Sub-Saharan displacement still rampant

Nearly 7.4 million people fled conflicts and violence in the region last year

In addition to suffering from drought, floods and storms that forced millions of people to flee their homes, sub-Saharan Africa still experienced ongoing and new conflicts and violence throughout 2018.

According to the latest report published by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and Norwegian Refugee Council, around 7.4 million new displacements stemming from conflicts and violence were recorded in the region last year.

This is in addition to 2.6 million associated with disasters. These figures were the highest globally, accounting for 36 percent of all displacements worldwide.

Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia and the Central African Republic, were the most affected countries, according to the report, Global Report on Internal Displacement 2019.

Ethiopia recorded the highest number of new internal displacements related to conflict or violence. While Ethiopia's crisis has been deepening steadily since 2016, conflict and inter-communal violence escalated significantly and spread to new areas last year. This triggered almost 2.9 million new displacements, four times the 2017 figure.

However, the country's new government has put several measures in place in response to the crisis.

In March, the newly established Ministry of Peace in collaboration with United Nations agencies launched a national process for the development of an inclusive peace building strategy.

The strategy is funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund, the International Organization for Migration, and UN agencies for women, development and the Middle East Peace Process. It is targeted at resolving conflicts in the cluster zones of Oromia and Somali Regions, two zones most affected by conflict.

In Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 1.8 million new displacements resulting from conflict were recorded in some provinces. In Ituri province, inter-communal violence reignited in December 2017, leading to 60 deaths and more than 576,000 new displacements.

The western province of Mai-Ndombe also experienced an outbreak of inter-communal violence, where at least 535 people were killed in a massacre and around 12,000 people displaced from the Yumbi town.

In Somalia, more than 578,000 new displacements related to conflict and violence were recorded, the highest figure in a decade. Evictions from urban centers, mainly Internal Displaced Persons, or IDPs, accounted for about 44 percent of the figure.

Driven by inadequate housing and informal tenure agreements in increasingly crowded areas, the number of evictions reached a record high.

Tensions between Somaliland and Puntland over the disputed regions of Sool and Sanaag also flared, and al-Shabaab extremists clashed with government and African Union troops, particularly in the southern regions of Middle and Lower Shabelle.

Conflict and violence in the northeastern and Middle Belt regions of Nigeria triggered 541,000 new displacements in 2018, while floods inundated 80 percent of the country, triggering 600,000 displacements.

Clashes between northern herders and southern farmers competing for scarce resources have taken place in Middle Belt since 2014, but the violence escalated significantly last year, triggering 200,000 new displacements.

Fighting between the government and armed opposition groups in the northeast of the country triggered 341,000 new displacements.

Other countries in the Lake Chad Basin also continued to be affected by the Boko Haram group, with more than 52,000 new displacements recorded in Niger and 22,000 in Cameroon.

In the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, where tensions over government moves to impose French on the Anglophone population, erupted into armed conflict between separatists and the military displacing 437,000 people.

Peace deal reached

Continued fighting between armed groups in the Central African Republic triggered 510,000 new displacements in 2018, leaving around 641,000 as IDPs by the end of 2018.

Fortunately, the government signed a peace deal with 14 armed factions in February this year, raising hopes that levels of violence and displacement would decrease in the future.

In South Sudan, more than 321,000 new displacements resulting from conflict were recorded during the year, leaving almost 1.9 million people living in internal displacement as of December.

Clashes in neighboring Sudan between the government and the Sudan Liberation Movement triggered 41,000 new displacements in the Jebel Marra Mountains at the intersection between South, North and Central Darfur.

Additionally, around 126,000 new displacements associated with conflict and violence were recorded in Mali, 42,000 in Burkina Faso, 5,000 in Ghana, 3,500 in Benin and 3,000 in Sierra Leone, accounting for a significant increase in the overall figure for West Africa compared to 2017.

Globally, 28 million new displacements connected with conflict and disasters were recorded across 148 countries and territories in 2018.