Open Session on Refugees, IDPs and Humanitarian Assistance in Africa

Date | 1 June 2026

Tomorrow (2 June), the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) is scheduled to convene an open session on refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and humanitarian assistance in Africa.

The session will commence with opening remarks by Nasir Aminu, Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the African Union (AU) and stand-in Chairperson of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) for June 2026. This will be followed by an introductory statement by Bankole Adeoye, AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security. The Council will then receive presentations from Amma Adomaa Twum-Amoah, AU Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development (HHS), and Churchill Ewumbue-Monono, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Cameroon to the AU and Chairperson of the Permanent Representatives’ Committee (PRC) Sub-Committee on Refugees, Returnees, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Migration. The session will also feature briefings from representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the World Food Programme (WFP), who are expected to provide updates on the humanitarian situation across the continent and ongoing response efforts.

The session is being convened within the framework of the PSC’s annual indicative program of work. It is often scheduled to coincide with World Refugee Day, which is marked on 20 June, in accordance with the UN General Assembly Resolution 55/76/2001. The last time the PSC convened a session to examine the humanitarian situation in Africa was during its 1307^th session on 23 October 2025, when it received a briefing from the ICRC on its activities across the continent. The session takes place at a time when the continent is confronting the combined effects of armed conflict, forced displacement, food insecurity, public health emergencies, and shrinking humanitarian financing. More than 160 million people across Africa require humanitarian assistance, while approximately 45 million people have been forcibly displaced. Despite these growing needs, only about 26.7 per cent of the required humanitarian funding has been mobilised. The session is therefore expected to address both immediate humanitarian challenges and the longer-term question of how Africa can develop more sustainable and self-reliant response mechanisms.

A major issue likely to feature during the session is the continued escalation of forced displacement across Africa. Displacement figures for 2025 reveal both the scale and complexity of the challenge. Internal displacement remains the dominant form of forced displacement, with Sudan hosting more than 9 million IDPs, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Nigeria, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Burkina Faso. Refugee flows similarly reflect the regionalisation of conflicts, with Sudan generating more than 2 million refugees and South Sudan accounting for approximately 2.3 million refugees despite having fewer than one million IDPs. The DRC and Somalia also continue to generate large refugee populations, highlighting the persistence of protracted crises compounded by climate change that extend beyond national borders.

Longer-term trends demonstrate that displacement in Africa is becoming increasingly entrenched. Between 2010 and 2025, the number of refugees on the continent increased from 2.9 million to 10.6 million, while the number of IDPs rose from 9.8 million to more than 29 million. Although IDP numbers declined slightly between 2024 and 2025, the overall trajectory points to a continent experiencing unprecedented levels of forced displacement. These trends suggest that displacement is increasingly becoming a long-term challenge requiring solutions that extend beyond emergency humanitarian assistance.

It is clear from the trends these figures represent that Africa needs to adopt both mitigation measures geared towards addressing the immediate needs and risks associated with displacement and resolution measures seeking to address the conditions that induce and sustain displacement. Considering that conflicts and political and security crises account for much of the displacement on the continent, it is of paramount significance in this respect that the AU and its member states restore their grip on the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts on the continent as a critical measure for reversing the current worrying trend of year-on-year increase in displacement on the continent.

Within the framework of the foregoing, it is necessary that policy measures are tailored to the specific dynamics of each conflict situation. In this respect, Sudan may need to receive particular attention in the Council’s discussions. As the conflict enters its fourth year, Sudan has become the world’s largest humanitarian and displacement crisis. More than 33 million people require humanitarian assistance, while nearly 12 million people have been displaced internally and across borders. The crisis has also generated severe food insecurity, with more than 19 million people facing acute hunger and famine conditions already confirmed in some areas. The collapse of health services in conflict-affected regions has further contributed to outbreaks of cholera, malaria, dengue fever, and other diseases.

Alongside and central to addressing conflicts as sources of displacement, the session may also engage with the increasingly developmental nature of displacement. Refugees and IDPs often remain displaced for years, which in itself affects development trends both in origin and host countries. Countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia, and Chad continue to shoulder significant responsibilities despite limited resources. This reality has strengthened calls for implementing the humanitarian-development-peace nexus and moving beyond approaches that focus exclusively on short-term humanitarian relief. In this regard, tomorrow’s session provides the opportunity to explore measures to reduce aid dependency and address the structural drivers of displacement, including conflict, governance challenges, and climate-related vulnerabilities.

In view of recent developments, the session may also examine the growing intersection between public health emergencies, conflict, and displacement. Recent outbreaks, including Ebola affecting parts of the DRC, have highlighted the challenges of responding to health emergencies in environments characterised by insecurity, displacement, and weak health systems. Ongoing violence in affected areas has disrupted healthcare delivery, restricted humanitarian access, and undermined response efforts. Such situations illustrate how humanitarian crises increasingly overlap and reinforce one another, creating complex emergencies that are more difficult and costly to address.

Another major issue expected to feature prominently is the deepening humanitarian financing crisis. Humanitarian organisations increasingly warn that funding shortfalls are no longer simply operational constraints but are becoming drivers of instability in their own right. Reduced funding is affecting food assistance, shelter, protection services, and support for host communities. UNHCR has cautioned that funding reductions threaten essential services for vulnerable groups, including refugee women and girls, while also undermining prospects for durable solutions and voluntary returns. Humanitarian support often functions as a stabilising factor in fragile contexts, and reductions in aid can exacerbate grievances and desperation among affected populations. The broader financing landscape remains equally concerning.

These developments may strengthen calls within the PSC for accelerating the development of African-owned financing mechanisms. The session may provide an opportunity for the Council to revisit discussions on innovative financing, greater domestic resource mobilisation, and reducing dependence on increasingly uncertain external funding sources.

With regards to new developments, the launch of the African Humanitarian Coordination Platform in May 2026, following a continental engagement in Seychelles, is expected to feature during the session. The platform adopted a 2026–2027 Joint Implementation Plan focused on humanitarian diplomacy, localisation, financing, accountability, and resource mobilisation. Its establishment aims to address longstanding coordination gaps within Africa’s humanitarian architecture and translate previous AU humanitarian commitments into more operational mechanisms. The PSC may therefore use tomorrow’s session to reinforce political backing for the platform and encourage regular reporting on implementation progress.

Tomorrow’s session is also expected to revisit several decisions from previous sessions. Among the most significant is the operationalisation of the African Humanitarian Agency (AfHA), which is expected to become operational in 2026 and be headquartered in Uganda. While the establishment of AfHA represents a major institutional step in strengthening Africa’s humanitarian architecture, important questions remain regarding timelines, benchmarks, and sustainable financing arrangements. Another significant previous decision that requires the attention of the Council is its request to the AU Commission to undertake a comprehensive study, identifying the financial shortfalls and making concrete and practicable proposals on how to address the financial challenges for meeting Africa’s humanitarian needs.

The expected outcome of the session is a communiqué. The PSC is expected to express deep concern over the worsening humanitarian situation across the continent, characterised by increasing forced displacement, food insecurity, public health emergencies, and shrinking humanitarian financing. The Council is also expected to make a call on Member States, Regional Economic Communities/Regional Mechanisms (RECs/RMs), international partners, and humanitarian actors to strengthen coordinated responses to humanitarian emergencies across the continent. The PSC may further express serious concern over the deepening humanitarian financing shortfall and its direct implications for the delivery of life-saving assistance, including food security, health services, and protection programs, and may request the AU Commission to expedite the previously mandated study on humanitarian financing and present concrete proposals for sustainable and predictable funding mechanisms. In this regard, the Council may call for increased contributions to existing African instruments such as the Special Emergency Assistance Fund (SEAF) and the Africa Risk Capacity (ARC), while also urging the development of innovative and African-owned financing solutions, including stronger engagement with domestic resource mobilisation and non-traditional sources, including through establishing a strategy for private sector partnership. The Council may further emphasise the importance of strengthening Africa’s institutional humanitarian architecture, including by calling for the fast-tracked operationalisation and sustainable financing of the African Humanitarian Agency (AfHA), and by expressing support for the African Humanitarian Coordination Platform and its 2026–2027 Joint Implementation Plan. Lastly, the PSC may reiterate the need to embed the humanitarian-development-peace nexus in all responses to protracted displacement and recurrent crises and stress the need to address the root causes of displacement, particularly conflict and political instability, while strengthening African-led mechanisms capable of responding to increasingly interconnected crises.