UN refugee chief Barham Salih urged the Security Council to help end conflicts so more than 117 million people forced from home can return instead of remaining displaced for generations. He said humanitarians cannot create peace, a responsibility entrusted to the council.
In his first address to the 15-member council since his election as UN high commissioner for refugees last December, Salih said Sudan remains the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 12 million people displaced inside and outside the country. He also cited conflict in Congo, compounded by an escalating Ebola crisis, the war in Ukraine, and generations of refugees from Western Sahara living in camps near Tindouf, Algeria, while awaiting a political solution.
UNHCR has mobilized staff and resources to help more than 130,000 Yemenis who fled recent hostilities and remain in Yemen, as well as more than 3,700 people who sought safety in Djibouti. Salih also said his goal, launched earlier this year, is to halve by 2035 the number of refugees in long-term displacement who rely on humanitarian aid; he acknowledged the goal is ambitious.
