Facts

• According to the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre on Thursday, the number of people internally displaced by conflicts and natural disasters has risen 20% since 2021, hitting a record high of 71M people fleeing in search of safety and shelter in 2022.^[1]
• The nonprofit’s secretary general, Jan Egeland, said the global food crisis — worsened by the war in Ukraine — mixed with natural disasters and the ongoing effects of the pandemic created a "perfect storm."^[2]
• Increases in displacement due to war include 5.9M people forced to move inside Ukraine because of Russia — which brought the total to 62M. In Syria, 6.8M were displaced by conflict after more than a decade of civil war.^[3]
• Most uprooting last year was due to natural disasters such as floods, droughts, and landslides, with Egeland adding that these phenomena "combined...to aggravate people's pre-existing vulnerabilities and inequalities, triggering displacement on a scale never seen before."^[4]
• The nonprofit said the La Nina weather pattern, which continued for a third consecutive year last year, contributed to record levels of flood displacements in Pakistan, Nigeria, and Brazil and the worst drought on record in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia.^[1]
• Nearly 75% of the world's internally displaced people live in 10 countries, including Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the report saying the trend hasn't slowed this year. Due to the current conflict between rival military forces in Sudan, 700k have already been displaced.^[2]