Refugees: UNHCR is a busy place...

• Sudan: There’s more going on than Darfur—UNHCR is speeding up repatriation efforts of refugees from the long-running North/South civil war, which ended with a comprehensive peace agreement in January 2005. Over 100,000 refugees from southern Sudan are still in Uganda, with many others in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Egypt, exemplifying the protracted nature of the problems facing post-conflict societies.
• Burundi: Talk about protracted…UNHCR is working the government of Tanzania on a plan to repatriate 218,000 Burundian refugees (exilers, really) who fled violence in 1972.
• Central African Republic (CAR): UNHCR is also trying to relocate the latest influx of 14,000 CAR refugees into Chad further from the border, to areas less burdened by previous refugee settlements, more accessible to relief agencies, and less susceptible to cross-border attacks. Chad is also host to an estimated 250,000 Darfurian refugees (also subject to relocation efforts, due to security concerns close to the border of Sudan), 45,000 CAR refugees before latest influx. Civil conflict in Chad has resulted in nearly 180,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), and as many as 30,000 Chadian refugees in Cameroon.
• Also in Chad: An interesting article about education in the refugee camps.
• Kenya: Local peace councils are focusing on reconciliation within local communities after the recent post-election violence, leading to resettlement of IDPs.
• For more on refugees and IDPs (because this is by no means an exhaustive list), check out UNHCR and IDMC.