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Maxar imagery assists UNHCR in tracking Sudanese refugees

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Maxar imagery assists UNHCR in tracking Sudanese refugees The ongoing civil conflict in Sudan has le the country home to one of the world's most serious refugee problems with more than 2.5 million people internally displaced and over 600,000 refugees outside the country. The United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR), the UN's refugee relief agency, is chartered with monitoring and assisting these vulnerable populations. The UNHCR emerged at the end of World War II to assist Europeans displaced by the conflict. Today, the UNHCR assists refugee populations in 126 countries, including Sudan, a country riddled by civil war over the past four years. Sudan has more than three million displaced people and many face acute poverty and lack of access to health care, education and employment opportunities. Assisting displaced Sudanese refugees GISAT/UNHCR info@maxar.com maxar.com Mapping vital to refugee relief Mapping is vital to UNHCR's operations around the world. The agency uses every technology available to ensure its data is accurate and current, including GIS so ware, databases and satellite imagery. These solutions allow the UNHCR to track the everchanging locations of forcibly displaced populations, the layout and infrastructure of refugee camps and the environmental impact that camps have on surrounding areas. The Tongo refugee camp is one of the largest in Ethiopia, located near the South Sudanese border. Following a surge of fi ghting in 2011, the camp saw a dramatic increase in its refugee population. To monitor the situation, UNHCR activated Copernicus SAFER emergency mapping service and within its scope turned to Gisat, a service provider and WorldView Global Alliance reseller. "Satellite imagery is the ideal technology to follow the constantly changing conditions that characterize many refugee camps," says Jan Kolomaznik, the head of the emergency mapping team at Gisat. "When the UNHCR asked us to provide a system to monitor the Tongo refugee camp, QuickBird was the right choice." company information Established in 1990, Czech Republic-based Gisat has been a WorldView Global Alliance authorized reseller for three years. The company is dedicated to providing its customers with a wide range of value-added, high-quality and affordable geoinformation services. case study TONGA CAMP ETHIOPIA

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