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CAIRO – On Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees called for more resources to help African refugees in 2019.
The comments of Filippo Grandi arrived during a two-day visit to Egypt where he met President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and other government officials.
His trip to Cairo also comes when Egypt is preparing to take over the African Union presidency in February.
Grandi said that "85 percent of the 68 million displaced and refugees are not found in those countries in the global north but are in the southern hemisphere".
The time had come to "draw resources in Africa," he said at a press conference, noting that those assigned to the continent were "limited".
Grandi also noted that while Egypt hosts "many refugees", it is not fully recognized as a "host country for refugees".
Egypt hosts over 250,000 registered refugees, more than half of whom are Syrians, according to the UN refugee agency.
Grandi spoke about the objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees, adopted by 181 countries in December, saying that "mobilizing not only humanitarian resources but also resources for development".
He also expressed "concern" about the protests in Sudan, saying he fears that the displacement would occur if the situation worsened in the country.
"We hope the situation will stabilize peacefully," he said.
For Syria, Grandi said that about 50,000 refugees returned to Syria in 2018.
"It's a small number," he said, adding that the number was 60,000 a year earlier.
"It's possible that with greater stability we can see more people going back, but it's very difficult to say how many," he said. – AFP
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