The Bidibidi Refugee Settlement in Uganda is home to some 270,000 refugees, largely from South Sudan. It’s now the site of a new program to safely remove e-waste from solar lanterns and their batteries, in what the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says will also provide training and jobs to…
Officials in Greece have confirmed an ongoing search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea east of Crete, following reports of a migrant ship in distress. Yet the situation remains a bit confusing, according to one NGO monitoring the ship’s fate. On Friday, the Hellenic Coast Guard said they were…
Back in March, a 22-year-old rapper named Sohail Al Sagheer left Algeria for Spain aboard a migrant boat. He went missing and his body wasn’t found until April 5, when it was discovered off the coast of Aïn Témouchent. The Algerian musician is one of at least 1,146 people who…
William Lacy Swing, a former director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and United States diplomat with several postings in Africa, has died. “It is with a heavy heart that I learned of my predecessor’s passing,” said IOM Director General António Vitorino, who replaced Swing in 2018. “His was…
Increasing rainfall linked to climate change is a main factor causing the water level of Lake Tanganyika to rise, with Burundi – one of four African nations bordering the lake – taking the hardest hit. More than 30,000 people have now been affected, with the rising waters forcing people from…
Smugglers forced dozens of migrants overboard in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, forcing some 80 people to their deaths by tossing them into the sea after leaving Djibouti. The International Organization for Migration said at least 200 passengers were aboard the boat when it departed, but the traffickers started…
At least 140 people died after a vessel carrying some 200 migrants sank off the Senegalese coast, along an increasingly common West African route that takes them to the Canary Islands, an autonomous region claimed by Spain. It was the deadliest shipwreck so far this year, according to the International…
Dozens of African migrants were rescued this week from what international migration agencies say is the largest shipwreck this year off the Libyan coast, but the death of at least 45 others has renewed attention to policies that fail to protect Mediterranean Sea migrants. The International Organization for Migration (IOM)…
There was a time when the withered Lake Chad region was the focal point of what climate change on the African continent looked like, and what it could or would mean for migration. Some 2.6 million people are displaced there, according to the most recent numbers from the United Nations…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
At least 58 people have died off the coast of Mauritania as a boat loaded with migrants destined for Spain sank in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Another 83 were able to swim to shore near the city of Nouadhibou, where authorities and NGO…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
When it comes to migration on the African continent, it is climate change that is among the key drivers, according to the annual World Migration Report released Wednesday by the United Nations migration agency. Eastern and southern Africa are seeing more disasters and environmental changes, including both drought conditions and…
They leave because they lack an adequate income. They leave because they’re looking for better educational opportunities, because of the security situation at home, because there’s no food, and because of environmental and climate shocks. That’s according to a survey of 4,195 migrants in Libya released by IOM, the United…
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says three of its aid workers were killed earlier this week in South Sudan, where they were assisting with Ebola health screenings in the border area with Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. The three volunteers, two men and a woman, were caught in…
About 25 African migrants die every week – some 1,300 annually – before they ever leave the African continent or take the risks of the dangerous Mediterranean Sea or Gulf-route journeys. That’s according to International Organization of Migration, which has published new numbers through its Missing Migrants Project (MMP) report….
The situation is getting worse in the southern Libyan town of Murzuq, where intensifying clashes with air and drone strikes have left at least 90 people dead and displaced thousands of civilians, the UN said on Tuesday. “Casualties on all sides of the fighting have continued as a result of…