The Refugee Influx - African Refugees

According to the president's Proposed Refugee Admissions for FY 2005—Report to Congress, there was cause for optimism on several fronts across Africa. Thanks to progress made toward resolution of several long-term conflicts on the continent, repatriations organized by the United Nations (UN) were underway in Angola, Eritrea, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and parts of Somalia. Similar operations were under discussion for Burundi, Liberia, Sudan, and parts of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In all, nearly 300,000 African refugees returned to their countries of origin in 2004. At the same time, fresh violence occurred in eastern DRC, the Darfur region of Sudan, western Ethiopia, and Ivory Coast, creating new refugee flows or threatening refugees in their countries of first asylum. There were approximately 3.2 million refugees across the African continent, more than 30% of the worldwide population of refugees and asylum seekers.