ADDIS ABABA, June 21 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi here on Wednesday discussed refugee situations encountered in the Horn of African region.
Grandi, who is currently in Ethiopia after attending the World Refugee Day commemorative ceremony on Tuesday, raised various refugee situations with Desalegn. The discussion, among other things, focused on strengthening global efforts being made to support the refuge influx, local media FBC reported.
Desalegn asserted that combined efforts must be intensified so as to ensure the overall conditions of refugees in the horn and east African region. He also called on the global community to jointly solve regional problems that exacerbated the rate of displacement.
Grandi, on his part, has commended Ethiopia's role and response in handling the regional refugee crisis saying that the country is "a very good model of how a country with a limited resources and a great challenge of its own keeps its doors open to people from neighboring countries."
The east African country currently hosts more than 850,000 refugees from 21 countries with South Sudanese, Somalis, Eritreans, and Sudanese making up the majority. In the first five months of 2017, Ethiopia has registered an additional 54,107 refugees, with most of the arrivals being Eritreans, South Sudanese and Sudanese.
Grandi, prior to his arrival to Ethiopia, on Sunday visited a camp for internally displaced people in the South Sudan's city of Bentiu, and pledged the global community to do more in helping the world's youngest nation, a country with the fastest growing displaced population in the world.
