More than 114 million people are currently forcibly displaced around the world, a record number, the United Nations said Wednesday. “The number of people displaced by war, persecution, violence and human rights violations around the world likely exceeded 114 million by the end of September,” the UN Refugee Agency said. (UNHCR) in a press release.
1.6 million more than in 2022
In the first half of 2023, population displacements were mainly caused by conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan, Burma and the Democratic Republic of Congo but also by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and by a mixture of drought, floods and insecurity in Somalia. More than half of the displaced people were forced to cross a border, the agency said. Three countries – Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine – also provide nearly a third of the world’s displaced people.
“The world’s attention is rightly focused on the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. But globally, far too many conflicts are proliferating or escalating, destroying innocent lives and uprooting populations.” , declared the head of the UN agency Filippo Grandi. In its report compiling data for the first half of 2023, UNHCR estimates the number of displaced people worldwide as of mid-June at 110 million, or 1.6 million more than at the same time in 2022.
According to the agency, however, this number increased further over the following three months, reaching 114 million at the end of September. This estimate therefore does not take into account the 1.4 million Palestinians displaced, according to the UN, inside the Gaza Strip since October 7 and the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.