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GENEVA (News Agencies) - A United Nations reports said a joint mission from the organization's relief agencies and other agencies has begun work this week in Ethiopia and Eritrea to coordinate programs in order to help people displaced by the ravages of war in the Horn. Neighbors Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace initiatives settlement last June in Algeria ending two years of sporadic heavy fighting over disputed border territories. The U.N. Special Coordinator on Internal Displacement, Dennis McNamara, will delegate a team to visit the African Horn and other countries on the continent to assess the needs of displaced people in this "priority zone". After a week, the team will report back to Geneva, where McNamara's newly created team is based, linking the U.N. agencies concerned with other international bodies and non-governmental organizations. The joint mission is set up specifically to deal with those forced to flee their homes, which the U.N. calls Internally Displaced People (IDPs) - that is, those who have been forced to leave their homes but remain in the same country. As part of an increased effort by relief agencies to improve the aid they provide to those who have been displaced by conflict or natural disaster, the mission will, in the coming months, visit Burundi, Angola, Indonesia, Somalia and Sierra Leone before making a general report to suggest what the U.N. can do. McNamara implicitly admitted that it was easier to start in the Horn of Africa because hostilities have effectively stopped and a large number of displaced people are going home or have said they intend to do so. "The number of displaced people worldwide is probably 25 million, which is twice as many as refugees," said McNamara, adding the crisis called for coordination between existing agencies rather than establishing new ones. The report indicated that, currently, no agency has a mandate to look after them, and it is often been left to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to take a lead. |
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