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API-Africa

On September 18, 2019, regional ministers in charge of the refugee docket gathered in Addis Ababa for the IGAD 2nd Ministerial Stocktaking Meeting, in a bid to take stock of the progress made in actualising the ideals of the Nairobi Declaration and Plan of Action.

With IGAD Member States hosting 12 million forcibly displaced people ‘collectively’, about 70 per cent of Africa’s refugees, Perhaps, the idea of transforming refugees into “regional citizens” as the solution for refugee crises in the Horn of Africa will help shape the future path of regional response to displacement impacts.

A west African model that allows refugees to become migrants has inspired the idea of “regional citizenship” as the solution for refugee crises in the Horn of Africa. Collectively, the Member States of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) – Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda – host 12 million, while one out

of every five of all refugees worldwide will be in the region by 2020. In a search for local durable solutions to a ballooning displacement crisis two years ago, regional leaders adopted the Nairobi Declaration on refugees and returnees, made in March 2017. With the asylum space shrinking as a result of intolerance, closing of borders, forced return of refugees and reduced opportunities for resettlements, Igad has provided a regional model of hospitality to refugees. On September 18, 2019, regional ministers in charge of the refugee docket gathered in Addis Ababa to take stock of the progress made in actualising the ideals of the Nairobi Declaration.

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