World Refugee Day - June 20

 

World Refugee Day: UN agencies rethink their support for displaced people in Africa

With the number of displaced people and refugees higher than ever on Earth, this year's World Refugee Day is a moment to call for support, whether displacements are due to wars, poverty or climate catastrophes. One continent remains more affected than others: Africa, with the emergence of a few solutions and positive examples.   

A key factor driving the figures higher has been the devastating conflict in Sudan: at the end of 2023, 10.8 million Sudanese remained uprooted.

With the war in Sudan, the United Nations agency for refugees and displaced people (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) had to deal with not only Sudanese people fleeing the conflict but also refugees settled in Sudan needing to return home, especially South Sudanese people, but also Kenyans, Ugandans and Ethiopians.

"Last year in April, we started to see a significant number of returnees," Aaron Adkins, the Emergency Coordinator for IOM South Sudan, told RFI in an interview from Renk.

"First, from May 2023, 1 500 were arriving per day, sometimes 2,500 per day," he adds.

"Sudanese asylum seekers also came across, seeking refugee status and shelter. And our goal was to keep them away from the dangerous zones at the border, and to move them to safer zones for the refugees and to their home if possible, for South Sudanese citizens."

The main challenge for the UN has been to secure transport for the returnees and to assure safety.

Luckily, the South Sudanese returnees and the Sudanese refugees have often been able to travel together peacefully,  Adkins reports, and to communicate adequately.

Emerging solutions

In Mauritania, where thousands of Malian refugees have been fleeing violence for over a decade, major progress has been made.

"Mauritania is much more stable than the rest of the Sahel, and it is also a  country that has been a leader, not only in Africa but beyond in terms of welcoming refugees," Maritbeth Black, the head of programme for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in the country told RFI in an interview from Nouakchott. 

With the help of the introduction of cash transfer to support both the local communities and refugees to improve their livelihood.

"The government of Mauritania has been a great driver in terms of accepting refugees as part of the population," Black says.

"Refugees have access to social programmes, healthcare schemes, and cash transfers that help them to provide for themselves. They then receive food from WFP. Refugees also have freedom of movement, and can come and go with the cattle, while we know that most of them are pastoralists." 

Mauritania hosts more than 91,000 Malian refugees, mostly in the arid southeast Hodh Chargui region, in the Mbera camp.

The camp has become the third largest town in the country.

Refugees from Mali have been steadily increasing since 2012.

Black thinks the model put into place in Mauritania should inspire other countries hosting refugees in Subsaharan Africa and even further.

Given the political instability, impacts of climate change and persisting humanitarian challenges in the Sahel region, UNHCR estimates that we should expect an increase in the refugee population in Mauritania from 170,000 in 2023 to 246,000 in 2026.

Conflicts and climate threats

Forced displacement surged to historic new levels across the globe last year and this, according to the 2024 flagship Global Trends Report from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. The rise in overall forced displacement is the 12th consecutive annual increase.

“Behind these stark and rising numbers lie countless human tragedies. That suffering must galvanise the international community to act urgently to tackle the root causes of forced displacement,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, millions were internally displaced last year by vicious fighting.

The report also showed that worldwide more than 5 million internally displaced people and 1 million refugees returned home in 2023. These figures show some progress towards longer-term solutions.

So the UNHCR warmed against apathy and inaction, when solutions exist and support is needed.

World Refugee Day is organised every year on 20 June by the United Nations to raise awareness on the issue of displacement around the world. It was first established in 2001, in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.