About Refugees > Newsroom > Press Releases
For further information:
Hiram Ruiz
202-347-3507
202-494-7790 (evening)
Africa: Nearly 2 Million Uprooted by New Violence in 19 African Countries Last Year
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Nineteen of mainland Africa's 48 countries suffered war, armed insurgencies, or violent civil unrest last year, pushing at least 1.8 million Africans from their homes during 2001, according to a new report by the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR).
At least 13.9 million people in Africa remained uprooted at the start of 2002 as a result of long-term violence and repression on the continent, says theWorld Refugee Survey 2002, an authoritative annual report published today by USCR. Massive new population displacement occurred in Africa last year despite peace negotiations in conflict-ridden countries such as Burundi, Congo-Kinshasa, Angola, Sierra Leone, and along the Ethiopia-Eritrea border.
"The overriding question at this moment in Africa's history is whether movement toward peace in the major conflict countries is real or merely artificial. Are peace negotiations now underway truly credible, or a cruel deception by combatants wedded to war?" said Jeff Drumtra, Africa policy analyst at USCR.
"To answer that question, don't look to the political leaders and diplomats who often have a vested interest in pretending peace is near. Look instead to the life-and-death decisions made day after day by Africa's millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, whose actions indicate that the continent remains volatile and that political progress in many places is superficial," Drumtra said.
Indicative of Africa's dilemma is Congo-Kinshasa, where a quarter-million people fled for their lives last year as warfare and pervasive human rights abuses terrorized the population despite a signed peace accord and agreements on a cease-fire and pullback of troops. More than three years of war have left some 2.3 million Congolese unable to return home. In Burundi, at least 100,000 people became newly uprooted by violence last year in the country's civil war despite peace negotiations that led to a power-sharing transitional government. Nearly a million Burundians are refugees or displaced as the country enters its ninth year of civil war.
Two-thirds of Africa's newly uprooted population originated in just four countries last year, according to the World Refugee Survey. Some 400,000 people temporarily fled their homes in the most populous African country, Nigeria, scene of religious, political, and ethnic violence. An estimated 350,000 residents became newly uprooted in Angola's ongoing civil war. At least a quarter-million people became new refugees or displaced persons in both Sudan and Congo-Kinshasa because of continued war in those two countries.
Two African conflicts appear close to genuine resolution. After ten years of warfare, violence in Sierra Leone subsided considerably last year, thanks in large measure to the presence of 20,000 UN peacekeeping troops and a British army contingent. More than 80,000 Sierra Leonean refugees have repatriated since early 2001. A bloody border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea is in the final stages of a negotiated settlement, opening the door for the eventual homecoming of up to 300,000 long-term Eritrean refugees from Sudan.
According to the World Refugee Survey 2002, the ten largest sources of uprooted people in Africa are: Sudan (4.4 million uprooted); Angola (at least 2.4 million); Congo-Kinshasa (2.3 million); Burundi (900,000); Sierra Leone (780,000); Somalia (700,000); Uganda (520,000); Eritrea (400,000); Liberia (300,000); and Kenya (200,000). Nearly half of all uprooted Africans originate from two countries--Sudan and Angola.
The World Refugee Survey 2002 contains reports on refugee situations in 38 African countries. The 290-page annual report reviews refugee conditions and government policies affecting refugees and displaced persons in 133 countries worldwide.
The U.S. Committee for Refugees is a nonprofit humanitarian organization that works for the protection and assistance of refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons around the world.