Number of worldwide IDPs hits 71,1 million in 2022
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – In 2022, the number of Internally Displaced People (IDP) worldwide hit a record increase by about 71,1 million, a report by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), a Switzerland-based non-governmental organization said on Thursday.
The IDMC report said that conflict and natural disasters resulted in an increase of 20 percent in the number of the IDPs around the world from 2021.
The conflict in Ukraine triggered nearly 17 million displacements, and monsoon floods in Pakistan triggered 8.2 million, according to the report.
The number of people displaced inside their country at the end of 2022 due to disasters reached 8,7 million, up by 45% increase compared to 2021.
“Today’s displacement crises are growing in scale, complexity and scope,” IDMC’s director, Alexandra Bilak said.
Bilak added, “Much of the increase is caused, of course, by the war in Ukraine, but also by floods in Pakistan, by new and ongoing conflicts across the world, and by a number of sudden and slow onset disasters that we’ve seen from the Americas all the way to the Pacific.”
Three-quarters of the world’s IDPs live in just 10 countries – Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ukraine, Colombia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan due to unsolved conflicts.
The report noted that conflict and violence left 28,3 million IDPs worldwide, adding that the number of disaster displacements rose by nearly 40 percent
The secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, said, There was a “perfect storm” of conflict and natural disasters in 2022, leading to “displacement on a scale never seen before.”