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UNHCR Operational Update Rwanda, August 2017

Countries
Rwanda
+ 2 more
Sources
UNHCR
Publication date

Highlights

  • Presidential elections in Rwanda were held on 4 August 2017. President Kagame was re-elected to a third seven-year term with 98.7% of the vote. A new cabinet was announced, including the appointment of Jeanne d’Arc De Bonheur as the new Minister for Disaster Management and Refugees (MIDIMAR).

  • UNHCR and WFP have successively advocated to ensure no food cuts for the following month of September. However, donors have made clear the previous level of humanitarian support, especially to refugees in a protracted situation, is unsustainable and food cuts in 2017 are inevitable.

  • The Joint Assessment Mission (JAM) on food security has concluded in all camps and the first draft of findings and recommendations is under review. In line with the Global Agreement between UNHCR and WFP, JAMs are carried out roughly every two years to assess the food security situation among camp-based refugees and to make recommendations for programme review and/or adjustment. The 2017 JAM sought to assess in particular issues of refugee dependence on food assistance, issues of targeting and vulnerability, the capacity of refugees to meet their own food needs through livelihood opportunities and the suitability of cash based transfers to meet refugees’ food needs.

  • The voluntary repatriation of Rwandan refugees from DRC to Rwanda resumed in August after the process from DRC was interrupted by the discovery of cholera in Rwanda’s Kijote Transit Centre.