Number of displaced people in the world 55m | Humanitarian Crisis News is a record

Severe storms, ongoing conflicts and explosions of violence forced 40.5 million people to relocate to their countries last year.

Conflict and natural disasters forced someone to flee their country every second of last year, and the number of people living in internal displacement was a record, according to a new report.

Efforts to halt the spread of COVID-19 led to drastic restrictions on movement around the world, with observers expecting the number of displacements to drop last year.

There were also severe storms, ongoing conflicts and explosions of violence in 2020, forcing 40.5 million people to relocate to their countries, according to a joint report released on Thursday by the Center for Internal Displacement Monitoring (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council. (NRC).

This is the highest number of newly displaced people reported in 10 years, and the number of people living in internal displacement around the world reaches a record 55 million, the report showed.

Surprising: Our latest report shows that a person had to flee their country for the SECOND time last year. We are constantly protecting the most vulnerable people in the world from conflict and disaster. https://t.co/5PSFRA98ch pic.twitter.com/rQoeqVQqva

– Jan Egeland (@NRC_Egeland) May 20, 2021

The number of displaced people is more than double the 26 million people who have fled across the border as refugees.

NRC chief Jan Egeland said the report’s findings were “surprising”.

“We are not protecting the most vulnerable people in the world from conflict and disaster,” he said in a statement.

The report found that three-quarters of people who fled the interior last year were victims of natural disasters, particularly those related to extreme weather.

Intense cyclones, monsoon rains and floods hit areas with a large and densely populated population in Asia and the Pacific, while the Atlantic hurricane season was “the most active on record,” he noted.

“The long rainy seasons in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa threw millions more.”

Experts say climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events.

In addition, the report says nearly 10 million new graduates were fleeing conflict and violence last year.

“Most of the nearly 10 million people who were recently displaced by the conflict last year were in the DRC [the Democratic Republic of the Congo], Syria and Ethiopia, “Egeland said.” These people risked their lives to escape, despite COVID blockades and violence. “

The report added that the escalation of violence and the expansion of armed groups in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Burkina Faso last year prompted some of the world’s fastest displacement crises.

The conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and the DRC also continued to force many people to flee.

Unlike displacement caused by disasters, which are usually short-lived when storms return to rebuild homes that have been damaged or destroyed after storms, relocations caused by conflict can take years.

With the exception of seven million of the 55 million people living in internal displacement at the end of last year, they fled the conflict, the report says.

He also warned that the convergence of conflict and natural disasters was exacerbating the problem, as 95 per cent of last year’s new conflict displacements occurred in countries vulnerable to the impact of climate change.

“Climate change and overexploitation of natural resources can exacerbate instability and conflict, which can lead to displacement.”