ALBAWABA - A report by an NGO Monitor revealed that the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) reached a record of 75.9 million at the end of 2023, with Sudan's war being the main factor behind the surge.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre said on Tuesday that the figure was a new end-of-year high, with the number of individuals displaced within their own borders rising by more than 50% in the last five years. The figure increased from 71.1 million at the end of 2022.
According to the IDMC's annual Global Report on Internal Displacement, 68.3 million people worldwide have been displaced by conflict and violence, and 7.7 million by natural disasters.
Over the last five years, the number of IDPs caused by conflict has risen by 22.6 million, with the two largest rises occurring in 2022 and 2023.
Sudan has the most IDPs recorded for a single country since records began in 2008, with 9.1 million, according to the monitoring organization. Almost half of all IDPs reside in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Commenting on the report, IDMC director Alexandra Bilak stated: "Over the past two years, we've seen alarming new levels of people having to flee their homes due to conflict and violence, even in regions where the trend had been improving,".
Last year, 46.9 million people were forced to flee their safe homes, with 20.5 million internal displacements caused by war and violence and 26.4 million by disasters.
Fighting in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Palestine accounted for approximately two-thirds of new migrations due to conflict in 2023. By the end of 2023, 1.7 million Palestinians had been internally displaced in Gaza, with another 3.4 million on the move. Last October, the bloodiest Gaza conflict in history began.
The Norwegian Refugee Council chief Jan Egeland said: "We have never, ever recorded so many people forced away from their homes and communities. It is a damning verdict on the failures of conflict prevention and peace-making,".
