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UNHCR official calls on Korea to support displaced people in Africa

Published: 24 Apr. 2025, 16:52

Young refugee girls throw taekwondo punches during a showcase performance at a sports day event at the Kalobeyei Sports Complex in Kalobeyei, Kenya, on March 28. [AFP/YONHAP]

Korea can serve as a "bridge" between humanitarian assistance and long-term development to support displaced people in Africa, a top regional official at the UN refugee body said Thursday.

Mamadou Dian Balde, regional director for the East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), made the remark in a forum on forcible displacement in Africa, jointly hosted by Yonhap News Agency and the UN agency.

"As Korea's influence grows, so too does its moral influence," Balde said in a keynote speech at the Global Forum on Solutions for Forced Displacement in Africa.

"Korea can expand its role as a bridge between humanitarian assistance and long-term development, especially in African contexts where protracted displacements are happening in large numbers," he noted.

Balde called to attention the refugee situation in Sudan where 13 million people have been displaced due to the conflict that broke out in 2023, adding that the refugee response plan for the situation is currently funded at only 10 percent.

He said the importance of Korea's support for underfunded situations in South Sudan, Niger and Mauritania cannot be overstated and its increased quality funding has played an "indispensable" role to help those on the ground, but noted that more can be done.

"Korea's innovation and technology sectors can contribute to improving education, energy and connectivity in refugee settings," he said. "Innovation and technology can light a path for displaced youth who comprise more than half the refugee population."

The UNHCR official also said Korea can help bring the refugee issue further into the light, citing its own experience of displacement and recovery from the 1950-53 Korean War when more than a million people were displaced.

"Korea can elevate refugee voices in global forums — not just as passive recipients of aid, but as contributors to peace, to recovery and to the rebuilding of their nations. Just as Koreans did," he said.

Korea acceded to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol in 1992 and became the first country in Asia to enact a refugee law in 2012.

Yonhap