Last year, a record-breaking 71.1 million people were internally displaced due to a “perfect storm” of overlapping crises, according to a report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council. This is an increase of 20% from the previous year, with 60.9 million new displacements reported. Of these, 28.3 million were caused by conflict, while natural disasters accounted for 32.6 million. Sub-Saharan Africa saw around 16.5 million displacements, with over half due to conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.
The war in Ukraine was a major contributor to the increase in displacements, with 17 million people forced to flee their homes. Eight million people were also displaced by floods in Pakistan. The figures are expected to continue rising this year due to ongoing conflicts and natural disasters. More than 700,000 people have already been internally displaced by the violence in Sudan since April, while another 150,000 have fled the country.
Nearly three-quarters of all IDPs live in just ten countries: Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, Colombia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan. Many remain displaced due to unresolved conflicts that have forced people to flee their homes for years. The report also highlights a global food security crisis that has hit internally displaced people hardest.
