Report: 71M Internally Displaced by War, Disasters Worldwide

Facts

• According to the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre on Thursday, the number of people internally displaced by conflicts and natural disasters has risen 20% since 2021, hitting a record high of 71M people fleeing in search of safety and shelter in 2022.¹
• The nonprofit’s secretary general, Jan Egeland, said the global food crisis — worsened by the war in Ukraine — mixed with natural disasters and the ongoing effects of the pandemic created a "perfect storm."²
• Increases in displacement due to war include 5.9M people forced to move inside Ukraine because of Russia — which brought the total to 62M. In Syria, 6.8M were displaced by conflict after more than a decade of civil war.³
• Most uprooting last year was due to natural disasters such as floods, droughts, and landslides, with Egeland adding that these phenomena "combined...to aggravate people's pre-existing vulnerabilities and inequalities, triggering displacement on a scale never seen before."⁴
• The nonprofit said the La Nina weather pattern, which continued for a third consecutive year last year, contributed to record levels of flood displacements in Pakistan, Nigeria, and Brazil and the worst drought on record in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia.¹
• Nearly 75% of the world's internally displaced people live in 10 countries, including Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the report saying the trend hasn't slowed this year. Due to the current conflict between rival military forces in Sudan, 700k have already been displaced.²

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²Washington Post, ³ABC News, and ⁴Reuters.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by UNHCR. Military conflicts, droughts, and poverty have wreaked havoc on the most vulnerable countries in the world, and the problem is only getting worse. It is up to individual governments to find peaceful solutions to war and the global community as a whole to join hands to find solutions to both climate change and the dangerous migration routes taken by refugees. This complex global issue must be dealt with through multifaceted plans of action led by the international community collaborating together.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by American University. Since launching its so-called "war on terror," the US government has ignited devastating — and unnecessary — wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines, Libya, and Syria. Furthermore, the estimated 37M displacements are actually a lowball if you include the US-backed rebel groups in Syria. US military hegemony bears a great deal of responsibility for global displacement.

Predictions