Conflict in Sudan, the Palestinian territories, and beyond drove the number of internally displaced people to 75.9 million by the end of 2023, according to data released by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, or IDMC, today.
It’s a figure that’s gone up every year for the last seven years, with the vast majority of those displaced within their own countries — 68.3 million — forced to flee their homes due to conflict, and 7.7 million displaced due to disasters.
“We have never, ever recorded so many people forced away from their homes and communities,” said Jan Egeland, the secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, in a press release. “It is a damning verdict on the failures of conflict prevention and peace-making.”