Conflict and the refugee experience ; Flight, exile and repatriation in the Horn of Africa

Abstract

Population migration is one of the most serious threats to peace, security, and the sovereignty of nations in the post-Cold War era. A particularly volatile form of this threat is the global refugee crisis, and nowhere has this problem been more severe and persistent than in the Horn of Africa. While attention today focuses on West Africa and the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, conflicts between and within nations have caused similar movements in the Horn of Africa for about four decades. Huge numbers of people have suffered dislocation. Some have been, internally displaced, and others have crossed international borders to seek asylum in neighboring countries. Governments have manipulated these movements out of concern for national security, undermining the security of other states, and the resulting diffusion of conflicts has invited intervention by powers from outside the region. Despite the seriousness of this problem however, the Horn of Africa has not attracted the...