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Fleeing war and relocating to the urban fringe – issues and actors: the cases of Khartoum and Bogotá

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2010

Agnès de Geoffroy
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Abstract

This article presents the findings of a long-term study of the circumstances of displaced persons in Khartoum and Bogotá. It explores the similarities and differences between these contexts and how they have evolved. The study shows that while the two situations raise fairly similar issues, the policy decisions taken differ widely, impacting on how various actors cope with the phenomenon.

Type
Displacement
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 91 , Issue 875: Displacement , September 2009 , pp. 509 - 526
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2009

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References

1 Luc Cambrézy, Réfugiés et exilés, crise des sociétés, crise des territoires, Éditions des Archives Contemporaines, Paris, 2001, 216 pp.

2 Mark Duffield, Global governance and the new wars, the merging of development and security, Zed Books, New York, 2001, 293 pp.

3 Marc Vincent, Birgitte Refslund Sorensen (eds), Caught between borders, response strategies of the internally displaced, Pluto Press, London, 2001, 317 pp.

4 This work is currently being carried out jointly by Tufts University and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

5 Field research commenced in Bogotá in 2003 and in Khartoum in 2005, and continued until 2009. See A. de Geoffroy, ‘Les déplacés et l'intégration urbaine dans deux quartiers de l'agglomération de Bogotá’, in Villes en guerre, Guerres en ville, Karthala Collections Pratiques Humanitaires, Paris, 2004, pp. 281–358; A. de Geoffroy, ‘Political authorities, humanitarian agencies and Southern Sudanese IDPs in Greater Khartoum, what place for a human rights-based approach in an authoritarian regime?’, Communication presented at the first World Conference of Humanitarian Studies, Groningen, Netherlands, 4–7 February 2009.

6 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, UN Doc. E/CN./4/1998/53/Add.2, 17 April 1998, reprinted in International Review of the Red Cross, No. 324, September 1998, pp. 545–556.

7 On displacement in Colombia, see generally: A.M. Ibañez Londoño, El Desplazamiento forzoso en Colombia: un camino sin retorno hacia la pobreza, Universidad de los Andes (Centro de Estudios sobre Desarrollo Económico), Bogotá, 2008, 277 pp.; D. Meertens, Forced Displacement in Colombia: Public Policy, Gender and Initiatives for Reconstruction, Paper prepared for the Conference on African Migration in Comparative Perspective, Johannesburg, South Africa, 4–7 June 2003; A. Molano, ‘Sobre el desplazamiento forzado en Colombia’, in Para que se sepa, Hablan las personas desplazadas en Colombia, IDMC, Bogotá, 2007, pp. 209–236; M.N. Bello, M.I. Villa (co-ord.), El Desplazamiento en Colombia, regiones, ciudades y políticas públicas, Red Nacional de Investigación/UNHCR/Universidad Nacional de Colombia/Corporación Región, Medellín, 2005, 426 pp.

8 This statement must be qualified, however. Although the conflict in Colombia is generally considered to have started in 1948 with the assassination of the politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, the political and social violence accompanying the construction of the Colombian nation goes back much further. Forced population displacements are thus a constituent part of Colombian history; the awareness of the issue that emerged at the end of the 1990s was early in the eyes of the international community, but not in the eyes of the Colombian nation.

9 Law No. 387 of 1997 (by means of which measures are adopted for the prevention of forced displacement, and for assistance, protection, socioeconomic consolidation and stabilization of persons internally displaced by violence in the Republic of Colombia), Diario Official (Official Gazette), No. 43,091 of July 24, 1997. English translation available at http://www.brookings.edu/projects/idp/Laws-and-Policies/~/media/Files/Projects/IDP/Laws%20and%20Policies/Colombia/Colombia_Law387_1997_Eng.pdf (visited 9 September 2009).

10 See Carillo, Angela, ‘Internal displacement in Colombia: humanitarian, economic and social consequences in urban settings and current challenges’, International Review of The Red Cross, Vol. 91, No. 875, September 2009Google Scholar.

11 Alain Labrousse, ‘Colombia, le rôle de la drogue dans l'extension territoriale des FARC-EP (1978–2002’, Hérodote, No. 112, 2004, pp. 27–48.

12 On displacement in Sudan in general, see G.M. Hamid, Population Displacement in the Sudan, Patterns, Responses, Coping Strategies, Centre for Migration Studies, New York, 1996, 196 pp.; E. Denis, ‘Khartoum, ville refuge et métropole rentière, Mégapolisation des crises contre métropolité’, in Villes arabes en mouvement, Cahier du Gremamo No. 18, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2005, pp. 87–127; D. Johnson, The root causes of Sudan's civil wars, Woolnough, Irthlingborough, 2006, 234 pp.

13 No quotation marks have been used for this definition, since there is as yet no official English translation of the document, which was published in Arabic.

14 Sharaf el Din Bannaga, Peace and the displaced in Sudan, Habitat Group/Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (School of Architecture), Zurich, 2002, 289 pp.

15 Sources: Alice Franck, Produire pour la ville, produire la ville: étude de l'intégration des activités agricoles et des agriculteurs dans l'agglomération du Grand Khartoum (Soudan), Thesis (Geography), University of Paris X, Nanterre, 2007, 508 pp.; UN Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Sudan Maps, 2005, available at http://www.unsudanig.org/library/mapcatalogue/sudan/index.php (visited 9 September 2009); Bannaga, above note 14.

16 Figure quoted in Pastoral Social Seccion de la Movilidad Humana and Consultoría para los Derechos. Humanos y el Desplazamiento (CODHES), Gota a gota, Desplazamiento forzado en Bogotá y Soacha, CODHES, Bogotá, 2007, p. 20.

17 Soacha, the municipality bordering on the south of Bogotá, also hosts a large concentration of displaced persons. The seamless intermingling of the built-up areas of these two municipalities makes Soacha an integral part of the Bogotá conurbation.

18 These figures are a tentative estimate. We have already mentioned the ideological nature of the definition of displaced persons and the way they are counted. In the case of Sudan, we only have estimates at our disposal, since the results of the most recent census, which was carried out in 2008, have not yet been published. The previous census was conducted in 1993.

19 Pastoral Social Seccion de la Movilidad Humana and CODHES, above note 16.

20 Karen Jacobsen, Internal Displacement to Urban Areas – the Tufts-IDMC Profiling Study, Case 1 Khartoum, Sudan, Feinstein International Centre (Tufts University) in collaboration with IDMC, Geneva, 2008, 60 pp.

21 On FARC, see Daniel Pécaut, Les FARC, une guérilla sans fin?, Lignes de Repères, Paris, 2008, 169 pp.

22 See Carillo, above note 10.

23 Source: Acción Social, Hechos y avances en la atención a población desplazada, June 2008, available at http://www.accionsocial.gov.co/documentos/Boletin_Hechos/Boletin_Desplazados_jun_2009.pdf (visited 9 September 2009).

24 For a comparative study of humanitarian response to IDPs needs in Colombia, see ICRC/World Food Programme (WFP), ‘Una mirada a la población desplazada en ocho ciudades de Colombia: respuesta institucional local, condiciones de vida y recomendaciones para su atención’, ICRC/WFP, Bogotá, 2007, 82 pp., available at http://www.icrc.org/WEB/SPA/sitespa0.nsf/htmlall/p_CICR-PMA/$File/ICRC_003_CICR-PMA.PDF (visited 9 September 2009).

25 Munzoul Assal, Whose rights count? National and international responses to the rights of IDPs in the Sudan, Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty, University of Sussex, Brighton, 2006, 48 pp.

26 See Michel Agier, Gérer les indésirables, des camps de réfugiés au gouvernement humanitaire, Flammarion, Paris, 2008, 347 pp.