18 May 2023
A new report says the war in Ukraine helped push the worldwide number of people left internally displaced by conflict or natural disasters to 71.1 million last year. It was a record high number.
The Norwegian Refugee Council's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre released its 2022 report on May 11. The report said conflict and violence around the world left more than 62 million people displaced inside their countries by the end of last year. That was a 17 percent increase from 2021.
An internally displaced person is forced to move inside their own country. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre's report did not count people forced to go to different countries.
By the end of 2022, 5.9 million people had been forced to move inside Ukraine because of Russia's invasion. Syria had 6.8 million displaced by conflict after more 10 years of civil war.
The number of people displaced inside their countries at the end of the year because of disasters like floods and hunger reached 8.7 million. That was a 45 percent increase from 2021.
The total of 71.1 million internally displaced worldwide was a 20 percent increase since 2021.
In 2022, there was conflict in Ukraine, Syria, Ethiopia and in other places. So far in 2023, there has been no break in the fighting. The United Nations migration agency said recently that 700,000 people have already been internally displaced by the civil war in Sudan.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre said the La Niña weather event was a major factor in disaster displacements. It continued for a third straight year in 2022. La Niña added to record levels of displacement in Pakistan, Nigeria and Brazil from flooding. It also led to severe lack of rain in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, the report said.
There was a "perfect storm" of conflict and natural disasters in 2022 said Jan Egeland. He is secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
In 2022, there was "displacement on a scale never seen before."
I'm Dan Novak.
Dan Novak adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting by The Associated Press.
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Words in This Story
internal — adj. inside of something such as a country
displace — v. to be forced to leave the place you live in
perfect –adj. complete or total
scale — n. a level or amount of something