For refugees living in settlements across Africa, life got more difficult in 2023.
Shortfalls in the operating budget of the UNHCR — the United Nations refugee agency — and the World Food Program have brought increased precarity into the daily lives of millions of displaced people across the continent.
Having fled violence, famine and insecurity in search of survival, many African refugees now find themselves faced with similar circumstances in the very spaces designed to protect them. Most notably, over the past year, refugees in Central and East Africa have watched as their food rations and living stipends – already meager – have been cut to unsustainably low levels.
Assistant Professor of History Nicole Eggers and Roger Alfani of Seton Hall University spent three months in Africa and interviewed more than 200 refugees. While they were there to primarily investigate the role of faith and religious community among refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, their interviews touched on many aspects of the refugee experience. Read more about what they discovered at The Conversation.
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Contact:
Cindi King (865-974-0937, cking126@utk.edu)