Forced displacement: Rebuilding lives

Leaving one’s life is not a choice

Armed people often turned up to shake us down and demand ransoms. After beating us up and taking our savings, they chased us out of our homes. For a while, we lived in our fields, but when they found out, they chased us through the fields with their motorbikes during the day, and at night they used torches to spot us, so we were forced to flee the village.
Mariama, Abala, Tillabéri region, Niger

People leave their homes to save themselves or their loved ones. In countries in the throes of armed conflicts, the logic of gaining power pushes belligerents to attack civilian populations, in violation of international humanitarian law. Assassinations, looting, mass rapes, mutilations and bombings are all carried out by armed groups and military troops seeking to establish their domination over the population. Fleeing one’s home and village is not an option. It is often the only option for survival in the face of an armed group.   

In the urgency of an attack, people flee without always being able to gather their families. People who are too old, ill or disabled are often unable to set off on foot. As a result, families are regularly separated, and there are reports of deaths and attacks on those who have been unable to escape.

People fleeing the fighting in their own towns or villages often have no way of taking anything with them. No personal belongings, no food, not even water. This abandonment of all their possessions, in the panic to leave, is a sign of the transition to an extremely precarious situation.

Escaping by road, a moment of great vulnerability

People heard the bangs of weapons, bombs, clashes between the M23 and the DRC Armed Forces. It was brutal. They fled towards Goma. 23 kilometres on foot to the entrance to Goma. No water, no food. They arrived tired and sick.
Séraphin Bwanakweli, Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programme coordinator in the Democratic Republic of Congo for SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL

It often happens that people spend their first night outside, not far from their home, after they have fled. In the bush, in the forest, in the fields. Given the continuing danger, decisions are made to seek refuge further away, but the journey to a shelter is a time of great vulnerability and exposure to serious threats for these people. Those who travel on foot are the most numerous, the most destitute and the most at risk. One has to be able to walk without stopping, sometimes for days on end, to escape the danger. People can move quickly and widely, sometimes in small groups, and often try to hide, which makes them difficult to reach for their attackers, but also for humanitarian aid. This is the case, for example, in north-western Myanmar, where people regularly have to flee bombardments on their villages to find refuge in the forest, or in Chad, where refugees from Sudan have arrived at 32 border points between the two countries. 

Not everyone makes it to the end of the journey. Sometimes one has to cross front lines, runs out of food and water in the first few kilometres, and there are plenty of bad encounters. Forced recruitment into armed groups, sexual abuse and all forms of exploitation and human trafficking increase due to the total lack of protection.

Finding dignified living conditions

I’d like people to help me so that the children can go to school. We really need to find a job. We work in the rubbish dumps to sort the rubbish. At the dumps they make fun of us by calling us names. It’s a tiring job that can make you sick in the long run. But when we don’t have the choice, or the means, we can‘t do otherwise.
Sago, Faladié camp, Bamako, Mali

Generally, people begin by taking refuge in public buildings, schools, health clinics, etc. Injured, thirsty, exhausted and traumatised, their physical condition is immediately critical. Shelters sprang up spontaneously, without any of the infrastructure needed to provide decent living conditions. The lack of water, latrines, sanitation and waste collection facilities creates conditions conducive to the development of water-borne diseases. The families live in complete destitution, as their flight has resulted in the loss of their means of subsistence: fields, livestock, shops and technical tools. Their relationships are cut off, their life plans are cut off, their projects are aborted, their studies are stopped with no hope of being resumed, these people – 40% of whom are children² – find themselves in a situation of total dependence. Then, they discover life in makeshift shelters (camps, public buildings, abandoned buildings, etc.) with all its attendant dependency, total lack of prospects and protection. Without rapid and consistent aid, the adoption of negative coping strategies, such as prostitution, begging, child labour or early or forced marriages, will have catastrophic consequences. In a world where protracted crises have become the norm, refugees can remain in this situation for decades. During this period of displacement, many people are forced to change their place of refuge several times. This is the case in Yemen, where many families had to move five or six times in ten years because of violence or lack of food and water. Each new displacement makes them even more vulnerable. They have to build a new shelter and find new points of reference as their means of adaptation dwindle.

Financing long-term aid for refugees

Forced and prolonged displacement is not only a humanitarian issue, but also an economic and development issue. When displacement lasts for several years, it is insufficient to provide aid that only allows survival. Displaced people are often excluded from national development programmes and plans when they are implemented. At the same time, host communities are sometimes unable to benefit from the emergency aid they might need, which can create tensions.

As long as refugees and internally displaced people are unable to move freely, have no access to the labour market, quality education and training, aid dependency and the cycle of poverty will continue for generations to come.

Displaced populations find themselves confronted with overlapping and growing risks linked to conflict, socio-economic fragility and climate change. These factors combine to generate an increase in humanitarian needs, making it more difficult to strengthen the resilience of those affected. To break this vicious circle, a coordinated approach to humanitarian action, development, peacebuilding and the fight against climate change is essential.

Yet official development assistance allocated to countries in the throes of long-term crises is declining. In certain contexts where groups take power without being elected, in a coup for example, donors suspend development fundings. These suspensions exacerbate the already precarious situation of displaced persons and host communities.

The countries most affected by climate change are also those where conflict-related displacements occur. As a result, the populations most in need of humanitarian aid are also those most affected by the consequences of climate change, even though they are least responsible for it.

t is therefore imperative that development and climate donors mobilise additional resources and direct them towards contexts in the grip of protracted crises by adapting their financing arrangements and identifying flexible, risk-adapted mechanisms in partnership with local and international players.

Showing solidarity and welcoming one’s neighbours

Here, we have welcomed at least four villages of displaced people. When they arrived, we did our best to welcome them. We showed them places to live, then gave them food and water to share.
Moussa, Tillabéri region, Niger

58% of people forcibly displaced by violence remain in their country of origin³. These people are known as internally displaced persons. Those who cross a border to seek refuge in another country are called refugees. Of these refugees, 69% are in a country neighbouring their country of origin⁴. In the far north of Cameroon, for example, displaced people find refuge in villages around 10km from their homes. Most are hosted by people from the same ethnic group or community. The host families share accommodation, meals, household goods and water with the displaced families.

Low and middle-income countries hosted 75% of the refugees in 2023. But their infrastructures cannot absorb more requests. Ultimately, natural solidarity movements can tend to erode when crises last. Lebanon, with its population of 5 million, saw the arrival of 1.5 million Syrian refugees, mainly in 2011/2012. The country was able to cope with this situation, but when the crisis hit in 2019, tensions between Syrian refugees and the Lebanese host communities increased sharply. Humanitarian assistance then adapted, targeting both refugees and members of the host communities.

Going back home

We pray to God that everything will go back to the way it was so that we can return to our respective villages. We want peace and unity for our country so that we can develop fully..
Hamadou found refuge in Gotheye, Tillabéri region, Niger

When we arrived in the village and saw the state of the house… of course we cried, it was so shocking.
Larysa, Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine

Returning to one’s home town is not always an option. Most farmland, property and houses are looted, burnt and destroyed, drastically reducing the hopes and possibilities of returning. Not to mention conflicts that drag on, as is happening more and more often, and the fear, disappointment and other feelings of disconnection with one’s country of origin. In Chad, for example, the majority of refugee households say they have no intention of returning to Sudan. Respecting this choice is a natural way of respecting people’s dignity.  

However, some people express a strong attachment to their place of origin and want to return home as soon as possible. This is what 6.1 million people who were forcibly displaced did in 2023⁵. But going back does not mean that the problems have been solved. In Ukraine, for example, the mined fields make it impossible to envisage a return to farming. The loss of livestock and the destruction of buildings and means of production are blocking any hope of a return to normal life.

Despite humanitarian support for displaced populations, the deep and lasting emotional, social, economic and cultural scars caused by displacement take years, even generations, to heal.