It is primarily wars and conflicts that force more and more people around the world to flee their countries. Never before have there been such numbers, according to a survey conducted by a United Nations observatory.

Wars and conflicts have brought the number of people fleeing within their countries to a new high all over the world. At the end of 2023, 75.9 million people were internally displaced – that is, they had fled their communities and found housing elsewhere in their home country. This was reported by the Internally Displaced Persons Observatory (IDMC) in Geneva. This represents an increase of approximately seven percent over the previous year and 50 percent over the previous five years.

In its report, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center distinguishes between the displaced themselves and the number of displaced people. Thus the same person can be evacuated several times within a given period of time. Conflicts in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Gaza Strip accounted for two-thirds of last year’s new displacement in 2023.

The population of the Gaza Strip has been displaced several times

African countries account for nearly half of all internally displaced people worldwide. Many of them are in Sudan: inside the country, more than nine million people fled violence at the end of 2023. In the Gaza Strip, the same people have been displaced several times. At the end of the year, a total of 1.7 million internally displaced persons were registered. In the last three months of 2023 alone after the start of the war, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center counted 3.4 million new displacements, equivalent to 17 percent of the total conflict-related displacements worldwide during the year.

The total number of people who have had to flee their homeland due to wars, conflicts or disasters is much higher. It also takes into account people who have fled across borders to other countries. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, this number reached about 114 million people at the end of 2023. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees fears that the number will rise to 130 million by the end of the year.

According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, nearly 90 percent of internally displaced people were forced to flee their hometowns due to conflict and violence, while others were forced to flee due to disasters. At the end of 2023, there were 7.7 million people displaced by floods, storms, earthquakes, fires and other disasters, and had found refuge elsewhere in their countries of origin.

Preventing conflicts to fail”

The Liaison Office is committed to providing further assistance to countries in caring for internally displaced persons. “The conflict and devastation it has left behind means that millions are unable to rebuild their lives, often for years,” said Alexandra Belak, Director of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which founded the observatory, said the high number is a „devastating verdict on the failure to prevent conflicts and build peace.”

International law distinguishes between internally displaced persons on the one hand and refugees on the other. Refugees flee oppression, violence and war from their homeland to another country. The Internal Displacement Observatory, based in Geneva, is part of the Norwegian Refugee Council. The center works closely with the United Nations.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is making an unannounced visit to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv receipt. He arrived on a night train from Poland on Tuesday morning. During Blinken’s fourth visit to Kiev since the start of Russia’s war of aggression in February 2022, he is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Above all, the trip should send a strong signal to reassure Ukrainians, who are clearly “in a very difficult situation,” a senior US government official told reporters on the train with Secretary of State Blinken. He referred to the fighting on the front in the east and the attacks on Kharkiv. It will flash Ukraine I confirm the continued support of the United States of America. A US government official traveling with him said: “The secretary’s trip is intended to discuss how our additional assistance can be used to strengthen Ukraine’s defenses and enable it to regain the initiative on the battlefield.”

In the Kharkiv region, the Ukrainian army is currently under increasing pressure from the Russian offensive. On Monday, the Ukrainian General Staff recognized the „tactical successes” achieved by Russian forces in the region located in northeastern Ukraine. According to Ukrainian information, the Russian army launched a ground attack in the Kharkiv region of Russia on Friday.

The United States has announced several aid commitments to Ukraine in recent weeks. This aid came after the US Congress agreed to provide military aid worth $61 billion (about 56 billion euros) in April after months of stalemate.

You can read more about the war in Ukraine in our live blog.

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was standing: May 13, 2024 at 10:44 pm

from: Niles Aquion, Kilian Beck, Nils Hinsberger

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