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Africa, the world’s youngest continent in terms of population, is also the most ‘climate vulnerable’. In the future, it will also become the most ‘climate mobile’ continent, according to the latest edition of New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)’s annual publication.
State of Africa’s Environment 2025, released in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on September 18, 2025, noted that Africa would have the highest rate of displacement or migration in the years ahead due to impacts of the climate emergency.
It cited the latest data released by The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), a Norwegian non-profit that tracks internal displacement across the world. Internal displacement in Africa has tripled in the 15 years from 2009-2023, IDMC data shows.
The increase in internal displacement, according to State of Africa’s Environment 2025, is due to an increase in conflicts and violence besides the significant increase in extreme climatic events.
“But, during this period the number of internally displaced people due to disasters has recorded a six-fold increase. People living in internal displacement as a result of conflict and violence in Africa had increased from 10.2 million in 2009 to 32.5 million in 2023. The number of times people were forced to flee disasters each year increased from 1.1 million displacements in 2009 to 6.3 million in 2023. This surge was largely driven by climate-related events such as floods and droughts, highlighting the growing impact of environmental disasters on displacement patterns across the continent,” notes the document.
Flooding, which impacts every region of Africa, was responsible for over 75 per cent of these displacements, while droughts contributed to an additional 11 per cent.
“For instance, 69 per cent of the disaster displacements in eastern Africa were due to floods. Most of these took place during the Gu season between March and May, and the Deyr season between October and December. In western Africa, floods accounted for 99 per cent of disaster-displacements. Most of such displacements occurred between June and September,” according to State of Africa’s Environment 2025.
In the past 15 years, Cyclones Idai and Freddy were the largest disaster-related displacement events.
Nigeria reported the highest number of displaced people, totalling 8.7 million, with nearly three-quarters affected by two significant floods in 2012 and 2022. These events accounted for over 70 per cent of all flood-related displacements in the country.
In the Horn of Africa, recurring droughts and floods led to widespread displacement, deepening the region’s vulnerabilities. In the 15-year-period, the area had endured three major droughts—in 2011, 2017, and 2022—that severely disrupted agricultural production and undermined food security.
According to another estimate by the Institute for Security Studies, the number of people displaced due to extreme weather events in Africa rose by 600 per cent between 2009 and 2023. Most of these disasters were floods and storms, followed by droughts and wildfires, landslides, erosion and extreme temperatures.
In the coming decades, climate mobility in the continent will peak. The Africa Climate Mobility Initiative (ACMI), a joint undertaking of the African Union Commission, the World Bank, UN Development Programme, the International Organization for Migration and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, studied the displacement due to climate disruptions.
In its report The Africa Climate Mobility Report, it said, “By 2050, up to 5 percent of Africa’s population of some 2 billion people could be on the move due to climate impacts, up from 1.5 percent today. The overwhelming majority of this movement will happen within countries rather than across borders.”
The ACMI assessment said climate displacement will be more for some countries than others in the continent. “East African countries in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) economic bloc could see up to 10.5 percent of their population on the move by 2050.”