Sad story of internally displaced persons in Africa

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African continent has been a hotbed of crisis and confusion in the last 96 hours. The media is awash with daily reportage of incidents that have led to massive displacement of citizens from their ancestral homes. The number of displaced people in Africa has risen from 13.3 million in 2011 to alarming 25.8 million in April 2019. Millions of people fleeing some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable states not only fuels enormous humanitarian crises, but also prevents development in regions such as the Great Lakes, the Horn of Africa and the Sahel.


Official reports published by Ethiopian government on Tuesday showed that an estimated 995,559 individuals were displaced by inter-communal clashes across the Gedeo and West Guji parts of the country in February and March. On Wednesday, human rights watch published statistics which showed that Congo has never before seen more displaced people as over four million have been displaced, with another 826,000 Congolese refugees in Africa. In Nigeria, the displaced population tracked by DTM put the figure of the displaced persons in Nigeria at 1,948,349.


These alarming figures fluently explain the vulnerability and helplessness of the IDPs in Africa and typifies the miseries of numerous African citizens who have been displaced due to one crisis or another. Insecurity continues to impede access and the delivery of assistance as armed men continue to prey on civilians, carrying out massacres, mass rapes, abductions, forced recruitment of children, and burning and looting of homes. The underlying tensions have not been addressed, and perpetrators remain at large.


Indeed, crisis is not strange to the continent as it has been going from crisis to another for decades. The continent’s multifarious ethnic groups have always resided somewhat apprehensively together, and there have been horrible eruption of hostility in the past. African states have borne the brunt of a dramatic upsurge of ethnic militias. It is this series of conflict that led to the outbreak of humanitarian crisis in the continent with many displaced from their homes. The conflict has dealt devastating blows on the inhabitants of the hitherto peaceful continent. From Nigeria to Eritrea, families have lost homes; livelihoods have been destroyed, loved ones have passed on, hopes have been shattered and dreams have been quashed.


Many communities in the Central African Republic have lost businesses, jobs and services. Schools have been shut down indefinitely in South Sudan, countless herds and farming hamlets have been taken over or destroyed in Darfur while numerous girls have been placed at the risk of early marriage in Congo. In due course, conflict has totally invalidated Somalia’s efforts on poverty reduction of yester-years. In Ethiopia, two-thirds of the workforce is already jobless, while more than half the population is living in abject poverty. All agriculture, manufacturing activities have been brought to a screeching halt, and by the time the ongoing crisis ends, many parts of the region will be lying in a smoldering pile of ruins.


As a result, the continent is faced with the ongoing challenge of responding to fluctuating but huge internally displaced persons. The concern, however, is that various governments across the continent appear not to be doing enough to cater for their displaced population. While the fortunate ones among them are able to take shelter with family or friends; others are not that fortunate as they are forced to congregate in camps where they hope to find safety, food and shelter. Worse still, others hide in the forests, jungles and other inhospitable terrain, too fearful to seek assistance of any kind. In Africa, the only consolation the displaced persons had left is the fact that they survived and escaped from the terrorists’ who had flooded their ancestral homes. Aside that, every day livelihood for them has been full of awful experience.


In all the cacophony, essential security implications are being overlooked. In his study of the social problem of lethal violence by young people in the United States, Ronald Kramer in his book, “Poverty, Inequality and Youth Violence” concludes that wider social and economic forces such as “poverty, inequality and social exclusion” shape most of the problem of youth violence in America. It is amazing how African governments can have these large numbers of extremely poor, unemployed but able young citizens in its patch and remain complacent.


Paul Brooks in his article, “Captured, Criminal and Contests States: Organised Crime and Africa in 21st Century” also submitted that whether carrying arm or supplying it, whether snatching diamonds from someone’s neck or trafficking in endangered species, ‘all is a result of the contrast between the extremes of wealth and the extremes of poverty.’


A potential twist the plight of displaced persons across the continent can generate is the upsurge in illegal activities.


First, many of the displaced people are still nimble and are within the age bracket of nineteen and forty years old, their daily experience of poverty presents the ideal cover for criminal activities. Second, it has been confirmed by Ayodeji Olukoju in his masterpiece, “Never Expect Power Always: Electricity consumers response to monopoly, corruption and inefficient services in Nigeria” that the: ‘unemployed artisans, particularly welders and panel beaters, constitute a reservoir from which criminal gangs have been recruiting personnel’ in Nigeria. And since many of the displaced persons’ crafts fall within this ambit, African states might be sitting on a time bomb if urgent attention is not paid to the displaced persons plight.


In Nigeria, it is not too late in the day for the government to rise up to the task of preventing the imminent insecurity quagmire by taking adequate care of displaced persons. It is high time government recognized the link between welfare and security. The more people government put in jobs, the less security problems it has. Sadly, government erroneously believes that security is about procurement of more guns, war jets, and that expending these collections is how to solve the problems.


How to solve the problem is to follow what the constitution articulates: cater for the common good of the people. Put more people into jobs: give more people houses, let them have an unfettered access to free and qualitative education and let them be able to afford sound healthcare facility. When the government does that, there will be less people who will want to take to crime. There are criminals everywhere in the world but when there is a social system that provides for the people, when there is a state that cares about citizens welfare, then there will be no need to bother about crimes because there will be fewer people to deal with.


Among other agencies of the government, the welfare of the displace citizens is a direct responsibility of NEMA. It was established through Act 12 with amendments of Act 50 of 1999 to alleviate the predicament of those who fall victims of natural or other disasters. Indeed, credit should be given to NEMA because out of all the agencies of the government, it has remained the only active. Sadly, due to large number of the displaced people when compared with paltry supplies at its disposal, NEMA has been overwhelmed by the huge numbers of the displaced persons who increase in leaps and bounds on a daily basis. Government should come to their rescue by providing enough funds to this agency as it will go a long way in ameliorating the suffering of the displaced Nigerians.


The challenge of the displaced persons is everybody’s challenge. The spread of airborne disease from one person to another can spawn from the kind of slums the displaced persons are living. Aside the fact that the environment is unhygienic for humans; they are exposed to high level of insecurity. Government should come to their aid by providing sanctuary, food, water, clothes and jobs for the inhabitants of the camps. Even if the erected facility would not be permanent; movable accommodation could suffice. It is the government’s sense of duty to obliterate the legitimate reservations of the host communities and ease the hassle they are going through by providing adequate security for the communities.


In all, the recent elections in Nigeria and Congo showed that African politicians are the same as both the Nigerian and Congolese politicians, who had hitherto adopted policies of illogical neglect towards the displaced persons in the past, were seen gallivanting and luxuriating round the camps, saying nothing of importance; yet, chewing the same old issues on the same weary gums. In their usual characteristics, it was evident that as the general elections approached, there would be no occasion that would be too dissolute, too pious, and too sensitive for these political actors to claw at in the attempt to redeem their past acts of carelessness. As customary, they embarked on photo-op with the displaced persons to misinform the world that they share the pain of the displaced ones, while immediately after the election, they quickly departed from the congregation, back to their world of affluence; forgetting every promise they had made to the displaced persons.


These African politicians labour under the illusion that their private affairs can survive the downfall of the continent. They failed to realise the fact that no one can be safe in the midst of violence because the poverty of the generality of the society is a threat to the wealth and safety of a few. It is high time African politicians, irrespective of party affiliation, changed their way. Should they refuse to listen to the voice of reason, they should also not expect their crowded numbers of jobless youth to listen when they eventually felt pushed to the wall. Once the situation continues in this miserable manner, the young people may soon form the impression that their appeal to reason has failed and might decide to take their destinies into their own hands. We need not wait till it comes to us; we have the bigger task to educate ourselves ahead.


In conclusion, it is the monumental failure of the various governments across Africa that provided sympathetic conditions for mass recruitment of youth and poor by armed men and notorious elements. Even if these notorious elements are routed, as long as all the contradictions of the estrangement of the victims of crisis, the displaced persons, remains, there is always the possibility that vicious agitation may explode elsewhere in Africa, particularly in the sub Saharan part of the continent. Therefore, the need to put the blame where it belongs is obvious. For in heaping the entire blame on the notorious members of the resident population, one may be missing the forest for the trees. The ultimate blame should be sent to the doorstep of the African governments whose lack of functioning policies encourage lawlessness and criminality across the continent. The dilemma is less malefaction than institutional breakdown. Finally, the plights of these displaced persons, who have come to accept the anomaly as the norm in the spirit of expediency, require pressing attention.


Stephen Adewale is a fellow of the American Council of Learned Society and currently serves as the Director of Africa Dialogue Mission, Abuja, Nigeria


THE VIEWS OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE KAFTAN POST EDITORIAL TEAM























































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