Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of Africans do not have access to a nationality. The status of many others is in doubt or in dispute. Without an official connection to a state, people have neither protection from, nor responsibilities to, the country in which they live.
The problem of statelessness is not new. It has risen on the international agenda in recent years as countries have pursued policies aimed at stripping people of their citizenship as a means of sanctioning those they want to exclude as undesirable. In some regions this has recently involved 'foreign fighters' returning from conflict zones or 'cracking down' on refugee and migrant groups.
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