Conflicts Causing Record Level of Forced Displacement in Africa
The number of African refugees, internally displaced persons, and asylum seekers grew by 14 percent over the past year—to more than 45 million people.
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The number of African refugees, internally displaced persons, and asylum seekers grew by 14 percent over the past year—to more than 45 million people.
Most displaced people migrate not in search of a place but people—communities they know, trust, and can rely on for security, stability, and support while they get back on their feet. Thus, understanding existing or sought-after social connections must be part of policy responses for durable solutions to protracted displacement. Instead of place-based solutions—like camps—displaced people need multiple options to better navigate and move out of vulnerability.
The spread of the coronavirus in Africa is intersecting with the continent’s population displacement crisis. Protecting displaced persons and migrants will be key to reducing the overall rates of transmission.
Conflict and repressive governance have resulted in record levels of forced displacement as well as economic migration in Africa. These population movements, in turn, are generating new revenue streams for militant extremist groups and criminal networks.
Africa’s humanitarian crises have continued to worsen in 2017. Twenty million Africans have been displaced from their homes and 44 million are acutely food insecure.
A spike in political violence since mid-2016 has caused the worst humanitarian crisis in South Sudan since its decades-long civil war with Sudan.
A snapshot of Africa’s displaced populations reveals that 71 percent of Africa’s 18.5 million displaced persons are from 5 countries (Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo), and while much of global attention has focused on refugee migration into Europe, two-thirds of Africa’s dislocated population are internally displaced.
(See more recent readings on this topic here.) 32 Million Africans Forcibly Displaced by Conflict and Repression By Margaret E Peters and Michael K Miller, International Studies Quarterly, December 10, 2021 Authoritarian leaning governments find solace in emigration. It not only acts as a pressure valve releasing likely instigators of political contestation, but it also... Continue Reading
As Africa urbanizes at a record pace, national security policies will need to adjust to the changing geographic locus and types of threats in urban versus rural settings.
The Inter-Congolese Dialogue that ended the Second Congo War offers a practical framework for responding to the current crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rivalries among Tigrayan political leaders threaten to derail the process of reintegrating Tigray into Ethiopia’s federal structure and could rapidly escalate into a wider conflict involving Eritrea and regional actors.