News Center- According to a joint report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) around the world reached 71.1 million as of the end of 2022, an increase of 20 per cent from the previous year.

“The number of movements in which people fled in search of safety and shelter, sometimes more than once, was also unprecedented in 2022. The figure of 60.9 million was up 60 percent from the previous year. The conflict in Ukraine triggered nearly 17 million displacements as people fled repeatedly from rapidly shifting frontlines, and monsoon floods in Pakistan triggered 8.2 million, accounting for a quarter of the year’s global disaster displacement,” the report said.

 

Conflict and violence triggered 28.3 million internal displacements worldwide, a figure three times higher than the annual average over the past decade, the report said, “Beyond Ukraine, nine million or 32 per cent of the global total were recorded in sub-Saharan Africa. DRC accounted for around four million and Ethiopia just over two million.”

 

Beyond the 17 million displacements inside Ukraine last year, eight million were forced from their homes by the monster floods in Pakistan. Sub-Saharan Africa saw around 16.5 million displacements, more than half of them due to conflict, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Ethiopia.

While internal displacement is a global phenomenon, nearly three quarters of the world's IDPs live in just 10 countries: Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, Colombia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan. Many of them remain displaced due to unresolved conflicts that have dragged on for years and continued to force people to flee their homes last year.

The number of disaster displacements rose by nearly 40 per cent compared to the previous year, reaching 32.6 million.

“Today’s displacement crises are growing in scale, complexity and scope, and factors like food insecurity, climate change and escalating and protracted conflicts are adding new layers to this phenomenon,” said IDMC’s director, Alexandra Bilak. “Greater resources and further research are essential to help understand and better respond to IDPs’ needs”.