African displacement triples to 35m people in just 15 years, fueled by war, climate disasters — report

The number of internally displaced people across the African continent has tripled to 35 million since 2009, driven by wars and climate change, says a new report from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC).

While flooding and drought are posing a growing threat, almost 93% of those displaced, or 32.5 million, abandoned their homes due to conflict and violence, and 26 million of these are displaced in just five countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan. The report, released on Tuesday (27 November), says government efforts to address internal displacement on the continent have been commendable but not enough. There were around 11.6 million internally displaced people in 2009, when African governments signed a landmark deal legally binding them to tackle the causes of displacement.

The new report by the Geneva-based IDMC thus calls on governments to make even more effort in this area, especially considering the growing threat posed by flooding and droughts. Experts say poverty, inequality and marginalization are among the many factors that fuel conflict and violence, and armed groups have exploited these grievances, which create more displacements. But IDMC director Alexandra Bilak said violence is not solely to blame for the crisis. “So, five countries on the African continent are generating the most conflict-related internal displacement, but our report also shows that disaster displacement is also rising. We are now reporting six times more disaster displacements than 15 years ago,” Bilak said.