Natural conflicts and disasters carried the number of people displaced within their country to a new record level of 83.4 million at the end of 2024, according to an annual report published on Tuesday, May 13. A number, corresponding to the population of Germany, which is compared to 75.9 million at the end of 2023.
The number of displaced people has increased 50% in the last six years, specifies the Observatory of Internal Travel Situations (IDMC) and the Norwegian Council for Refugees (NRC), in its joint report published in Geneva.
“Internal displacement is the place where conflict, poverty and climatic crisis cross, which hits the most vulnerable,” said Alexandra Bilak, director of IDMC, in a press release.
Unlike refugees fleeing a country to settle elsewhere, displaced people are people who had to leave but remain in their country.
90% of forced trips related to violence and conflicts
The number of countries that report movements due to conflicts and disasters has tripled in 15 years. More than three quarters of internal displaced people due to conflicts live in countries very vulnerable to climate change. Disasters have forced almost 10 million people to flee and establish themselves in other places, a figure that has doubled in five years.
Almost 90% of these forced trips are due to violence and conflicts. They refer to 73.5 million people, an increase in 80% since 2018. At the end of 2024, 10 countries had more than three million internal displaced due to conflicts and violence.
With 11.6 million inappropriate, Sudan has the greatest number of these people ever registered in a single country, according to the report.
Almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip also moved at the end of 2024, even before the new mass trips caused by the resumption of Israeli bombings on March 18, after the end of a two -month truce.
The United States also affected
Before several important hurricanes such as Helene and Milton, which led to mass evacuations, the United States only registered 11 million trips linked to natural disasters. Almost a quarter of the world total, according to the report.
Meteorological phenomena, often aggravated by climate change, caused 99.5% of trips due to disasters last year. Often, the causes and effects of displacement “are linked, making crises more complex and extending the anguish of displaced people,” according to the report.
These alarming figures occur at a time when global humanitarian organizations have great difficulty due to the freezing of Donald Trump of most American financial aid. Many budget cuts affect the displaced people, who generally receive less attention than refugees.
“This year’s figures should be an alarm signal for global solidarity,” said Jan Egeland, director of the NRC in the press release. “Every time funds are cut, a movement does not have access to food, drugs, security and lose hope,” he warned.
The lack of progress in the fight against travel in the world is “both a political failure and a moral place for humanity.”
Source: BFM TV
