Every second in 2020, more than one person has been forced to flee within their own country, bringing the total number of internally displaced people to 55 million, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). ) who count these tragedies.
Despite travel restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, 40.5 million people have joined the ranks of internally displaced people, the highest number for ten years, NGOs said. “These two numbers have been unusually high”, explained Alexandra Bilak, director of IDMC at Agence France-Presse (AFP), believing that this push is ” unprecedented “.
These internally displaced people are now twice as numerous as the 26 million refugees, who cross an international border in an attempt to find safety.
“It is shocking that someone has been forced to flee their home within their own country every second over the past year”NRC boss Jan Egeland said in a statement. “We are proving incapable of protecting the most vulnerable from conflicts and disasters. “
Displacement due to natural disasters
This figure is undoubtedly below the reality, explains Mme Bilak. The pandemic has made it difficult to collect data and may have prompted more people to avoid shelters for fear of becoming infected.
But the pandemic has also worsened the socio-economic situation of these displaced people, and “This number could grow even more as countries sink into the crisis”, warned Mme Bilak.
The report points out that three quarters of the internally displaced have been forced to flee due to natural disaster and, in particular, extreme weather events.
Cyclones, monsoons, torrential rains and flooding hit densely populated areas in Asia and the Pacific, and a bumper hurricane season in the Atlantic also forced people to flee for shelter.
In the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, prolonged rains have taken their toll. “We can only expect that the future impact of climate change will make these catastrophic events more frequent and violent and, as a result, see the number of internally displaced people increase further.”, predicted the head of the IDMC.
A longer exile due to wars or violence
In addition, some ten million internally displaced people have been forced to flee due to conflicts or explosions of violence, such as the war in Tigray, an Ethiopian region beset by devastating conflict, attacks by jihadists in northern Mozambique or Burkina Faso.
Endless wars like in Syria, Afghanistan or the Democratic Republic of the Congo also continue to force people to flee in numbers and often for a long time.
While people fleeing natural disasters usually return home fairly quickly to rebuild, the same cannot be said for those fleeing war or violence. Their exile is, in general, much longer. Of the 55 million displaced people, 38 million had fled fighting and violence, the report said.
And to make matters worse, 95% of displacements linked to new conflicts have occurred in countries vulnerable to climate change. “Climate change and the overexploitation of natural resources could exacerbate instability and conflicts and cause forced displacement”, add the NGOs.