Thirty-year old Bulley Hassanow Alliyow, right, gives water to her child at Tawkal 2 Dinsoor camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Baidoa, Somalia, on February 14, 2022. Drought, locust invasions, Covid-19, civil unrest and wars have caused millions of Africans to flee their homes over decades. An alarming more than sixteen million people have been internally displaced, the writer says. – Picture: Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP
By Kim Heller
The haunting lyrics of ‘Scatterlings of Africa’, written by South African songwriter and singer, Johnny Clegg, in 1982, captured the cruel uprooting of black South Africans under apartheid. He sang, “Beneath a copper sky. And we are the scatterlings of Africa. On a journey to the stars. Far below, we leave forever. Dreams of what we were.”
Today, this song could well be the gloomy underscore to the devastating displacement that is the typography of current day Africa. The sheer scale of displacement is alarming. There are over sixteen million internally displaced people.
The Sahel, Central Africa, and Horn of Africa are the most impacted regions in the Continent. Millions of Africans have been forced to flee their homes, in a maelstrom of war, civil unrest and indigence. Women and children, in particular, are suffering.
Reflecting on the crisis, the African Union’s Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security, Bineta Diop, has remarked that the consequences of displacement are more calamitous for women and girls as they who are more vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse, and financial distress.
In war-torn eastern DRC, there appears to be no end to the conflict. Displacement and devastation in the DRC are at dangerously elevated levels. Unicef estimates that there are approximately five million internally displaced people, of which 2.8 million are children.
A recent survey conducted among displaced people in four camps in the DRC exposed how physical, sexual, and psychological violence were rife. The survey, conducted by MSF, an independent global network of medical professionals, in April 2024, found that over 4 percent of teenage girls and 10 percent of adult women, aged between twenty and forty-four years of age had been subjected to sexual violence.
The MSF has called on authorities in the DRC to not only safeguard camps for displaced people but provide special shelters and protection for victims and survivors of sexual violence to shield them from further violence.
In June 2024, famous actor and Unicef Goodwill Ambassador, Orlando Bloom, visited the DRC. Bloom spoke of the staggering scale of conflict, horrendous violence and the devastating impact on women and children.
“No child should live in the dire conditions I witnessed in displacement camps, separated from their families, hungry, unable to go to school, and constantly at risk of sexual abuse, violence, and exploitation.”
Bloom spoke of the everyday hardships of women and children in DRC’s displacement camps, of the inadequacy of response to the crisis and of the failure to ensure the safety and dignity of women and children.
Over in Sudan, the situation is equally disturbing. In an interview with UN Women, gender activist, and executive director of Nada El, Shadar Azhar, highlighted how women and children have been uniquely hard hit by the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces.
Ahmed points out how over 6.7 million people are at risk of gender-based violence. She also reported that more than 7,000 new mothers are at death’s door due to inadequate food and failing health. Azhar has decried the lack of protection afforded to displaced women and children caught in the scourge of conflict-related sexual violence.
As war continues to rage across the Continent, it looks as if internal displacement is not going to ease any time soon. Forced displacement and its inhumane outcomes, especially for the most vulnerable in these war-torn societies, needs urgently address and remedy. It is easier said than done in many conflict-battered African countries. Climate change and natural disasters have exacerbated the problem.
Emergency solutions to protect this ever-growing population of displaced people must include, at the very least, shelter and sustenance as well as full time protection from abuse, attack, and rape. This requires serious and significant intervention and commitment from governments.
But this is not forthcoming due to ongoing conflicts and rivalries. Local and international humanitarian organisations are not fully capacitated as funding has shrunk significantly. Furthermore, warring parties often block relief efforts.
In a recent interview showcasing the work of the AU, Bineta Diop spoke of how the organisation is mobilising humanitarian assistance to help bring relief to those caught in the violent cycle of forced displacement.
She also stressed that the AU is focused on addressing the root causes of forced displacement and migration, in order to find sustainable solutions. This includes several joint AU-UN initiatives and programme.
Diop said, “As part of the activities to give the issues more visibility and attention, in March this year, the Office of the Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security collaborated with the Department for Political Affairs, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other stakeholders in organising an Open Session of the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) on the Role of Refugee and Displaced Women in Peace-Building.
The meeting underscored the need for the development of Guidelines, which would support the inclusion and mainstreaming of the rights of refugee women and displaced persons in the AU Peace and Security Architecture.”
Despite all these efforts, the daily turmoil of displaced women and children remains grave. Internally displaced people are trapped in a tempest of turbulence. Homeless and helpless, they are on a journey to nowhere. Unprotected and exposed to both natural and wicked elements, they are perpetually susceptible to attack and hardship, physically and psychologically.
The AU’s Bineta Diop has observed that to rebuild a psychologically broken person is not as easy as rebuilding infrastructure. She has said “Scars remain for life and affect future generations as women are the nurturers of the young.”
Diop has spoken of forced displacement as “the worst kind of people’s movement” for it is more than just losing a home – it disrupts and dislodges one’s dreams, plans and identity. She speaks of how forced displacement is a dreadful journey for women and children who move with hopelessness and fear across hostile and unfamiliar places.
In his song, ‘Scatterlings of Africa,’ Clegg wrote of “dreams dying as the copper sun sinks low.” Such is the lived reality and fate of the displaced women and children of Africa.
* Kim Heller is a political analyst and author of ‘No White Lies: Black Politics and White Power in South Africa’. This article was written exclusively for The African. To republish, see terms and conditions.
** The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of The African
