NAIROBI: Conflict, violence or disasters in Africa have displaced 2.7 million people who have not crossed an international border since January, a new report by a global charity released on Wednesday shows. The report by Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) reveals that 15,000 people are displaced every day inside African countries. The charity said some 997,000 new internal displacements due to conflict recorded in the first half of 2017, were reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), more than in the whole of 2016, and 206,000 in the Central African Republic, four times the figure for the previous year. “Behind the numbers lie the blighted lives of people forced to leave their homes, often at a moment’s notice and in the most traumatic of circumstances, and receiving little protection and assistance from their governments,” says the report. The IDMC report calls on the development sector to join humanitarians in preventing and reducing internal displacement and finding long-term solutions for the millions of people affected. “As the world focuses its attention on preventing irregular migration and protecting refugees coming out of Africa, the displacement that happens behind its own borders persists at an alarming rate,” the charity said. IDMC’s director Alexandra Bilak said this dire and worsening situation demands a new approach that goes beyond humanitarian action to address the causes and long-term implications of internal displacement. “Every case is much more than a personal tragedy; displacement threatens to undermine the achievement of Africa’s broader development objectives,” said Bilak. He said the national actors and development agencies need to ensure that emergency responses are complemented by prevention and longer-term support. “In countries with high numbers of people living in protracted displacement, focusing on helping them rebuild their lives will allow progress toward many of the global Sustainable Development Goals,” Bilak said. The report said the majority of IDPs are in countries with low coping capacity and weak governance, live in conditions of extreme vulnerability, and are often at risk of further upheaval and long-term impoverishment. This, the charity said, is the case for many of the 12.6 million Africans living in displacement as of the end of 2016. The report said conflict caused 75 percent of Africa’s new displacement in the first half of 2017, and 70 percent in 2016. DRC, Nigeria and South Sudan are regularly among the five countries worst affected. East Africa, where displacement is often driven by protracted and cyclical conflicts such as those in Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan, bears the brunt of the crisis in regional terms. “To reverse this trend, we must focus on preventing and reducing the risk of new displacement and this can only happen by taking early action on conflict prevention and peace-building, and overall economic and political development,” Bilak said. Published in Daily Times, December 7th 2017.