Saturday March 17, 2018
FILE - Ertirean refugee's in Ethiopia
ADDIS ABABA, March 16 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ethiopia disclosed on Friday it has registered 15,097 new refugees in the first two months of 2018, pushing the number of refugees in Ethiopia to 909,301 by February 28.
UNHCR said most of the registered refugees during the first two months of 2018 were from South Sudan and Eritrea with 10,700 and 3,700 figures respectively.
UNHCR gave the figures as it works to highlight the funding gap it is facing to meet the needs of the refugees currently estimated at 335.8 million U.S. dollars, 11 percent of which has so far been donated to UNHCR.
Most refugees in Ethiopia come from the strife-torn nations of Somalia and South Sudan and Ethiopia's northern neighbor Eritrea.
Smaller groups of refugees fleeing war in Sudan and from across the Red Sea from Yemen are also part of the group the UNHCR has registered as refugees in Ethiopia.
With Ethiopia currently being among the top five refugee hosting nations in the world, it's also one of five African countries participating in a Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF).
CRRF is a vehicle for the implementation of pledges made at UN leaders' summit in September 2016 in New York, where refugees in Ethiopia will be given funds for assisting with education and employment opportunities in Ethiopia.
Western Countries hope that schemes like CRRF will persuade refugees living in Ethiopia and other African nations not to undertake perilous trips to reach their countries and instead stay at their current host countries.