Africa: Number of Internally Displaced People Hits Record High

Colin Delfosse / UNHCR
People displaced by conflict in Sudan queue for aid on arrival in Chad.
11 May 2023
Voice of America (Washington, DC)

The number of people internally displaced globally hit a record 71.1 million at the end of last year, according to a report released Thursday by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

The figure represents a 20% increase from 2021.

Among the drivers of new displacements last year were the war in Ukraine, which the report said accounted for 17 million displacements, and massive floods in Pakistan that caused eight million displacements.

SEE ALSO: A related video by VOA's Heather Murdock

Worldwide, conflict and violence were responsible for leaving 62.5 million people internally displaced at the end of 2022.

Nearly three-quarters of internally displaced people around the world were in 10 countries: Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, Colombia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan.

"Conflict and disasters combined last year to aggravate people's pre-existing vulnerabilities and inequalities, triggering displacement on a scale never seen before," said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which established the IDMC.

Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

Read the original article on VOA.

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