spotlight 3
The number of forcibly displaced people within the
Sahel has continued to grow. At the end of 2024,
approximately 3.8 million people remained forcibly
displaced across the Sahel. This is up by 379,100 or
11 per cent from the end of 2023 and is an increase
of 58 per cent from the 2.4 million reported at
end-2020 (see Figure 6). Over three quarters of
forcibly displaced people in the Sahel region were
internally displaced within their own country, with
nearly 2.1 million of them in Burkina Faso, 412,000 in
Niger and 361,000 in Mali at the end of 2024.
Seven in ten of the refugees and asylum-seekers
originating from the Sahel remain within the Sahel
and rely on support and solidarity from neighbouring
countries within the region. At the end of 2020, there
were 215,400 refugees and asylum-seekers
originating from the Sahel who were still living in the
Sahel. This had reached 642,700 by the end of 2024,
around a three-fold increase.
During 2024, 171,000 Burkinabe, 95,100 Malians
and 34,000 Nigeriens were recognized as refugees
or lodged new asylum applications mostly in Mali,
Mauritania, Togo, Niger and Côte d’Ivoire (see
figure 7). At least 1 in 8 of the forcibly displaced
people in the region reported having been
displaced multiple times. 91
While most of the forcibly displaced people remain
within the Sahel region, the number of people
fleeing beyond the region is also increasing, as the
situation in the Central Sahel has deteriorated.
Worldwide, there were 708,300 refugees and
asylum-seekers from the three countries in the
Central Sahel at the end of 2024, three-times more
than at the end of 2020 (219,500).
Figure 7 | Movements of refugees and asylum-seekers from the Central Sahel to countries of asylum
| 2024
Mali 67,100
Burkina Faso 171,000
Mauritania 43,600
Togo 42,600
Niger 35,700
Mali 95,100
Côte d’Ivoire 33,300
Nigeria 23,400
Italy 14,400
Niger 34,000
Benin 13,200
Spain 1,100
France 3,600
Other 12,300
91 See Project 21 for more details and the microdata is accessible in the UNHCR Microdata Library.
UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2024
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