AU summit

After a week of meetings on the fate of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP's), African heads of state and government have adopted a convention on the protection of IDP's, seen as the first of its kind worldwide.

The International Committee of the Red Cross described the move as historic, but at the same time warned that it would not have an immediate effect on the fate of the millions of displaced people.

Yusuf Hassan, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at the African Union summit, said there were two main causes for the high number of refugees and IDP's in Africa. "The first one is of course conflicts," he told Deutsche Welle, "conflicts of resources, conflicts for power, wars. Then there are also natural calamities like draughts and famine. So there is a combination of factors."

The consequences are immense for all parties involved. "When you have large numbers of people who are disengaged, demobilised, who cannot participate in the daily activities of their country, that is a waste of human resources, because these people could have been in production," Hassan said. Simultaneously refugees and IDP's are a problem to their host regions, as these are mainly situated in developing countries and poor themselves.

Four million IDP's in Sudan alone

"One of the largest refugee and IDP producing countries is Somalia. Kenya now has more than 300,000 Somali refugees," Hassan said. "Ethiopia, Yemen are some of the countries producing refugees, who go as far as Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa. Then there is Sudan. Sudanese refugees have been going into Chad. And then there are very old Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda."

Sudan is also one of the countries with the largest number of IDP's in the world with four million Sudanese forced to move within their country.

Johan van der Kamp coordinates projects for the German aid organisation Welthungerhilfe in Sudan: "What we do is first of all assuring that IDP's can survive," he told Deutsche Welle, "but at the same time we try to allow them to continue with normal life as much as possible. For example we build temporary class rooms for the children. Or we provide the IDP's with seeds and water so they can grow their own vegetables."

In North Darfur alone hundreds of thousands have fled. Often they are not more than 30 or 40 kilometers away from home, but, as van der Kamp pointed out "they live in completely different surroundings than their own, they have to resettle and they have to be accepted by the local population." In order to avoid friction and competition Welthungerhilfe includes the local population in Darfur in its aid projects.

Integrating or returning home?

Elsewhere there is more hope, according to Hassan of the UNHCR: "Liberia and Sierra Leone until some years ago were also in the middle of a protracted conflict. Now things have calmed down and people are going back. Of course these are very fragile and economically devastated countries. And some of the returnees will continue to need assistance, until the economy and the social conditions improve, until they are able to get back on their feet. But these at least are countries with democratically elected accountable governments, which are trying to mend their broken economies."

In other cases local integration of refugees and IDP's in their host region can be a solution said van der Kamp: "It's not what we want in the first place, but it is a fact that IDP's sometimes integrate and stay. So we must be realistic and prepared to help with integration as well."

A global problem

Hassan said the AU summit's efforts this week in Kampala to adopt the convention were a big step forward: “It is first of all a recognition by the African countries of this problem," he said. "They are taking the leadership and they are saying that this is our own home-grown problem - we must find our own solutions."

At the same time Hassan is keen to remind the international community of what African nations have been doing already for IDP's and refugees: "One must also mention the use of land and resources. For example if Tanzania wants to put a price on the land it has given to refugees, it will be in the billions, which are not registered in terms of assistance. But when a rich country gives five million dollars, it is announced publicly all the time," he said.

"The problem of African refugees is also a global problem. Migration is a global issue and should be shared by all the countries of the world rather than be left simply to poor countries, just because they are neighbors of countries that are packing up or disintegrating."

Author: Patrick Vanhulle
Editor: Rob Mudge