GENEVA: The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) around the world has reached 75.9 million at the end of 2023, a new record, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), which published its annual Global Report on Internal Displacement today.

Of the total, 68.3 million were displaced by conflict and violence and 7.7 million by disasters.

The Centre stated that as in previous years, floods and storms caused the most disaster displacement, including in south-eastern Africa where cyclone Freddy triggered 1.4 million movements across six countries and territories. Earthquakes and volcanic activity triggered 6.1 million displacements in 2023, as many as in the past seven years combined. The earthquakes that struck Trkiye and Syria triggered 4.7 million displacements, one of the largest disaster displacement events since records began in 2008.

Floods, storms, earthquakes, wildfires and other disasters triggered 26.4 million displacements in 2023, the third-highest annual total in the
past ten years. The 7.7 million IDPs at the end of 2023 displaced by disasters is the second most since IDMC began recording this metric in 2019.

The 148 countries reporting disaster displacement include high-income countries such as Canada and New Zealand which reported their highest figures ever. Climate change is making some hazards more frequent and intense, such as cyclone Mocha in the Indian Ocean, Hurricane Otis in Mexico, storm Daniel in the Mediterranean and wildfires in Canada and Greece last summer. It is also making communities more vulnerable and the need to address the underlying drivers of displacement more urgent.

Source: Emirates News Agency