Number of displaced in west, central Africa doubled in 5 years: UN

ABIDJAN: The number of refugees and forcibly displaced people in west and central Africa has doubled since 2019, reaching nearly 14 million, the United Nations refugee agency said on Thursday.

The figure has climbed from 6.5 million refugees and internally displaced persons in 2019 to 13.7 million in 2024, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “By the end of the year, we expect this number to rise to 14 million and even to 15 million by the end of 2025,” UNHCR regional director Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde told a press conference in the city of Abidjan in Ivory Coast.

But even that tally does not include the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the UNHCR estimates at least seven million are displaced.

Chad, one of the world’s poorest nations, faces a particularly critical situation with one in 17 people in the country being a refugee, Gnon-Konde added.

The country has taken in 650,000 refugees fleeing neighbouring Sudan since a brutal civil war broke out in April 2023. Before the conflict in Sudan, Chad, which has a population of 17 million, was already hosting 420,000 Sudanese refugees.

Tens of thousands of people from neighbouring Central African Republic, Nigeria and Cameroon, all faced with security challenges, have also fled to Chad, Gnon-Konde added.

Security in the Sahel region, where Chad is located, has also significantly deteriorated over the last decade.

With Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger plagued by jihadist violence, “between 4.5 and five million people are displaced, mainly internally,” said Gnon-Konde.