UN aid trucks reach remote Rukban camp in Syria. A life-saving United Nations aid convoy reached the Rukban camp in Syria on Saturday, where thousands of people are stranded in the desert. More than 50,000 displaced people, whose last UN aid convoy arrived in January, will finally have access to food, hygiene supplies and health assistance in an operation expected to take three to four days. Shortages of food and medicine at the camp have caused at least a dozen deaths in recent weeks, with the situation described as “critical”. “There is real hunger and severe malnutrition,” Rula Amin, a spokesperson for UNHCR, said last month. “Many are already suffering from skin diseases, respiratory illnesses and diarrhoea. With the harsh desert winter approaching, the conditions will worsen and so will the suffering of the civilians, especially the most vulnerable: the old, the sick and the children.” | | |
| MSF: More than 200 raped per month in Congo’s Kasai conflict. Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, has released a report that documents high rates of sexual violence perpetrated by armed groups in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to the NGO, rapes are being committed many times a day, and MSF have treated more than 200 victims of sexual violence per month on average since May 2017. A reported 80 per cent of victims said they were raped by armed men. Violence and unrest in the DRC has displaced millions – mainly in the Kasai, Tanganyika, Ituri and Kivu regions. Hundreds of thousands more have fled to Uganda, Angola, Zambia and other neighbouring countries. Last month, UNHCR staff warned of “ a fast-developing humanitarian situation” in the Kasai region of the DRC, sparked by mass returns from Angola. | | |
| Refugees and migrants bring cricket and victory to France. A cricket team that includes refugees and migrants from Afghanistan has celebrated its second victory in a cricket tournament in northern France. The St.-Omer Cricket Club Stars were formed in 2016 after a local businessman saw Afghan refugees playing cricket in the park. “Whenever young Afghans arrive in St.-Omer, one of the first things they ask is where they can play cricket,” says Jean-François Roger, the regional director of France Terre d’Asile, a group that helps refugees. | | |
| Canada’s resettlement of refugees: Potential lessons for Europe. As European Union governments continue to wrestle with how to respond to refugees, Euronews writes that Canada offers an example of a country doing it well, by splitting its resettlement programme into three streams: government-assisted refugees, privately sponsored refugees and refugees with a visa. Canada is one of UNHCR’s leading resettlement partners, welcoming thousands of refugees each year. | | |
| UK admits only 20 unaccompanied refugee children in two years. New figures obtained by the Guardian indicate that only 20 unaccompanied children have been allowed into the UK as part of efforts to resettle 3,000 vulnerable refugee children from conflict zones in the Middle East and north Africa. Separate figures revealed in a parliamentary answer show that another scheme, also launched in 2016 and aimed at resettling around 480 unaccompanied child refugees from Europe, has only resettled 220 – less than half the target number. | | |
| Angelina Jolie calls for lasting ceasefire in Yemen. UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie has called for an urgent ceasefire in Yemen and a lasting settlement to the conflict. Her remarks come during a visit to South Korea, where several hundred Yemenis are being hosted after fleeing the conflict and where the private sector is donating millions in support of refugees worldwide. | | |
| Twenty-five refugees, mostly from Syria, are being trained by Oxford University's Pitt Rivers Museum to provide native-language tours for refugees and the local community. The project, called Multaka (Arabic for "meeting point") aims to help newcomers foster cultural connections. | | |
More than 22 million men, women and children are need of assistance in Yemen, where conflict erupted in 2015, of whom 2.7 million have been displaced internally.
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