According to the report released by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council, the count of internally displaced people (IDPs) reached a staggering 71 million by the end of 2022, a significant increase from the 59.1 million reported in 2021.

The scale of movement and mobility among people, often driven by the pursuit of safety and shelter, reached an unprecedented level. The total number of such movements reached 60.9 million, marking a substantial 60% rise from the previous year.

Of these movements, approximately 17 million were triggered by the conflict in Ukraine. The war has resulted in an estimated 5.9 million people fleeing their homes, with many forced to move repeatedly in their search for resources, suitable accommodations, or simply refuge from the ongoing fighting. However, the report cautions that due to challenges in accessing reliable data from areas under military control, even these figures should be considered conservative.

Another significant factor driving displacement was the "monsoon on steroids" that struck Pakistan last summer. The widespread flooding that ravaged the country led to over 8 million people being displaced.

Overall, these findings highlight the immense challenges and human suffering caused by geopolitical conflicts and the intensifying impacts of climate change, underscoring the urgent need for international efforts to address displacement and provide assistance to those affected.

“Last year, conflict, disasters, and the continued effects of the Covid-19 pandemic combined to aggravate people’s pre-existing vulnerabilities and inequalities. The war in Ukraine made everything even worse. And it all fuelled a global food security crisis that hit the poorest and most vulnerable, including internally displaced people (IDPs), hardest,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. “This perfect storm has undermined years of progress made in reducing global hunger and malnutrition. Three quarters of the countries experiencing food security crises had internally displaced populations. In this report IDMC documents that we have never before recorded internal displacement on this scale.”

Egeland continued: “Some 71.1 million people were living in internal displacement as of the end of 2022, a sharp increase compared with 2021, mostly the result of the conflict in Ukraine, but also because of entrenched conflicts and disasters that uproot millions of people every year.”

He emphasized that many IDPs live in protracted displacement and extreme food insecurity, adding: “The lack of comprehensive data on these overlapping crises hampers efforts to establish a vital evidence base to inform policies to prevent, respond and achieve longer-term solutions to them.”

Egeland underlined that the focus of this year’s Global Report on Internal Displacement on food security is much needed. “The report makes a major contribution to the discussion about the relationship between displacement and food insecurity, by providing the most up-to-date data and analysis on their confluence, highlighting gaps in our knowledge and interventions, and exploring the potential to address them together rather than separately.”

He went on to say: “I welcome IDMC’s efforts in shedding light on this important topic, which deserves more attention and urgent action. At the Norwegian Refugee Council, we believe that stronger partnerships, better data and coherent programming across the humanitarian, development and peacebuilding sectors will help us to combat global hunger and malnutrition at the same time as reducing the risk of new and protracted displacement.

“We also believe that the food and agriculture sector have a valuable contribution to make to the achievement of durable solutions to displacement. Working together, we can tackle the ongoing challenges and reduce the trends presented in this report, which should be seen as a wake-up call to enhance our collective drive for a more sustainable future,” Egeland concluded. (ILKHA)