Refugee Settlements

All known formal and informal settlements of forcibly displaced and stateless people in Africa from UNHCR’s GIS database as of November 2025. Population in the settlement. It may include several categories: Refugees, Returnees, IDP, Asylum-seeker, Stateless and Mixed.Formal Settlement: Formal settlements are places where official land is allocated for a group of asylum seekers, refugees, or IDPs. They are accommodated in purpose-built settlements with access to facilities and services. An official management entity is assigned. Camps are a type of formal settlement. Informal Settlement: In an informal settlement, a group of asylum-seekers, refugees, or IDPs choose to settle in self-identified spontaneous sites. Self-settled settlements are often located on state-owned, private, or communal land, with or without negotiations with the local population or private landowners.