Armed conflicts, particularly in Sudan and the Gaza Strip, as well as natural disasters, have driven the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to an unprecedented level of 83.4 million by the end of 2024, according to an annual report released today.
The number of forcibly displaced people has surged by 50% over the past six years, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), who jointly published the report in Geneva.
The 83.4 million internally displaced individuals are roughly equivalent to the entire population of Germany. At the end of 2023, the figure stood at 75.9 million.
“Internal displacement occurs where conflict, poverty, and climate change intersect, affecting the most vulnerable the hardest,” summarised Alexandra Bilak, Director of IDMC, in a press release accompanying the report.
Unlike refugees who flee their countries to seek safety abroad, IDPs are forced to leave their homes but remain within their country’s borders.
The number of countries reporting internal displacement due to armed conflict or natural disasters has tripled over the past 15 years.
Almost three-quarters of those displaced due to armed conflict live in nations highly vulnerable to climate change.
Nearly 90% of forced displacements are caused by violence and armed conflicts—an astonishing 73.5 million people. This represents an 80% increase since 2018.
Natural disasters forced almost another 10 million people to relocate. This number has doubled in just five years.
By the end of 2024, ten countries each had over three million internally displaced persons due to war or violence.
Sudan, with 11.6 million displaced people, broke every recorded global record for internal displacement.
In Gaza, nearly the entire population had been displaced by the end of 2024, even before the new waves of mass displacement triggered by Israel’s renewed bombings on March 18th, when the Israeli military ended a two-month ceasefire.
In the United States, extreme weather events- such as those named Ellen and Milton- forced the internal displacement of 11 million people due to natural disasters, accounting for nearly a quarter of the global total.
Meteorological phenomena, often worsened by climate change, caused 99.5% of disaster-related displacements last year.
The report highlights that the causes and consequences of these displacements are often “interconnected, making crises more complex and extending the suffering of the displaced.”
These alarming figures are emerging at a time when humanitarian organisations worldwide are facing growing challenges, partly due to the freezing of US funding under the administration of President Donald Trump.
Many of these budget cuts impact internally displaced populations, who generally receive less attention than refugees.
“This year’s numbers should serve as a wake-up call for global solidarity,” said Jan Egeland, Director of NRC, during the press release.
“Every time funding is cut, another displaced person loses access to food, medicine, safety, and hope,” he warned.
The lack of progress in addressing global displacement is both a political failure and a “moral stain on humanity,” he added.
Read also: UN: Climate change worsening the already awful conditions for refugees
