Over 50 million people internally
displaced last year
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| Displaced Somalis eat at a makeshift camp near Mogadishu |
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre releases its
annual report detailing the threat Covid-19 poses to the world’s 50.8 million
internally displaced people.
By Nathan Morley
A new report shows nearly 51 million people around the world
have been internally displaced due to natural disasters or conflict, with the
Covid-19 virus posing a new threat.
New data shows an all-time high number of people were
internally displaced in their home countries due to natural disasters and war
in 2019.
Covid-19 threat
According to the Geneva-based Internal Displacement
Monitoring Centre (IDMC), the world reached a record 50.8 million internally
displaced people last year – a figure which could be exacerbated by the
Covid-19 pandemic.
“The global coronavirus pandemic will make them more
vulnerable still and compromise their already precarious living conditions by
further limiting their access to essential services and humanitarian aid,” IDMC
director Alexandra Bilak said.
Forced to flee
The report shows that a staggering 8.5 million people fled
their homes in 2019 in countries like Syria, South Sudan, the Democratic
Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.
Climate disasters – such as the Australian bush fires - were
the largest source of displacement worldwide, causing almost 25 million people
to flee their homes last year.
Elsewhere, over 4 million people were forced to up-sticks by
Cyclone Fani in India and Bangladesh, Cyclones Idai and Kenneth in Mozambique,
and Hurricane Dorian in the Caribbean.
The report points out that more could be done to fight
climate change and to prepare for natural disasters, given that so many people
were left homeless after cyclones and floods last year.
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