Overview

As of the end of July 2022, Southern Africa hosts around 8.6 million persons of concern (PoCs) to UNHCR. This includes 1.1 million refugees and asylum-seekers, 6.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), 526,000 IDP returnees, as well as others of concern and refugee returnees. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) represents 77 per cent of the total number of PoCs in the region.

Refugees, Asylum-Seekers and Others of Concern

The region hosts 786,000 refugees, 281,000 asylum-seekers and 36,000 others of concern, 1.1 million in total.

Compared to the end of 2021, total of 1.1 million refugees, asylum-seekers and others of concern, the number has been stable showing the decrease of 0.5 per cent only.

The number of refugees has increased for 0.3 per cent, while the number of asylum-seekers and others of concern have decreased for 2.8 and 0.4 per cent, respectively.

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)

In Southern Africa, there are 6.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), presenting a rise for 0.9 per cent from 31 December 2021, and 526,000 IDP returnees. Most IDPs are conflict-induced, 6.4 million, but there are also natural disaster-induced IDPs, 0.5 million. In addition, the number of conflictinduced IDPs in Mozambique has grown continuously; currently the number of IDPs by conflict is 947,000 compared to 745,000 as of the end of last year, which is an increase of 27.1 per cent

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees