Crisis in Nicaragua: more than 100,000 people fled the country in two years, according to the UN

More than 100,000 people have fled Nicaragua since the country has experienced a repressed protest movement since April 2018, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.

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" Nicaraguan students, human rights defenders, journalists and farmers continue to flee their country at an average rate of 4,000 people per month, " bringing to more than 100,000 those who have fled the country since the start of the crisis, said UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo at a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland. "With no resolution of the internal crisis in sight, UNHCR expects these numbers to increase, " she added.

Nicaragua, led by ex-Sandinista guerilla warrior Daniel Ortega, has been going through a serious political crisis since April 2018. A first protest against a social security reform has turned into a wave of demonstrations demanding the departure of the president, accused of '' have established a corrupt dictatorship, as well as early elections. The repression was bloody. More than 325 people were killed, hundreds of opponents were imprisoned. The country is plunged into a deep economic recession.

The majority of exiles fled to Costa Rica, which welcomed some 77,000 people. Slightly more than 8,000 fled to Panama, 3,600 to Mexico, 9,000 others to Europe and 5,100 to other countries, according to the UNHCR, which identified a total of 103,600 Nicaraguan refugees and asylum seekers worldwide.

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