An estimated 300,000 to 350,000 people remained internally displaced within Ethiopia in late 2010. There were reported displacements related to violence and human rights violations in Gambella and Somali Regions in 2010.

Armed conflicts and localised episodes of violence have continued to cause displacement in various areas. In particular, government forces have continued to fight insurgency groups including the Ogaden National Liberation Front in Somali Region and the Oromo Liberation Front in the south of the country. In Somali region, the government has made peacemaking efforts in recent months, but fighting has continued.

In areas affected by displacement such as Somali, southern Oromiya and Gambella, food security, health, nutrition, and access to water were all of major concern to the humanitarian community in 2010.

Despite the serious humanitarian need in areas of displacement, the government has restricted the access to conflict areas of international humanitarian agencies and the media. The government has also introduced draconian laws that restrict activities of human rights organisations and humanitarian agencies, making it difficult for independent bodies to monitor and document violations of rights.

Despite the Algiers Peace Agreement and the decision of the Ethiopia-Eritrea Border Commission, there is a continuing impasse over the demarcation of the border between the two countries and the status of the town of Badme. This presents an ongoing serious risk of escalating tension and of renewed conflict that may have serious political and humanitarian consequences. 

The peace agreement led to the return and resettlement of IDPs in home areas and resettlement villages, but given the tension, the possibility of another displacement remains. Even though the government claims that everyone displaced as a result of the border war has returned or been resettled, it is likely that some have yet to achieve durable solutions, whatever their situation. Furthermore, there is very little information on the welfare of IDPs who may still be living with host communities.

Although important assistance has been provided, the uneasy relationship between the Government of Eritrea and UN agencies and international and local NGOs has undermined efforts to respond to the needs of IDPs.

The internal displacement crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is multifaceted, and despite apparent similarities, its causes, dynamics and perpetrators vary from context to context.  The country also faces both protracted and fresh displacement situations, sometimes in the same locations, meaning that internally displaced people (IDPs) have varying needs and face different challenges. Both national and international responses need to take this complexity into account if all IDPs are to achieve a durable solution to their displacement.

DRC is home to an estimated 2.7 million IDPs, making it one of the largest internal displacement crises in the world. Most have fled violence and human rights abuses committed by armed groups and the military, but inter-communal tensions and disputes over land and the control of natural resources have also caused displacement, as have natural hazards. Conflict and violence are concentrated in eastern DRC, as are the country’s IDPs. More than half live in the provinces of North and South Kivu, and the remainder in Orientale, Katanga, Maniema and Equateur.

Many IDPs, especially those in the two Kivu provinces, have been displaced more than once. Some may only be displaced for days or weeks, but others have been living in displacement for years

There were an estimated 1.7 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as of July 2011, the vast majority of them in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu. This included over 128,000 people newly displaced in the first quarter of 2011. Most fled their homes to escape fighting between rebel groups and the Congolese armed forces, while others were victims of direct attacks and violence perpetrated by the warring parties or by other armed individuals. The UN peacekeeping mission has provided some support to the army in its fight against rebel groups, and has led short operations too.

One million people were displaced during 2009, during major military operations against rebel groups in the Kivus and subsequent retaliatory attacks against civilians by these groups. Meanwhile, a million people reportedly returned home in 2009 and 2010. Displacement peaked in 2003, with an estimated 3.4 million people forced from their homes, most of them in the east of the country.

As national and international attention is focused on the presidential elections scheduled for the end of November 2011, the security situation in the eastern part of the country remains volatile due to the presence of foreign and local armed groups.

In 2011, non-state armed groups in the Kivus were able to retake old positions and cause renewed attacks against civilians, including the killing and rape of IDPs, as army units were removed from entire zones already prone to insecurity to be brought together for training before their redeployment, leaving their inhabitants without any protection. Due to heightened insecurity, the rate of return slowed down in mid-2011, compared to previous months.

A number of national and international organisations are attempting to meet the needs of IDPs and returnees. The scale of the international assistance has grown steadily, but has reportedly remained far from adequate to meet the magnitude of the needs. Humanitarian agencies have struggled to respond to the emergency needs of IDPs and other vulnerable people who are often in remote areas, in the context of ongoing military operations and increased attacks against their staff.

Côte d’Ivoire witnessed the world’s largest new internal displacement event of 2011 after contested presidential election results in 2010 sparked a violent conflict for political control. Serious rights abuses by supporters of both sides and armed clashes between them resulted in the internal displacement of up to a million people. Two years later, most of these internally displaced people (IDPs) have returned home to rebuild their lives. However, tens of thousands have still not found durable solutions to their displacement.

With no comprehensive monitoring process in place, it is not possible to determine how many of those displaced by the post-electoral violence, nor those displaced by earlier conflict, have achieved durable solutions. Insecurity and humanitarian needs are particularly pronounced in western and southwestern regions. Access to land remains a major impediment for returning IDPs there, and recurrent land disputes perpetuate displacement and fuel ethnic tensions. Other key challenges for IDPs seeking to rebuild their normal lives include food insecurity, limited access to shelter, education, and health services and sexual- and gender-based violence.

Chad’s security situation has improved and the country has become more politically stable since 2010, but it lies at the centre of a region troubled by various conflicts. It continues to suffer poverty, institutional weaknesses, underdevelopment and the regular impacts of natural hazards. Parts of the country are also affected by food insecurity across the wider Sahel region. In May 2014 the UN reported that 17 per cent of Chad’s population, including at least 500,000 children, were living in food insecurity (OCHA, May 2014). Epidemics cause nearly three-quarters of premature deaths, with malaria particularly rife (OCHA, May 2014).

These dynamics affect the country’s remaining 90,000 internally displaced people (IDPs), who were forced to flee their homes between 2006 and 2008 by conflict between government forces and armed opposition groups. The government no longer recognises them as IDPs, meaning that they receive no direct assistance. Their main protection concerns lie in the problems they experience in accessing housing, land and income generating opportunities. The same issues hamper their efforts to achieve durable solutions, as do unstable security conditions in their areas of origin, a lack of basic social services and the absence of water and sanitation infrastructure.

Chad also hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan and other neighbouring countries (OCHA, July 2013), and in recent years many Chadian migrants have returned from CAR, Nigeria and Libya, putting further pressure on the country’s already scarce resources.
 
The government should fulfil its responsibility to protect its displaced people and provide them with dignified living conditions (OCHA, November 2013). It should begin by acknowledging that people are still living as IDPs, and by recognising their specific needs related to their displacement (OHCHR, September 2012). 

As of June 2011, there were 131,000 IDPs living in 38 IDP camps in eastern Chad. The majority of them had limited access to livelihoods and continued to rely on protection and assistance from international humanitarian organisations. No new internal displacements were reported in 2010 or in the first five months of 2011.

After the withdrawal of UN peacekeeping troops in December 2010, the Chadian government took responsibility for the protection of civilians in conflict-affected areas. It normalised relations with the government of Sudan and established with Sudan a joint military force to patrol and monitor their shared border. The joint border force has been credited with improving security in some areas.

However, the UN Secretary-General has advised the Security Council to remain vigilant, as the capacity of the UN to monitor and report on attacks against civilians has been severely reduced after the withdrawal of UN troops.  Meanwhile, regional developments including the war in Libya, the deterioration of security in north-east CAR, and the ongoing conflict in Sudan could have a negative impact on security in Chad.

Since 2008, around 55,000 IDPs have returned to their villages of origin. UNHCR started facilitating returns in May 2011 and had conducted a total of 12 return convoys by early June. Chadian government representatives stated their commitment to create the necessary conditions for return, local integration, or settlement elsewhere in the country of IDPs, so that internal displacement could end by December 2011. Nonetheless, return is not yet a viable option for the majority of IDPs in eastern Chad, due to the fragile security conditions, the limited presence of local authorities, and the lack of basic social services in areas of return.

Approximately 30 per cent of IDPs are children between the ages of six and 12. Children in IDP camps have had limited access to primary education and no chance of further schooling. In 2010, the government made efforts to address the recruitment of children by the national army and continued to transfer children associated with returning rebel groups to UNICEF for reintegration and rehabilitation. However, all parties to conflict in eastern Chad have reportedly continued to recruit and use children. 

Internal displacement in the Central African Republic (CAR) has been driven over decades by coups, internal armed conflict, generalised violence, human rights violations and natural hazards. The government has an acute lack of authority. It is unable to provide even the most basic services in the country’s prefectures, and widespread impunity has allowed armed groups to proliferate. Though rich in natural resources, the country is chronically poor and ranks near to last each year on the UN Development Programme (UNDP)’s human development index.

As CAR moves towards the end of a political transition that will lead to the country’s first democratic elections since the March 2013 coup, insecurity and displacement are still rife and the situation in many areas of the country is unstable und unpredictable. Fighting between armed groups and human rights abuses including massacres, killings, looting and gender-based violence (GBV) are daily occurrences perpetrated by all parties to the conflict. 

Armed pastoralists and bandits known locally as coupeurs de route have also increasingly attacked civilians and forced people to flee their homes. In recent months, the insecurity and violence have centred on western and central areas of the country, where most of the new displacement reported since the beginning of 2015 has taken place.

In recognition of the continuing instability affecting the country, a national forum held in the capital Bangui in May 2015 recommended delaying the elections scheduled for August. At the time of writing, however, no new date had been set.

Internal displacement in the Central African Republic (CAR) has occurred intermittently as a result of coups, internal armed conflict, generalised violence, human rights violations and natural hazards. The state lacks authority and capacity to provide services in the provinces. A climate of widespread impunity has allowed armed groups to proliferate (IRIN, January 2012). Though rich in natural resources, CAR is chronically poor, ranked 180 out of 187 countries in the 2013 UNDP Human Development Index (UNDP, April 2014). 

The current displacement crisis started in December 2012 and worsened when an alliance of armed militias known as Séléka seized power in a coup in March 2013. Since then, some 20 per cent of the nation’s population has been displaced by conflict between various armed groups –  including self-defence militias called anti-Balaka –  retaliation attacks against civilians, human rights abuses and exactions perpetrated by both sides (ICG, n/d; OHCHR, September 2013; OHCHR, February 2014). As of 20 May 2014, 554,800 people still remained displaced within the country and 349,452 were refugees in neighbouring countries (CMP, May 2014; UNHCR, May 2014). 

Up to 100,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) were living in mid-2011 in settlements in the north and centre of Burundi. They had been displaced by inter-ethnic and intercommunal violence which broke out after a 1993 coup d’état and the fighting between government forces and rebel groups which followed.
 
The security situation improved after the last rebel group laid down its arms in 2008, and there has been no new conflict-induced displacement since then. The majority of people consulted in a comprehensive IDP survey by OCHA in 2005 declared that they felt well integrated into their current location and comfortable among their new neighbours, and expressed a wish to remain in the IDP settlements. While all IDP settlements in the south have officially been closed since 2005, few IDPs in the north and centre of the country are thought to have returned to their places of origin. The majority of them are ethnic Tutsi.

Like other poor Burundians, IDPs have struggled to access food and basic services. In addition to the many difficulties shared by the rest of the population of the fourth leastdeveloped country in the world, IDPs lack security of tenure in the settlements they live in, and many are far from the land on which they depend for survival. 

In March 2010, the government adopted a national strategy to reintegrate the people affected by the conflict. The strategy is to identify IDPs' settlement preferences, and accordingly either determine the feasibility of their return or work towards the formal recognition of their settlement. A technical group comprising national and international members was set up in October 2010 to guide the implementation of the national policy.