Last year, violent storms, continued conflicts and violent explosions forced 40.5 million people to be displaced within their own countries.

A new report shows that conflicts and natural disasters forced someone to flee their country for the second second last year, bringing the number of internally displaced persons to a record high.

Although strict movement restrictions have been imposed on a global scale to prevent the spread of COVID-19, this situation has emerged. Observers had expected that the operation would reduce the number of displaced persons last year.

However, according to a joint report issued by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council on Thursday, 2020 will also be a sign of severe storms, continued conflicts and violent explosions, forcing 40.5 million people to be internally displaced within their own countries. (NRC).

The report shows that this is the year with the largest number of newly displaced persons in the past decade, bringing the total number of internally displaced persons worldwide to a record 55 million.

Shocking: Our latest report shows that every second second last year, a person was forced to flee his home in his country. We desperately failed to protect the world’s most vulnerable people from conflicts and disasters. https://t.co/5PSFRA98ch pic.twitter.com/rQoeqVQqva

-Jan Egeland (@NRC_Egeland) May 20, 2021

Today, the number of internally displaced persons is more than double the approximately 26 million who fled across refugees.

The head of the NRC, Jan Egeland, described the reported findings as “shocking.”

He said in a statement: “We have failed to protect the world’s most vulnerable people from conflicts and disasters.”

The report found that three-quarters of the people who fled internally last year were victims of natural disasters, especially those related to extreme weather.

The report pointed out that strong cyclones, monsoon rains and floods have hit highly exposed and densely populated areas in Asia and the Pacific, while the Atlantic hurricane season is “the most active” season on record.

“The prolonged rainy season in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa has uprooted millions of people.”

Experts say that climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of such extreme weather events.

The report says that in addition, nearly 10 million of the newly displaced people last year are fleeing conflict and violence.

“Last year, of the nearly 10 million people displaced by the conflict, most were in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [the Democratic Republic of the Congo], Syria and Ethiopia. “Egeland said. “Despite the lockdown and violent attacks on COVID, these people still risk their lives to flee. “

The report added that the escalation of violence and the expansion of armed groups in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Burkina Faso have exacerbated the world’s fastest-growing displacement crisis last year.

Protracted conflicts such as Syria, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to force many people to flee.

Unlike disaster-driven displacement, the latter is usually short-lived because once the storm has passed, people return to rebuild damaged or destroyed houses, but displacement caused by conflict can last for years.

The report said that at the end of last year, of the 55 million internally displaced persons, all but 7 million had fled the conflict.

It also warned that the fusion of conflicts and natural disasters made the problem worse, with 95% of displacements from new conflicts last year occurring in countries vulnerable to climate change.

“Climate change and the overexploitation of natural resources may exacerbate instability and conflict, which in turn may trigger displacement.”