Latest news with #IDPs
DW
11 hours ago
- Politics
- DW
UNHCR reports record displacement in West and Central Africa – DW – 06/20/2025
Nearly 13 million people have been uprooted from their homes in West and Central Africa. The UN Refugee Agency blames migration trends and conflict for creating a "perfect storm" of mass displacement. About 12.7 million forcibly displaced and stateless people are in West and Central Africa, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). "From conflict to climate shocks, protection risks are rising — particularly for women and children, who represent 80% of the the forcibly displaced," said Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde, the UNHCR's regional bureau director for West and Central Africa. Gnon-Konde said the UN's data also showed that displaced people are "returning home in increasing numbers where conditions allow." Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Cameroon are home to about 80% of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the region. Drought, flooding, and chronic violence and insecurity have forced people to seek shelter in other regions within their countries. According to the United Nations, more than 194,200 internally displaced persons returned to their homes in Mali from April through January 2025, and 64,700 in the Central African Republic UN-sponsored voluntary returns Chad is providing refuge to almost 780,000 people who have fled Sudan's civil war, with another 250,000 expected to arrive by the end of the year. The country also hosts large numbers of refugees from the Central African Republic to the south and Niger to the west. Each group of displaced people faces unique dangers, and Chad is struggling to host all of them. The United Nations has been sponsoring voluntary returns to countries of origin within West Africa. Eleven thousand refugees returned to countries such as Nigeria, the Central African Republic and Mali from January through April 2025. "Humanitarian crises are, first of all, political crises," Alpha Seydi Ba, a UNHCR spokesperson based in Dakar, Senegal, told DW. "Unless we are able to make peace, there won't be a situation where the returns are possible." Ba said repatriations were carried out whenever and wherever possible and on a voluntary basis. As a result, the UNHCR says resettlement departures rose by 34% in 2024 (4,000 individuals). Repatriation often means relative safety has been achieved in refugees' home countries Image: Elena Lauriola/UNHCR "I think it's always good news when people are able to go back home," Ba said. "Exile, it's not a choice. Being a refugee is not a choice, when someone leaves their home and everything behind." "We're seeing those people returning and rebuilding," Ba said. "I think it's one of the best things that can happen in the humanitarian person in his career." 'Migrants become stranded' Though repatriation efforts have yielded some positive results, the UN's regional resettlement quota has been reduced by 64% in 2025. To complicate matters, the UNHCR's regional budget overall has been reduced by 50% between 2024 and 2025. "Our operations are very severely impacted," Ba said. "Meaning less food, less shelter, less health care, less clean water, less gender-based protection, which makes overall protection systems or displaced people more fragile," Ba added. "That's why the UNHCR in the region is at a tipping point." "The number of migrants, be it internally displaced people or migrants, is increasing," Luisa de Freitas, who leads the Regional Data Hub in Dakar for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told DW. "We are seeing that, overall, more and more people are on the move." Though many people move to foreign countries because of climate disasters, armed conflict or instability, the IOM reports that economic needs are also a key driver of migration. Chad 'opened the doors to all the refugees from Sudan' To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "Over 70% to 72% of the individuals that we survey at our flow monitoring points in 2024 were there because of labor or economic reasons," de Freitas said. De Freitas said migration routes had become increasingly dangerous as EU nations and their partners within Africa have sought to stem the flow of migration to Europe. However, this has not deterred migrants from attempting to do so. "People move when they feel they have no other option," de Freitas said. "They will take routes that are less and less traveled. So what is happening is that a lot of these migrants become stranded." New strategies needed Simply putting up barriers or investing in forced removals of migrants is not the solution. Instead, de Freitas advised European nations to adopt a different approach that fosters and incentivizes regular migration, benefiting both home and destination countries. "Spain has just launched two initiatives: one to regularize migrants per year, and they've also launched system where Senegalese can apply for temporary travel visas to go and work in Spain," de Freitas said. Many EU countries desperately need workers in sectors such as agriculture, she added. "Circular migration allows migration on a temporary basis to address labor shortages in destination countries, while providing migrants with access to employment and education opportunities. "Basically, try to make migration a win-win situation for both ends," de Freitas said. Edited by: Chrispin Mwakideu
Zawya
a day ago
- General
- Zawya
Safe spaces transform lives of displaced women in war torn Sudan
Since the outbreak of conflict on 15 April 2023, Sudan has witnessed one of the world's fastest-growing displacement crises. Over 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes as of 16 June 2025, including more than 2 million women and girls, many of whom are now living in overcrowded shelters or with host communities across the country. In Gadaref State, hundreds of thousands have sought refuge, placing immense pressure on services and resources—particularly for women facing heightened protection risks. When the war broke out, 35-year-old Marwa—not her real name—left Khartoum to seek refuge and safety. Like many internally displaced persons (IDPs), she found herself in Hay Al-Malik, a densely populated neighborhood in the heart of Gadaref State, sheltering thousands of displaced people by the ongoing conflict. Here, IDPs and host community members live side-by-side, often sharing houses due to soaring rents and limited resources. Marwa's early days were marked by intense psychological stress. Living with more than ten people in a small house without privacy, especially for women, left her feeling isolated and overwhelmed. Cultural differences deepened her sense of displacement, and she struggled to adapt. 'I rarely left the house or spoke to other women,' she shared. 'I didn't know how to adjust or where to turn.' A turning point came when Marwa heard about a new women's safe space established by Hope and Friendship for Development Organization (HOPE), in partnership with UN Women, and supported by the Government of Japan. Encouraged by outreach efforts in the community, she visited the Al-Malik Safe Space and immediately felt a sense of belonging. It was a space created by and for women—a place to talk, share, heal, and grow. With each visit, Marwa's confidence grew. She joined a life skills training and received psychosocial support that helped her regain emotional balance. She also participated in awareness sessions on harmful traditional practices, gaining tools to inform and uplift others. Over time, she became actively involved in managing activities alongside social workers, transforming herself from a participant into a leader. 'From the first day, I felt that this space belonged to us,' she said. 'It's our duty to protect it and keep it going.' Now, Marwa supports other displaced women and girls in accessing the safe space and envisions expanding it further. She emphasizes the need to include children, especially those with special needs, in future programming. She also expresses a strong desire to help sustain the space beyond the program's timeline, working with other women to preserve what they've built together. Marwa's story illustrates how access to a safe, inclusive space—combined with psychosocial and life skills support—can plant the seeds for long-term empowerment and resilience. With continued support from the Government of Japan and implementing partners, women like Marwa are not only rebuilding their own lives but helping others do the same. *Marwa's name has been changed to protect her privacy Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UN Women - Africa.
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Manipur begins exercise to prepare database for persons displaced by ongoing conflict
The Manipur government has begun the exercise of collating database of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) affected by the ongoing ethnic conflict in the state since May 2023, an official in the state government said. Deputy commissioner Mayanglambam Rajkumar Singh of Imphal West District, in a notice on Wednesday, said the government of Manipur is conducting an exercise of capturing data of IDPs residing in the state through a portal developed by the IT department. 'This exercise will cover both the categories of IDPs staying in the relief camps as well as those staying at various places outside the relief camps,'the notice said. Also Read: Govt, Kuki-Zo groups reach understanding to relocate camps to tribal areas As part of this exercise, the district administration Imphal West has started and is in near completion of capturing the data of the IDPs staying at the various relief camps of Imphal West district, it added. It also stated that all the IDPs residing outside the relief camps of Imphal West district to contact the concerned authorities to facilitate the capturing of details of the IDPs within a week's time, latest by June 25,2025. More than 260 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki Zo groups in Manipur since May 2023. Since then, most of the displaced people are staying in relief camps across the state while some are taking shelter outside the state.
NDTV
2 days ago
- Politics
- NDTV
Manipur's Thadou Tribe Body Asks Panel To Recognise 3rd Category Of Displaced People
Imphal/New Delhi: A top body of the Thadou tribe in Manipur has requested the Justice Gita Mittal (retired) Committee, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla to recognise a third category of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the state where Meitei-Kuki ethnic clashes broke out in May 2023. Currently, the state government recognises two categories of IDPs - those living in relief camps and registered with deputy commissioners (DCs), and those living outside relief camps but within Manipur and registered with DCs. In separate memorandums, the Thadou Inpi Manipur (TIM) said displaced families of the Thadou tribe who are living outside Manipur and outside government relief camps, and who remain unregistered and unreached by any form of state or central assistance since the outbreak of violence over two years ago should be recognised as a third category of IDPs. The Thadou Inpi Manipur has highlighted the community as a distinct tribe with their own ethnic identity, having its own language, culture, traditions, and history, and not a part of the umbrella term 'Kuki'. "Thadou is not Kuki, or underneath Kuki, or part of Kuki, but a separate, independent entity from Kuki... Thadou is one of the original 29 native/indigenous tribes of Manipur, India, that were all simultaneously and duly recognised as independent Scheduled Tribes of Manipur under the 1956 Presidential Order, Government of India," the Thadou Convention held in Assam's Guwahati in November 2024 had declared. In the memorandum submitted to the Justice Mittal Committee on relief, rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced persons in Manipur, the Thadou Inpi Manipur said many members of the Thadou tribe who can be categorised as IDPs include those who fled amid life-threatening violence, suffering total loss of movable and immovable property, with only a few retaining plots of land. They can also include those currently living in cities such as Delhi, Guwahati, Shillong, Bengaluru, and others, facing immense hardship, psychological trauma, and lack of stability; those who have not been officially recognised or registered as IDPs by any government authority, and those who have not received any form of relief, compensation or rehabilitation assistance from either the state or central government to date, the Thadou Inpi Manipur said in a statement. "TIM [Thadou Inpi Manipur] has called for the immediate issuance of displacement certificates, a formal verification exercise, and inclusion in all relief and rehabilitation frameworks, while also urging authorities to acknowledge the resilience of these families who have survived two years without support," TIM joint general secretary Manggou Thadou said in the statement. "These Thadou families were displaced not out of privilege, but out of fear and necessity. Their survival should be recognised, not punished. It is time the government formally acknowledges them as Internally Displaced Persons under a distinct and just category," Manggou Thadou said. The memorandums were signed by TIM general secretary Michael Lamjathang Haokip, who says his house in Manipur's Churachandpur was attacked twice by an armed mob for asserting Thadou as a distinct tribe. The Thadou Inpi Manipur has also been demanding the government to remove 'Any Kuki Tribes' from the list of Scheduled Tribes in Manipur. Apart from the Justice Mittal Committee, the Thadou body also submitted the memorandums to the Union home minister, the Manipur governor, and the chief secretary. The Supreme Court in March extended the tenure of the committee till July 31. A preliminary list of displaced families of the Thadou tribe was enclosed with the memorandums.
Hans India
2 days ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Manipur flight attendant's body identified; Family to bring remains via Dimapur
The body of Lamnunthem Singson, one of two flight attendants from Manipur killed in the recent Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad, has been formally identified through DNA testing, her family confirmed. In an emotional response to the confirmation, the family shared that arrangements are underway to bring her remains to Dimapur, Nagaland, on Thursday morning. From there, the body will be taken by road to Kangpokpi in Manipur, where the family currently resides after being displaced from Imphal due to ethnic violence in May 2023. Lamnunthem, originally from Old Lambulane in Imphal, had been living in Kangpokpi with her family as internally displaced persons (IDPs). Her untimely death has deeply affected both her immediate family and the larger Thadou tribal community, who have been visiting the family to offer condolences. The choice to avoid Imphal airport, despite state assurances of a dignified reception, is rooted in security concerns. "We do not want to politicise my sister's remains... it is not safe for us to travel via Imphal," said her cousin N Kipgen. He also emphasized the family's desire to maintain dignity without becoming a public spectacle. A joint meeting of civil society groups in Kangpokpi resolved that members of the Kuki Students' Organisation (KSO) would receive the body at Dimapur airport. The remains will then be escorted through National Highway 2 to Kangpokpi, where a human chain and candlelight vigil will be held in her honour. Meanwhile, the family of the second flight attendant from Manipur, K Nganthoi Sharma of Thoubal district, continues to wait for DNA confirmation. The Manipur government stated on June 16 that it is ready to receive both bodies with full respect and has left the final decision on logistics and ceremonies to the bereaved families. While many have come together in solidarity, civil society groups such as the Thadou Students' Association (TSA) and the Meitei Heritage Society (MHS) have expressed concerns about politically motivated narratives circulating on social media. TSA called for restraint and unity during this time of grief. MHS also urged people to show humanity and avoid exploiting this tragedy for political ends. Both organisations emphasized the need to honour the deceased with dignity, noting their service and sacrifice. As Lamnunthem's final journey begins, her story is not just one of personal loss, but a reflection of a state still navigating deep divisions—and the human cost that often follows.
