FORCED DISPLACEMENT IN AFRICA: DIMENSIONS, DIFFICULTIES, AND POLICY DIRECTIONS

Forced displacement has become a defining characteristic of sub-Saharan Africa, obliging people to abandon their homes and seek refuge elsewhere, often at the price of serious threats to their welfare and rights. Focusing on mass displacements, this article examines the changing scope, scale, and dynamics of the problem of human displacement in Africa. The article then goes on to analyse a number of policy challenges related to this issue: the principle and practice of asylum; insecurity in refugee-populated areas; protracted refugee situations; the return and reintegration of displaced people; and the protection of people who have been displaced within their own country.