According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), about 12.7 million forcibly displaced and stateless people are in West and Central Africa.
Abdurof Ganon-cond, director of the regional bureau of UNHCR for West and Central Africa, said, “From conflict to climate shock, security risks are especially increasing for women and children, representing 80% to be forcibly displaced,” said UNHCR’s Regional Bureau Director Abdurof Ganon-Kadd for West and Central Africa. Gnon-cond said that the United Nations data showed that the displaced people are “returning home in increasing numbers where the conditions allow.”
Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Cameroon are houses of about 80% of individual (IDPs) internally in the region. Drowht, floods, and chronic violence and insecurity have forced people to take shelter in other areas in their countries.
For the United Nations, more than 194,200 internal displaced persons returned to their homes in Mali from April to January 2025 and 64.700 in the Central African Republic
United Nations sponsored voluntary withdrawal
Chad is providing shelter to around 780,000 people, who have escaped from Sudan’s civil war, expected to come by the end of another 250,000 years. The country hosts a large number of refugees from the Central African Republic of South and Niger to a large number of refugees. Each group of displaced people face unique threats, and Chad is struggling to host them all.
The United Nations is sponsoring voluntary returns in native countries within West Africa. Eleven thousand refugees returned from January to April 2025 in countries such as Nigeria, Central African Republic and Mali.
“The human crisis, first, is the political crisis,” Alfa Seedi BA, Dakar, an UNHCR spokesman located in Senegal told DW. “Unses we are able to create peace, there will be no situation where returns are possible.”
The BA said that the repatriation was also done on and wherever possible and on voluntary basis. As a result, the UNHCR states that rehabilitation departure increased by 34% in 2024 (4,000 persons).
“I think it’s always good news when people are able to go back home,” BA said. “Exile, this is not an option. Having a refugee is not an option when someone leaves his home and everything behind.”
“We are returning and rebuilding them,” said Baa. “I think it is one of the best things that can occur in a human person in his career.”
‘Migrants become beaches’
Although the repatriation efforts have achieved some positive results, the United Nations Rehabilitation Quota has been reduced by 64% in 2025. To complicate cases, the regional budget of UNHCR has been reduced by 50% 2024 and 2025 overall.
“Our operations are very severely affected,” BA said. “Meaning low food, low shelter, low health care, low clean water, low penis-based security, which makes overall security systems or displaced people,” BA said. “That is why UNHCR is at a tipping point in the region.”
“The number of migrants, it is increasing internal displaced people or migrants,” Luisa de Freetas, who leads the regional data hub in Dakar for International Migration (IOM), told DW. “As long as we, overall, more and more people are on movies.”
Although many people go abroad due to climate disasters, armed conflict or instability, IOM reports that economic needs are a major driver of migration.
“More than 70% to 72% of the individuals we surveys at our flow monitoring points in 2024 were here for labor or economic reasons,” said D Freetas.
D Freetas said that the migration routes became rapidly dangerous as the European Union countries and their colleagues within Africa have wiped out to prevent the flow of migration in Europe. However, it has not determined the migrants by trying to do so.
“People walk when they feel that they have no other option,” said D Freetas. “They will take the routes that are doing less and less traveling.
New strategies need
Just removing obstacles or forcibly removing migrants is not a solution. Instead, D Freetas advised European countries to adopt a separate approach, which promotes and promotes regular migration by benefiting both homes and destinations.
“Spain has just initiated two initiatives: one per year to regularize migrants, and they launched the system where Senegal applied to go to Spain for a temporary travel visa,” said D Freetas. He said that many European Union countries are in dire need of workers in areas like agriculture.
“Circular migration Providing migrants with access to employment and education opportunities, allows migration on a temporary basis to overcome labor shortage in destination countries.
“Originally, try to make the migration a win-win situation for both ends,” said de Freetas.
Edited by: chrispin mwakideu
