By Duncan Miriri
NAIROBI (Portal) – The world must rediscover its ability to bring peace to various trouble spots to stem the growing flow of refugees, the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.
There are 110 million displaced people worldwide, up from 103 million last year and half that number a decade ago.
“The UN Security Council, the most important international body for peace and security, is broken. They can’t agree on anything,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told Portal in the Kenyan capital.
“Therefore, we must restore the capacity to lead and advance peace, because that is the only way we can manage these flows.”
A group of diplomats, former statesmen and UN officials began seeking political support for a peace framework earlier this year to set new standards for conflict resolution.
One of the reasons for the rising numbers of refugees, including internally displaced people, is the conflict in Sudan, where rival military groups are fighting each other.
“Today, on World Refugee Day, we passed the horrifying mark of 500,000 refugees from Sudan,” Grandi said.
At a conference on Monday, donors pledged $1.5 billion to help Sudanese refugees.
Part of the money will be used to help 100,000 Sudanese refugees in neighboring Chad whose camps are threatened by the onset of the rainy season, the high commissioner said.
“It’s a very desperate race against time,” he added.
He called for a more sustainable solution, such as a meaningful ceasefire.
“If the fighting doesn’t stop, that’s just the beginning. We’re going to need a lot more than $1.5 billion, unfortunately,” he said.
Other reasons for the higher number of refugees are the conflicts in Ukraine, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Afghanistan and in the Sahel zone.
The challenges posed by climate change are also forcing people to relocate, Grandi said, calling for a multilateral approach to addressing the climate crisis.
“The time to work country by country is over,” he said.
(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)