula-Ithana, who led the Namibian delegation to Geneva said member states are equally troubled that progress toward solving many protracted refugees and internally displaced persons situations remain insufficient and major protection challenges persist.
“Despite record levels of voluntary contributions, serious funding shortages have resulted in reductions in food rations and other humanitarian support,” she said.
At the meeting, she called on the High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Gueterres, to pay particular attention to the refugee situation in Africa, after the realisation that conflicts elsewhere in the world attract more attention and resources than in Africa, while the continent hosts a third of the 51 million refugees in the world.
Therefore, the member states reaffirmed their collective commitment through enhanced regional solidarity, burden sharing and partnership, to support host countries and communities in building their capacities to better address and solve the multi-faceted challenges of forced displacements.
The African states and the international community are therefore called upon to urgently pursue conflict prevention resolution and peace building efforts, while taking all necessary measures to provide safe asylum and protection to forcibly displaced persons in line with regional and international frameworks, commitments and principles.
They are also called upon to strengthen the refugee emergency response capacities of governments and host countries while ensuring effective coordination among humanitarian actors through the UNHCR in refugee situations and office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in situations of internal displacements.
The international community is also called upon to remember that behind the massive statistics of refugees there are individual people-each with families, each with lives left behind and each with dreams of a safe and happy future.