International Conference 2026

Violence and displacement dot the African landscape, and this has been a recurrent issue on the continent since the early independence years. Since the turn of the new Millennium in 2000, African and global leaders have shown considerable commitment to ensuring African development. Still, these efforts are being upended by a wanton rate of violence, leading to a growing spate of displacement across the continent. According to the African Centre for Strategic Studies, conflict, often violent, is the leading cause of displacement in Africa, as there has been a steep rise in the rate of displacement on the continent in recent years. For example, violence-driven displacement in Africa more than doubled between 2017 and 2024. More strikingly, the rate of displacement increased by 14% between 2023 and 2024, surpassing 45 million. The content also has, at the moment, 48% of the world’s internally displaced persons (IDPs) (African Centre for Strategic Studies, 2024).
The nature and character of violence in Africa has been largely political. The rise in political conflicts and violence has led to an acute rise in forced displacement in many African countries. Countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan have 32.5 million displaced persons, representing 80% of the continent’s IDPs in 2023 (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2024). It is noteworthy that these countries have been roiled by political violence of varying degrees. The import of this is that millions of their citizens have been driven from their homes. In Nigeria, for example, despite spirited efforts of the government to ensure peace and security in the country, the spate of displacement caused by violence remains unabated. This is especially true of the situation in the Northeast and Northwest regions of the country. The same can be said of the Kivu region of the DRC, where families are made to flee their homes in search of safety (Norwegian Refugee Council, 2025).
The high rate of violence and displacement has serious implications for the development of African countries. As a region with an acute multidimensional development deficit, the situation on the continent remains unconscionable. For example, violence and displacement are denying millions of African children access to school. Similarly, the situation is also disrupting the socioeconomic ambience of the country, such that many homes whose livelihood depends on the indigenous economy are now muddled deeper in poverty. Thus, violence and displacement are hurting the African countries’ drive towards the achievement of key regional and global development agendas, such as the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

There is, therefore, an urgent need to proffer solutions to the incidence of violence and displacement in Africa by convening a gathering of Academics, researchers, civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations, governments, international organisations, and other stakeholders to contribute to the discourse through, but not limited to, the following subthemes:

CONFERENCE CONVENERS

Prof Mudau T. J. Head, Institute of Gender & Youth Studies, University of Venda, South Africa:
Prof Kayode Eesuola, Institute of African & Diaspora Studies, University of Lagos, Nigeria
Prof Innocent Simphiwe Nojiyeza, Durban University of Technology, South Africa
Prof Phemelo Marumo, North West University, Mafikeng, South Africa
Prof Phano Mashau, Durban University of Technology, South Africa

WELCOME MESSAGE

It is my distinguished pleasure to welcome everyone (colleagues, researcher,policymaker, and guests) to the International Conference on Violence and Displacement in Africa, hosted at the University of the Witwatersrand,Johannesburg. The consideration of this conference is urgent as the threads of violence and displacement run deep across the continent of Africa with various shades as seen in the papers gathered for this conference. From the female students of North-Central Nigeria who have become soft targets in terrorism-prone environments, to the displaced women of Zimbabwe whose
disabilities and gender compound their exclusion; from the economically displaced Zimbabwean migrants facing a mental health paradox in South Africa, to the Basotho miners trapped between structural poverty and physical violence—the threads of violence and displacement run deep across our continent. Yet within these struggles, we find not merely victims but resilient communities, innovative governance models, and pathways toward justice. The contributions here examine traditional courts as restorative justice mechanisms, indigenous ethical values as peacebuilding resources, and the Tuseme learner-centred model as an empowerment innovation for refugee
children in Uganda. Africa remains resilient in these trying times. Over the next two days, we will interrogate how climate change multiplies resource conflict, how neoliberal waste governance excludes informal labour, how military regimes deplete green political thinking, and how securitised migration frameworks unmake regional order. We will ask whether the US-Nigeria joint operation serves resource interests or human security, and whether our normative commitments to the Kampala Convention have translated into implementation. This conference is a space for critical dialogue, uncomfortable truths, and transformative action. Welcome and let us make the best of this meeting.