/ 24 July 2001

SUDAN’S TOPS ON REFUGEES

SUDAN had the second-largest number of refugees in Africa, after Burundi, at the start of 2001, and attempts to find solutions to this and other problems had borne limited fruit, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) reported on Tuesday. The civil war in Sudan had shown few signs of abating and continued to drive thousands of Sudanese refugees into neighbouring countries, it said. Last year, some 30_000 new Sudanese refugees fled to Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia – which, together, already host some 340_000 refugees from Sudan, UNHCR stated. – IRIN