WCC NEWS: African churches offer critical response to refugees and statelessness

As actions and policies of governments, state authorities, and armed factions create millions of refugees and stateless people in Africa, church and faith-based organizations have become key respondents, offering humanitarian relief, advocacy, and spiritual support. Photo: Fredrick Nzwili 16 September 2026 By Fredrick Nzwili * At least 45 million people are displaced and 1 million are stateless on the continent, according to the UN Refugees Agency, for reasons including war, conflict, persecution, colonial legacies, discrimination, and displacement. Statelessness is highest in Coté d’Ivore where the numbers range between 700,000-930,000. Africa’s largest refugee population is in Uganda with 2 million. Roughly 55 percent of these refugees are South Sudanese. Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, primate of the Episcopal (Anglican) Church in South Sudan, said the church is responding to the needs of the country's many refugees, displaced persons, and stateless persons from the neighbouring countries. “What the church does first is to welcome them, pray, and offer them moral support,” said Arama. “[The church] also encourages the local communities to share what they have with them. [It] also advocates for their support and protection.” After the country’s independence in 2011, many South Sudanese born in exile or in refugee camps became stateless or were left at risk of it. According to Collins Omondi Omundu, a senior programme officer for protection and social cohesion at the Lutheran World Federation Kenya-Somalia, statelessness was a less visible concern but people are facing added challenges due lack of nationality, and their needs overlap with those of refugees. “In refugee contexts, some individuals, particularly children born in displacement and those lacking civil documentation, risk being left without proof of nationality. This limits their access to basic rights and services and can perpetuate exclusion across generations,” said Omundu. The federation operates a programme in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps focusing on education, child protection and inclusion, and livelihoods support, among other services. With over 850,000 refugees and asylum seekers, the two camps are among the largest in Africa with Dadaab hosting 430,000 and Kakuma and Kalobeyei over 300,000 refugees. In the camps, strengthening birth registration, legal identity documentation, and pathways to nationality is critical, according to the official. “Many of the refugees have lived in these settings for years, facing barriers to livelihoods, education, legal documentation, and durable solutions,” he said. African states have made some progress in tackling the challenges. In 2024, the African Union Assembly of States agreed on a protocol to end statelessness and advance the inclusion of millions of stateless people on the continent. The protocol seeks to protect the right to nationality and eradicate statelessness. Meanwhile, among key state actions, Kenya in 2023 granted citizenship to 7,000 Pemba community migrants, who had lived along the coastline for 100 years without formal recognition. In 2017, it also confirmed 1,176 Makonde community members whose forefathers came to Kenya from Mozambique in the 1930s. “Kenya has demonstrated a strong commitment through the Refugee Act 2021 and the Shirika Plan, but much more needs to be done to translate these frameworks into lasting solutions for refugees and stateless populations in Dadaab, Kakuma, and across the country,” said Omundu. Tanzania, in 2023, granted citizenship to about 3,319 people, most of them from Mozambique with small numbers from the Comoros Islands, Rwanda, and Burundi. Liberia, in 2022, reviewed its nationality law allowing women and men equal rights in conferring nationality. In 2021, Rwanda reformed its national laws to allow the naturalization of stateless people. In 2020, Coté d'Ivoire conferred citizenship to 16,198 migrants out of 123,810 applicants. Rev. Tolbert Thomas Jallah, a Liberian Lutheran church leader, said the 2022 law reform advanced equality, human dignity, and children’s protection. “It removed gender discrimination in the transmission of nationality and enabled Liberian women, like Liberian men, to confer nationality on their children,” said Jallah, a former secretary general of the Fellowship of Christian Council and Churches in West Africa. Churches in the country have historically responded to displacement and statelessness, providing direct assistance and protection to refugees, displaced persons, and vulnerable families. “They engage in advocacy, provide community education and awareness, and help build a culture of welcome rather than exclusion,” said Jallah, highlighting the significance of the Liberian experience with war displacement and refugee movement. He cautioned the problem should not be underestimated, although there were only 2,000 stateless people in the country. The 2022 reforms addressed one important structural cause of statelessness, but it did not eliminate the problem, according to the scholar. “Weak birth registration, lack of documentation, migration across borders, and difficulties proving nationality continue to create risks,” he said. Omundu said significant progress had been made in the areas, but cautioned that the scale of displacement and the risks of statelessness outpaced the available resources and solutions.   * Fredrick Nzwili is a freelance journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland