About MMC’s work in Eastern and Southern Africa
MMC’s flagship data collection project ‘4Mi’ currently operates in Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and South Africa, where enumerators carry out surveys with people travelling along mixed migration routes out of East Africa towards North Africa and Europe (Northern route), Yemen & Saudi Arabia (Eastern route) and Southern Africa (Southern route).
This 8-minute video captures key moments from the ” 600 days of war in Sudan” conference held in Nairobi in December 2024.
The conference brought key actors together to reflect on displacement patterns, challenges, blind spots and the urgent programming needs. It was organised jointly by MMC / DRC and UNHCR, with the support of DANIDA.
Mixed Migration in Eastern and Southern Africa
Migration in and from East Africa is significant in volume and diverse in profile and includes refugees, asylum seekers, forced migrants, as well as migrants who are motivated to move by many different factors. Mixed migration from the East Africa region typically follow three main migratory routes: the ‘Northern Route’ towards North Africa and often onwards to Europe; the ‘Southern Route’ towards South Africa; and the ‘Eastern Route’ towards Yemen and other parts of the Gulf. MMC’s research finds that a complex mix of conflict, insecurity and economic factors are key drivers of mixed migration from East Africa, with a variety of profiles of people on the move.
Quarterly Regional Updates
- In the second quarter of 2025, MMC Eastern and Southern Africa | Egypt and Yemen (ESA) began data collection in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique as part of a project with UNHCR on mixed movements along the Southern Route, with an in-depth research report on locations of transit along this route coming out later this year.
- Three publications came out this quarter, with a paper focusing on the mixed migration policy landscape in Egypt (Between Pledges and Practices: Egypt’s complex mixed migration policy landscape), and two reports based on new research on the shifting displacement and protection experiences of Eritreans in North and East Africa (Eritrean displacement amidst shrinking spaces of refuge. Where next? and Shifting protection experiences of displaced Eritreans).
- At the end of May, in the context of our new MECMEA Project on climate mobility and displacement, funded by the EU under the Africa-EU Migration and Mobility Dialogue (MMD III) and administered by ICMPD, an in-person project launch was organised in Addis Ababa. Under this project, in the coming quarter, MMC ESA will continue to collect surveys in Burundi and South Sudan, while data collection was already completed in Kenya and Somalia. Findings of the survey data will form the basis of four case studies which shall be published towards the end of 2025.
Interactive dashboards with data from Eastern and Southern Africa
Dashboard on mixed movements linked to the war in Sudan
Dashboard on East African Migration Routes (EAMR)
Our funding partners
