The world is currently witnessing the highest levels of displaced persons in history. People are being forcibly displaced all over the globe for reasons including threat of war or persecution, discrimination, or climate change. According to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), there are nearly 70.8 million displaced persons globally in 2020.
A refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. There are nearly 26 million refugees globally according to UNHCR in May of 2020. Nearly 1 person is forcibly displaced every two seconds.
Watoto Read’s mission is to resource and advocate for the education of children and young adults living in refugee camps in Sub Saharan Africa.
- Africa hosts 26% of the global refugee population with over 20 million persons of concern residing in Sub Sahara Africa alone. Most of these persons reside in Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan and Uganda.
- Most of Africa’s refugees have been displaced by protracted conflicts in South Sudan, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Burundi, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Over 59% of refugees in Africa are children.
- Currently, the ongoing conflict in South Sudan is the 3rd largest refugee crisis globally behind those in Syria and Afghanistan. Over 2 million persons are displaced within South Sudan and an additional 2 million have become refugees and are displaced in neighboring countries with the largest population in Uganda.
You can read the most recent African Regional Summary Report for 2018-2019 from the UNHCR here https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/publications/fundraising/5a0bfe697/unhcr-globalappeal-2018-2019-africa.html