12 July 2021 – by Evelyn Workman
Extreme weather events displaced three times as many people as violent conflicts in 2020, according to figures published in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). The report studies the number of displacements happening within borders each year.
The report, which is released annually, studies the number of displacements happening within borders each year. It reported that there were at least 40 million new internal displacements recorded last year, which is the highest annual figure in 10 years. 30 million of these displacements were the result of natural disasters, such as floods and storms. The other 10 million new displacements were driven by violence and conflict. The figures refer to the total number of times people were forced to flee, rather than the overall number of people.
The report found that 80% of people forced from their homes in 2020 were in Africa and Asia. In Africa most new displacements were due to conflict. Violence in countries such as Burkina Faso and Mozambique and new wars erupting in countries like Ethiopia have caused 6.8 million displacements in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, heavy rainfall brought flooding and crop damage to countries already affected by violence, such as Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Niger, forcing people who were already displaced to flee again, according to the report. Extreme weather related disasters of this nature resulted in 4.3 million displacements in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020.
In Asia, most displacement was caused by extreme weather events. For example, Cyclone Amphan triggered around five million displacements across Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Myanmar. The Atlantic hurricane season was also the most active on record last year, and included Hurricanes Eta and Iota which wreaked havoc across Central America, causing many people to flee coastal areas where damage was the greatest.
The climate crisis is expected to displace more people in the future due to extreme weather events, and longer-term climate related consequences such as crop failure. It is understood that a warming climate is exacerbating extreme weather events by making them occur more frequently and more intensely. The IDMC report stated, “Every year, millions of people are forced to flee their homes because of conflict and violence. Disasters and the effects of climate change regularly trigger new and secondary displacement, undermining people’s security and wellbeing. The scale of displacement worldwide is increasing, and most of it is happening within countries’ borders.”
