Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: Africa’s Liability for the Next Millennium

At the turn of the twenty-first century Africa is ushering into the millennium the problem of forced migration, which remains a liability in the continent’s development. From Algeria to Namibia, Sierra Leone to the Horn of Africa and the Comoro Islands, the number of refugees and internally displaced person (IDPs) has been mounting with no end in sight. In this seemingly endless process, some African states have remained producers (senders) and others recipients of refugees while at the same time toying with the ever expanding waves of IDPs, whose problem affects virtually all states in the region. While the very international nature of refugees has pitched its concern at the international level, including the involvement of the United Nations as well as international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the national scale of internally displaced persons has localised concerns, with state intervention often partisan. Yet, IDPs and refugees constitute a continuum as most of the former graduate into the latter and as the two conditions interchange from time to time. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.