Globally, more than 60 million people are displaced, more than at any other time in history. As of 31st December 2015, 40.8 million were reported to have been displaced due to conflict and violence (IDMC report). In the Horn of Africa, South Sudan, Uganda and Yemen more than 5 million people were displaced, a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportion.
The needs in the Horn of Africa and Yemen continued to grow exponentially in 2015, driven by the escalation of conflict in Yemen and South Sudan. The Yemen war produced new population movement trends with Somali refugees, who had initially sought refuge in Yemen, being forced to return back to Somalia due to the heightened insecurity.
In 2015, NRC was able to provide direct humanitarian assistance to 1.9 million people in 2015, including 357,074 in Yemen and 676,802 in South Sudan. Under the emergency response programmes, NRC reached 241,000 IDPs outside protection bases in South Sudan with food and non-food items, while in Yemen NRC reached 40,900 people with cash-based programmes under the emergency response. In Ethiopia, NRC reached 7,000 drought affected people. Enhancing its durable programming in 2015, NRC reached 647,192 people with food security interventions, 616,304 with water, sanitation and hygiene, 317,697 with shelter, 198,898 with education and 107,860 with information, counselling and legal assistance.
An example of NRC’s commitment to durable energy and environmentally friendly programming, is the installation of a hybrid solar water pumping facility in Dadaab with capacity of 280,000 litres per day, the highest in Africa.
Notable was NRC’s engagement in Housing, Land and Property (HLP) rights in Somalia, where new frontiers in securing durable solutions for displaced and vulnerable populations was realised with the issuance of land deeds to IDPs in Baidoa and Kismayu, faced with cycles of forced evictions. The HLP engagement showed that more can be done in hard-to-reach areas, going beyond basic needs to address some of the root causes of displacement.