Conflicts and natural disasters forced millions of people to flee within their own country last year, bringing the total number of internally displaced people to a record close to 60 million, according to a study released Thursday by NGO.
Internally displaced people numbered 59.1 million in 2021, almost half of whom were under the age of 18, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
From year to year, this figure – which therefore does not take into account refugees abroad – continues to grow. And a new record is expected to be set on this in 2022 due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24.
It is the second-highest annual figure in 10 years, behind 2020, which saw a record number of displacements due to a series of natural disasters.
“The world is falling apart” – Jan Egeland
The year 2022 promises to be dark, in particular the war in Ukraine, alerted the director of the IDMC, Alexandra Bilak, at a press conference.
More than 8 million people were thus displaced inside Ukraine, more than two months after the invasion of the country by Russia, according to the UN.
The situation in the world has never been so bad, observed the general secretary of the NRC, Jan Egeland, who ensures that the world is collapsing.
“The situation today is actually incredibly much worse than our record number suggests. We need world leaders to make a titanic shift in their thinking about avoiding and resolving conflict to end this skyrocketing human suffering.”
— A quote from Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council
Internal displacement in Africa
Last year, sub-Saharan Africa was the region that recorded the highest number of internal displacements (many people moving several times), including more than 5 million in Ethiopia alone, a country in the grip of a serious drought and where conflict broke out at the end of 2020 in the Tigray region. This is the highest figure ever recorded in a single country.
Unprecedented figures were also recorded last year in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan, where the return to power of the Taliban combined with drought forced many people to flee their homes.
In Burma, where the military seized power following a coup in February 2021, the number of displacements has also reached a record high.
The Middle East and North Africa, on the other hand, recorded the lowest levels of new displacements in 10 years, with the conflicts in Syria, Libya and Iraq have seen some de-escalation, but the total number of people displaced in the region remains high.
Thus, Syria still had the highest number of internally displaced persons due to conflict, i.e. 6.7 million at the end of 2021. Next, come to the DRC (5.3 million) and Colombia (5.2 million), as well as Afghanistan and Yemen (4.3 million each).
Although the number of people displaced by conflict is still increasing, natural disasters remain the main reason why people are forced to flee their homes (23.7 million displacements in 2021).
No less than 94% of these displacements were attributed to meteorological and climatic disasters, such as cyclones, floods, and drought, phenomena that are increasingly frequent and intense due to climate change.
At least 70% of internal displacement linked to natural disasters in 2021 was recorded in China, the Philippines, and India.
However, more and more, conflicts and natural disasters go hand in hand, noted Mr. Egeland.
In places like Mozambique, Burma, Somalia, and South Sudan, the crises are overlapping, impacting food security and increasing the vulnerability of millions of people.
