Since September, UNHCR has been distributing relief items such as kitchen sets, jerry cans, quilts, sleeping mats to displaced people from South Waziristan. Some 24,000 families (about 175,000 people) have been assisted so far. Security constraints have lead to some intermittent disruptions to aid efforts, but distribution is continuing through our local partners.

UNHCR is also supporting the registration of displaced people from South Waziristan which is being carried out by the provincial Social Welfare Department, with help from our local NGO partner. Some 350,000 people, comprising almost 48,000 families, have now been registered in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank, though only about 175,000 people (or 24,000 families) have yet been verified by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). The verification process is ongoing but, at this stage, early indications suggest about 17% of families could be ineligible due to multiple registrations. A further 10% are not verified due to problems with their national ID cards, and another 2% are deemed not from areas affected by the military operations.

However, it is important that people who are not verified because they don't have their ID cards or are deemed not from an affected area have the opportunity to seek redress, so that genuinely displaced people don't fall through the cracks. Grievance desks are being set up at the registration centres to address this issue.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, an estimated one million people from previous waves of displacement out of Bajaur, Mohmand, Swat, remain displaced and in need of ongoing humanitarian assistance. This includes some 88,000 people in 10 camps in NWFP, for whom UNHCR is currently preparing a package of extra relief supplies for winter. Also, existing tents will be replaced with all-weather tents to provide extra insulation. Jalozai camp, in Nowshera, hosts the largest number of people (61,000) including some 27,000 people from Bajaur and Bara (Khyber agency) who have been registered in the camp since last month. The group includes a mix of people who recently fled renewed fighting in Bajaur and Bara, alongside those who had fled earlier and stayed with host families. This latter group had recently sought refuge in the camp as their resources became depleted.

The majority returned to the districts of Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara. Small numbers have also gone back to the Polonnaruwa district. During the last two weeks alone, some 39,000 people have returned as part of the government's efforts to accelerate the process.

In addition, some 16,500 persons have been been released from the camps and are now accommodated with host families. This includes a number of people with special needs such as the ederly, pregnant women and those with disabilities who have been released to specialized care institutions.

In support of the government's return process, UNHCR, together with other UN agencies, is distributing relief items such as sleeping mats, bed sheets and hurricane lamps to the returnees. We also carry out protection monitoring in the return areas, verifying the return conditions. We are providing the returning families with a shelter grant of Rs 25,000 (approximately $250), as a first step towards helping them rebuild their homes and restart their lives, which they can access through the Bank of Ceylon.

UNHCR is also discussing with the government the situation in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu to ensure that minimum return standards, such as completion of demining and access to services, are adhered to.

In addition to its overall assistance progammes, UNHCR is providing five demining flail machines to help accelerate humanitarian mine clearing operations in former conflict areas. These machines are scheduled to arrive tomorrow (7 November) and will be handed over to the government. The equipment will be immediately dispatched to the return areas in the Sri Lanka's north, where demining is being carried out by the Sri Lankan Government together with UNDP and other international and local demining actors.

Humanitarian demining and the removal of unexploded ordnance (UXO) are pre-requisites for delivery of humanitarian assistance, early recovery and development in conflict affected areas. Demining also enables infrastructure development and the resumption of social services and livelihoods.

Some 274,000 people were displaced on multiple occasions during the final months of the conflict in Sri Lanka and then accommodated in closed camps in the Vavuniya, Jaffna, Mannar and Trincomalee districts. Following the recent returns, some 163,000 people still remain in the camps where conditions are deteriorating. UNHCR and other UN agencies continue to advocate strongly with the government of Sri Lanka to expedite the return of all remaining IDPs to their areas of origin in safety and dignity and in line with international standards. We also continue to advocate for the full freedom of movement for those who are not able to immediately return to their homes or stay with friends and relatives once the ongoing phase of the return is complete.

A UNHCR team is now visiting them and says the 16,100 Congolese asylum-seekers need proper shelter, food and household items such as blankets, kitchen sets and jerry cans. Once a thorough assessment is made, the refugee agency will work with the Republic of Congo (ROC) government to help them. Some also need medical care, but an overstretched mobile clinic run by a UNHCR partner cannot cope with all their needs.

The Congolese were escaping from a dispute between the Enyele and Munzaya tribes over farming and fishing rights in the village of Dongo, in DRC's Equateur province. A total of 60 people have been killed and the violence spread to surrounding villages, several of which were burned. About 40 people were badly injured; some are in hospital in the Republic of Congo.

The DRC asylum-seekers – who are mainly Munzayas – are staying in public buildings or with host communities across 11 villages alongside the Oubangui River.

The first clashes between the Enyele and Munzaya happened last March, when more than 200 houses were burned in the village of Munzaya and more than 1,200 residents fled to the ROC. UNHCR is seriously concerned about the intensity of the violence and its spread to nearby villages, which have been virtually emptied of people.

This latest violence, taking place in the north-west of the DRC, the third-largest country in Africa, is unrelated to sporadic fighting in the east, which has displaced 1.7 million people within the country.

Before the current influx, there were already some 9,000 refugees from DRC in northern Republic of Congo who had sought safety from the civil war in their country, which formally ended in 2003. Although large numbers went home to the DRC with the return of peace, these 9,000 wish to settle permanently in the Republic of Congo. UNHCR is working with the government to find ways to make this possible.

The violent dispute is between the Enyele and Munzaya tribes over farming and fishing rights in the village of Dongo, in DRC's Equateur province. In total 60 people hjave been killed, and the deadly clashes spread to surrounding villages, several of which were burned. Forty other people were seriously injured. Some of them are in hospital in Impfondo, northern ROC, and in the capital, Brazzaville.

The 16,100 DRC asylum seekers -- who are mainly Munzayas -- are staying in public buildings or with host communities across 11 villages alongside the Oubangui River. A UNHCR team is now visiting them and our initial assement is that they need proper shelter, food and household items such as blankets, kitchen sets and jerry cans. Once a thorough assessment is made, we will work together with the government to help them. Some also need medical care, but an over-stretched mobile clinic run by a UNHCR partner cannot cope with all their needs.

The first clashes between the Enyele and Munzaya happened in March 2009, when more than 200 houses were burned the village of Munzaya and more than 1,200 residents fled to safety in the Republic of Congo. UNHCR is seriously concerned about the intensity of the violence and its spread to nearby villages, which have been virtually emptied of people.

This latest violence, taking place in the west of the DRC, the third-largest country in Africa, is unrelated to fighting going on east, which has also displaced 1.7 million people within the country.

Before the current influx, there were already some 9,000 refugees from DRC in northern Republic of Congo who had sought safety from the civil war in their country, which formally ended in 2003. Although large numbers went home to the DRC with return of peace, these 9,000 wish to settle permanently in the Republic of Congo. UNHCR is working with the government to find ways to make this possible.

We fear that the looming El Niņo phenomenon – a change in the atmosphere and ocean of the tropical Pacific region that produces floods, droughts and other weather disturbances in many regions of the world – may now threaten the 338,000 mostly Somali refugees in the two camps, which in any case usually are flooded for three months every year.

When heavy rains started three weeks ago, UNHCR began digging trenches and placing sandbags around hospitals, boreholes and other strategic locations in both camps. We have also been repairing culverts on seasonal riverbeds that connect different parts of the camps, particularly Dadaab, which is actually a complex of three camps. Without these measures, many sections of these camps would have been inundated.

We are also preparing to locate to higher ground within the camps refugees who might be worst affected by the floods, particularly the chronically ill, disabled people, the elderly and children and teenagers on their own.

In order to protect refugees in Kakuma, the camp harder hit by floods in the past, we have diverted two seasonal rivers, the Tarach and Lodoket, that have often inundated lower grounds.

The worst flooding in Kakuma was recorded in May 2003 when some 16,800 refugees saw their homes destroyed. A number of latrines also overflowed and collapsed, leading to the spread of water-bone diseases, including cholera and dysentery. The overcrowded Dadaab complex, now home to more refugees than any other site in the world, last experienced severe flooding in 2006.

On Wednesday evening, a UNHCR-chartered boat carrying 502 refugees left the Zambian port of Mpulungu on Lake Tanganyika and set sail for the lakeside towns of Moba and Kalemie in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

It brought the number of Congolese repatriated this year from Zambia with UNHCR help to more than 15,600. This compared to some 9,700 for the whole of last year and more than 7,300 in 2007. The 15,000 mark, itself, was passed a little earlier.

Senior UNHCR Programme Officer Kristine Hambrouck said the dramatic rise in return figures this year was due to a variety of reasons. These included stepped up information campaigns; visits by senior UNHCR staff, government officials and donors to the camps in Zambia; regular discussions with refugees on the conditions in DRC; enhanced return and reintegration packages; stability and development in return areas; and encouragement from those who have returned.

Zambian Deputy Minister of Home Affairs David Phiri and other dignitaries were on hand to wave farewell to the refugees at Mpulungu and to mark the passing of the 15,000 mark. Phiri thanked UNHCR, other partners and donors for helping Zambia reach the repatriation milestone.

UNHCR Representative to Zambia James Lynch said he was happy at the pace of voluntary repatriation this year, but called on more Congolese refugees to go home before the repatriation programme wraps up at the end of December. "UNHCR stands ready to assist any Congolese refugee who comes forward to repatriate," Lynch stressed.

Derek Fee, head of a European Commission delegation, noted that funding was increasingly being channelled towards reintegration projects in the DRC. He also urged more Congolese refugees to return home, where donors will help them reintegrate. The Commission part funds the repatriation programme.

Zambia currently hosts less than 30,000 Congolese refugees. Most fled their homeland a decade ago at the height of the civil strife in DRC.

But when he finally went back last year to the village in Amuru district that he had left a decade ago to escape fighting between government troops and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, Okello discovered that life was not going to be so easy.

"It was exciting to be back in my village after many, many years. But I soon realized that home . . . had its own challenges, and one of them was getting safe sources of drinking water," he told UNHCR, adding that the returnees got their water from a spring that had little red worms in it.

John Okello and his neighbours faced a similar problem when they returned to their village after leaving the IDP settlement at Pabbo, also in Amuru district. Taking advantage of the 2006 cessation of hostilities agreement between the armed forces and the rebels, they went back home two years ago. But soon people were complaining of stomach problems. "We now think it was because of drinking dirty water," Okello said.

To counter this widespread problem and help the tens of thousands of people streaming home, UNHCR and its partners, including the government, launched a programme at the start of this year to provide water outlets for the IDPs who are returning.

"Our objective in this programme is to provide the returning IDP communities with clean sources of drinking water in their villages," Francisco Canezal, a UNHCR field officer in northern Uganda, explained. His colleague, Noupech Vanno, added that the water programme would also contribute to sustainable return and deter IDPs from returning to the easier life they had enjoyed in the settlements.

To date, 24 protected wells have been constructed in Amuru and Pader districts, while another 20 are expected to be completed by the end of the year. These will provide clean and safe drinking water to some 250,000 people in Amuru alone.

Engineers cover water sources or wells with concrete to protect them from parasites, bacteria and other things that could compromise their purity and cleanliness. The running water is delivered by a plastic pipe punched through the concrete.

Walter Odong and John Okello live in two of the 24 villager that now boast these special new wells. They and their neighbours are delighted that their water woes have become a thing of the past.

In Pa Omo Village, the returnees have even established a regulation requiring them to clean their water outlet twice a month. "It's another way of being responsible and thanking all those who helped us get clean water," said villager Robert Omony.

By Moses Odokonyero in Amuru District, Uganda

The Boeing 747 from Johannesburg arrived in the Angolan capital Luanda early Saturday evening carrying 2,250 tents, 5,000 sleeping mats, and 4,000 blankets, as well as one as one prefabricated warehouse. The supplies were released from the UNHCR regional stockpile in Durban in response to a request from the Angolan government. In Luanda the items were immediately loaded onto army planes provided by the government of Angola to be sent to Uige and Zaire provinces in northern Angola bordering DRC.

According to Angolan authorities, the number of Angolans who were expelled plus those who came back of their own accord in the wake of the expulsions now totals 50,000. Most of those expelled had refugee status in the DRC. Many were not even given any opportunity to collect their personal belongings before being forced back to Angola.

They are now living in extremely difficult conditions. In one place visited by UNHCR last week, Kitumu in Uige province, we found some 500 people sleeping on the cement floor of an old school building without sleeping mats or mattresses. The returnees' stress is exacerbated because many became separated from family members during the expulsions.

Similarly, UNHCR found that some 30,000 forcibly-returned Angolans in the Mbaza Congo area of Zaire province needed shelter, water, medication and food when we visited them three weeks ago. In response to their needs, we gave them blankets and soap from our stocks in Luanda and we are working with other UN agencies in Angola, the International Organization for Migration, the national Red Cross and various NGOs to provide them further emergency relief.

Before the expulsions, UNHCR was already helping prepare the return of those Angolans who wished to return home. UNHCR now looks forward to working with the Angolan and DRC governments to arrange a safe and dignified repatriation of Angolan refugees to their homeland. At the end of September, there were still 111,000 refugees registered in DRC and a further 40,000 in Zambia, South Africa, the Republic of Congo and Namibia.

The Boeing 747 from Johannesburg arrived in the Angolan capital of Luanda Saturday evening carrying 2,250 tents, 5,000 sleeping mats and 4,000 blankets, as well as a portable warehouse.

The supplies were released from the UNHCR regional stockpile in Durban in response to a request from the Angolan government. In Luanda, the items were loaded onto aircraft provided by the government of Angola to be sent to northern Angola's Uige and Zaire provinces, bordering the DRC.

Angolan authorities have said the number of Angolans expelled, plus those who came back of their own accord in the wake of the expulsions, now totals 50,000. Most of those expelled had refugee status in the DRC. Many were not able to collect their personal belongings before being forced back to Angola.

They are now living in extremely difficult conditions. In one location visited last week, Kitumu in Uige province, UNHCR staff found some 500 people sleeping without mats or mattresses on the cement floor of an old school building. The returnees' stress is exacerbated because many became separated from family members during the expulsions.

Similarly, UNHCR found that some 30,000 forcibly returned Angolans in the Mbaza Congo area of Zaire province needed shelter, water, medication and food when visited three weeks ago.

"In response to their needs, we gave them blankets and soap from our stocks in Luanda and we are working with other UN agencies in Angola, the International Organization for Migration, the national Red Cross and various NGOs to provide them further emergency relief," a spokesperson said.

Before the expulsions, UNHCR was already helping prepare the return of those Angolans who wished to go home. UNHCR now looks forward to working with the Angolan and DRC governments to arrange a safe and dignified repatriation of Angolan refugees to their homeland. At the end of September, there were still 111,000 refugees registered in DRC and a further 40,000 in Zambia, South Africa, the Republic of Congo and Namibia.

They are to travel by rail from the same train station where they arrived 37 years ago when they fled the eruption of ethnic violence which claimed the lives of an estimated 200,000 Burundian civilians. Since March 2008, UNHCR has helped 53,500 refugees from the Old Settlements to return home. The voluntary repatriation of the 1972 Burundian refugees is part of a landmark programme launched with the Tanzanian government to end this protracted refugee situation.

Under the same programme, 162,000 of the 1972 Burundian refugees in these Settlements applied for Tanzanian citizenship. Since August, some 29,000 had been naturalised. The Tanzanian government aims to complete the process by the end of the year for the remaining 133,000 applicants.

Tanzania also hosts Burundian refugees who fled their country in 1993. These refugees were mainly hosted in refugee camps in Kigoma and Kagera provinces in the north-west, out of which all but one have now been closed. Burundian refugees also fled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda at the same time.

With the gradual return of peace in Burundi, more than half a million Burundian refugees have returned home, including more than 430,000 from camps in Tanzania. That now leaves just 36,000 Burundian refugees in one remaining camp in Tanzania, Mtabila, as well as another 21,500 in the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda.

UNHCR is working closely with the government of Burundi and the governments of asylum countries to actively promote the return of the remaining Burundian refugees. These efforts are part of a comprehensive strategy and roadmap leading ultimately to the cessation of refugee status of Burundians.

Meanwhile in Burundi, UNHCR is helping returnees solve problems they face in reclaiming their land by providing returnees with temporary shelter and supporting the peaceful resolution of land disputes arising from their long absence. The government and its UN partners are also helping landless returnees settle in specially constructed villages, six of which have been opened in 2008 and 2009.