More than 50 million people live in exile in their own country after fleeing war or disasters, a population particularly vulnerable to the risks associated with the pandemic of new coronavirus, alerted Tuesday the Observatory of situations of internal displacement (IDMC). No less than 33.4 million people had to leave their homes in 2019 while remaining in their country, bringing the total number of internally displaced to 50.8 million, a record, according to the annual report of the IDMC and the Council Norwegian Refugee Agency (NRC).
This figure is much higher than the 26 million refugees outside the borders of their countries. The displaced "are often very vulnerable people living in overcrowded camps, emergency shelters and informal settlements with little or no access to medical care," said IDMC director Alexandra Bilak in a statement. communicated. "The global coronavirus pandemic makes them even more vulnerable" in that it "weakens their already precarious living conditions by further limiting their access to essential services and humanitarian aid," she added.
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Of the 33.4 million newly displaced, 24.9 million have been forced to flee due to natural disasters. Among them, 4.5 million were thrown on the roads by cyclone Fani which swept through India and Bangladesh, cyclones Idai and Kenneth in Mozambique and hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas. Two million fled the rainstorms and floods in Africa. The vast majority of these people were evacuated before the storms arose and were then able to return to their homes. Just over 5 million people were considered displaced due to natural disasters in late 2019.
With the pandemic, explains Alexandra Bilak, it may be more difficult to evacuate people before a weather disaster because crowding them in shelters increases the risk of contagion. "It will be difficult to find a balance between humanitarian aid and the fight against the spread of the Covid," she said.
Finally, 8.5 million were internally displaced last year due to armed conflicts in 61 countries, including Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and South Sudan, carrying the total to 45.7 million, including 6.5 million in Syria, a country ravaged by nine years of war.