A new report has revealed that 41.3 million people are living in internal displacement due to conflict and violence.
The Global Report on Internal Displacement showed that people were displaced in 55 countries across the world at the end of 2018.
But three-quarters, or 30.9 million people out of the record 41.3 million were located in only ten countries.
According to the report “protracted crises, communal violence and unresolved governance challenges were the main factors behind 10.8 million new displacements associated with conflict and violence.”
Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Syria accounted for more than half of the global figure, the report said.
The report also revealed that newly emerging crises forced millions to flee, from Cameroon’s anglophone conflict.
There were waves of violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region as well and unprecedented conflict in Ethiopia.
Displacement also continued despite peace efforts in the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Colombia.
Challenges with returning after conflicts
In areas where people fled conflicts and wished to return to their countries of origin, that was a challenge.
The report said “large numbers of people reportedly returned to their areas of origin in Ethiopia, Iraq and Nigeria, to conditions which were not conducive to long-lasting reintegration.”
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council said “The findings of this report are a wake-up call to world leaders. Millions of people forced to flee their homes last year are being failed by ineffective national governance and insufficient international diplomacy.”
“Because they haven’t crossed a border, they receive pitiful global attention. All displaced people have a right to protection and the international community has a duty to ensure it,” Mr Egeland.
Meanwhile there were significant number of people who were also displaced due to disasters.
The report said “Global risk of being displaced by floods is staggeringly high and concentrated in towns and cities.”
“More than 17 million people are at risk of being displaced by floods each year. Of these, more than 80 per cent live in urban and peri-urban areas,” the report said.
Source: Africafeeds.com
