THE number of internally displaced in Africa and other parts of the world has reached a record high of 45.7 million, according to a new report from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
Established in 1998 as part of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) is the world’s authoritative source of data and analysis on internal displacement.
The Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) estimates that 45.7 million people are living in internal displacement as a result of conflict and violence in 61 countries across the globe.
Some 8.5 million displacements took place in the context of conflict and violence in countries like Syria, DRC, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Burkina Faso.
Another 5.1 million in 95 countries are displaced because of natural disasters such as Cyclone Idah in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe among other countries.
“IDPs are often highly vulnerable people living in crowded camps, emergency shelters and informal settlements with little or no access to healthcare,” said IDMC’s director, Alexandra Bilak.
The Covid-19 is seen worsening the plight of the internally displaced persons, the IDMC director said.
“The global coronavirus pandemic will make them more vulnerable still. It will compromise their already precarious living conditions, by further limiting their access to essential services and humanitarian aid.”
“The GRID shows that measuring and understanding a problem is the cornerstone of efforts to resolve it, but resources and political commitment are also needed if IDPs are to make tangible progress in re-establishing their lives,” said Bilak.
“As the coronavirus pandemic casts an unforgiving light on the urgency of our task, we hope the lessons documented in this report will prove useful in our collective efforts to end internal displacement.”
Source: IDMC/Additional Reporting by AllnetAfrica
