spotlight 3 Sahel 64K Other countries (end-2024) 158K Refugees & asylum-seekers in these three countries Mauritania 66K Côte d'Ivoire s e Refuge 40K Togo 29K Italy 320K 16K Benin 361K Mali ers m-seek ylu and As 52K IDP returnees 15K Nigeria 507K Niger 2.1M IDPs Burkina Faso 3K Returned refugees in these three countries For more information, see the UNHCR situation on Sahel SPOTLIGHT 3 + Spotlight 3: the Sahel Forced displacement within and from the region The Sahel region stretches across the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, from the Atlantic Ocean in the West to the Red Sea in the East. When referring to forced displacement within the Sahel region in this report, UNHCR includes countries in the “Sahel Plus”, which comprises Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in the Central Sahel and neighbouring countries affected by forced displacement from the Central Sahel. These include Mauritania and the Gulf of Guinea countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Togo and Ghana. Figure 6 | Number of refugees, asylum-seekers and IDPs in the Sahel | 2020-2024 (end-year) 4M Number of people 3M 2M 1M 0M 24 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Refugees and asylum-seekers from non-Sahel countries Refugees and asylum-seekers from Mali IDPs in Niger Refugees and asylum-seekers from other Sahel countries Refugees and asylum-seekers from Burkina Faso IDPs in Mali Refugees and asylum-seekers from Niger IDPs in other Sahel countries IDPs in Burkina Faso UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2024