Joint mission focused on displaced persons in Africa planned by UN agencies

To highlight the plight of millions of African refugees, internally displaced persons and returnees, the heads of the three largest United Nations humanitarian agencies will be travelling Saturday to the Great Lakes region, the agencies announced today.

António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), James T. Morris, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director, and Ann M. Venneman, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director, will visit the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi from 25 February to 2 March.

“As media and the humanitarian community focus on the spreading drought in the Horn of Africa, UN humanitarian agencies are concerned that more attention is needed to highlight the persistent problems faced by the world's refugees – most of them in Africa,” said Jennifer Pagonis, UNHCR spokesperson, as she delivered the joint announcement.

She said that the unprecedented joint mission – the first ever by the three heads of the agencies involved – is evidence of closer cooperation to alleviate the plight of refugees.