The aim of this article is to draw on contemporary developments relating to the elaboration of a binding legal framework for the treatment of internally displaced persons in Africa. By definition, internally displaced persons are “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of, or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border”.