Chapter 3
Three-quarters of all new displacements due to
disasters occurred in low- and middle-income
countries in 2024. Storms and cyclones resulted in
the displacement of just over 9 million people in the
Philippines and floods resulted in the displacement of
5.4 million people in India.
Disasters in 2024 caused people that were
already displaced due to conflict to flee again.
In 45 of the 49 countries and territories (92 per
cent) where new internal displacements due to
conflict and violence were reported by IDMC,
new displacements due to disasters were also
reported. In Chad, for example, floods led to more
than 1.3 million internal displacements, by far the
highest disaster displacement figure on record
for the country and more than in the previous
15 years combined. Almost 1.2 million people
remained displaced because of the floods at
end-year, 12 per cent of the global total.163 In the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, the impacts
of floods and storms triggered around 750,000
more displacements, with 680,000 people
remaining displaced due to the disasters at endyear.164 Meanwhile, in Myanmar, 525,000 new
displacements were brought on by floods and
storms, with 126,000 people remaining displaced at
year end. And in Sudan, between June and August
2024, flooding and heavy rains across 15 states
displaced nearly 200,000 people, including many
conflict-affected IDPs.165
AFGHANISTAN. In October 2023, the family
home of Gul Aqa, a day labourer and his
six children was damaged following a
series of devastating earthquakes in
Herat. The family took shelter in a small
room, provided by a relative in 2024.
They are looking forward to moving into
a new permanent two-room solar
powered home, supported by UNHCR.
“We are excited and happy to be moving
soon. Last winter was very hard. We
didn’t have enough to eat, nor enough
blankets and clothes,” says Gul Aqa.
© UNHCR/CAROLINE GLUCK
163 See Country profile of Chad, IDMC.
164 See Country profile of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, IDMC.
165 See Two Years of Conflict in Sudan: Visualizing the World’s Largest Displacement Crisis, IOM.
UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2024
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