Record number of internally displaced people worldwide

A record number of 41.3 million people are displaced in their own countries due to conflict and violence.

According to a new report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre of the Norwegian Refugee Council, the number of people living in internal displacement the world over as at the end of 2018, is the highest it has ever been.

It said the figure is an increase of over one million since the end of 2017 and two-thirds more than the global number of refugees.

This year’s report is a sad reminder of the recurrence of displacement, and of the severity and urgency of IDPs’ needs.

Ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria and the rise in intercommunal tension in Ethiopia, Cameroon and Nigeria’s Middle Belt region triggered most of the 10.8 million new displacements linked to conflict and violence, the Council said.

“This year’s report is a sad reminder of the recurrence of displacement, and of the severity and urgency of IDPs’ needs. Many of the same factors that drove people from their homes now prevent them from returning or finding solutions in the places they have settled,” said Alexandra Bilak, IDMC’s director.

Extreme weather events such as Tropical Cyclones and Moosoon floods and fire were responsible for the most of 17.2 million new displacements associated with disasters in 2018 in the Philippines, China and India, mostly in the form of evacuations. It said California suffered the most destructive wildfires in history, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

The report however added that new ways of dealing with the issue are emerging in cities from Medellin in Colombia to Mosul in Iraq, where local governments and communities have taken the lead.