A record 83.4 million people have been forced to flee from their homes, fuelled by an increase in disasters and conflict, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has said.
The UN migration agency in its 2025 Global Report on Internal Displacement on Tuesday said the number of people living in internal displacement had more than doubled since 2018.
Internally displaced people are those who have been forced to flee their homes as a result of conflict, violence, or disasters and who have not crossed an internationally recognised State border.
IOM said the 83.4 million IDPs were scattered across 117 countries and territories at the end of 2024.
“These figures are a clear warning: without bold and coordinated action, the number of people displaced within their own countries will continue to grow rapidly,” said Amy Pope, Director-General of IOM.
The report said the recent rise in conflicts worldwide, particularly in Sudan, the Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Ukraine and Palestine, had pushed millions more into displacement.
It added to the tens of millions who already lived in protracted displacement in countries such as Afghanistan, Colombia, Syria and Yemen.
The report showed that the number of people displaced due to disasters had risen massively, climbing from 26.8 million in 2023 to 45.8 million in 2024.
“The number of disaster displacements in 2024 was nearly double the annual average of the past decade,” IOM said in a new report issued by the internal displacement monitoring centre (IDMC).
Almost 30 countries and territories have reported unprecedented disaster displacement, with cyclones accounting for more than one in two people forced from their homes.
The United States alone made up about one in four of those displaced globally by disasters.
With the frequency, intensity and duration of weather hazards continuously worsening owing to climate change, there was little to suggest that the trend would not continue, IOM said.
“This report is a call for preventive action, to use data and other tools to anticipate displacement before it happens and for the humanitarian and development sectors to work together with governments to develop longer-term solutions to prevent displacement,” Ms Pope stressed.
Displacement caused by conflict and violence remains high and continues to be a major cause for displacement, although it did decrease slightly in 2024, compared to the previous 12 months, according to the report.
More than 20 million conflict-related displacements have been recorded, and almost half of these stem from Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“These latest numbers prove that internal displacement is not just a humanitarian crisis; it’s a clear development and political challenge that requires far more attention than it currently receives,” Alexandra Bilak, an IOM official, said.
“The cost of inaction is rising, and displaced people are paying the price,” Bilak, who is IOM’s Director of Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, added. (NAN)
