Chapter 4
people remained an overarching priority, it became
increasingly clear that a significant majority of current
IDPs may not return to their area of origin.58 In the
aftermath of the Government of Iraq’s conflict with the
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) armed group,
protection remained a crucial humanitarian priority.63
According to official statistics, 1.5 million people were
registered as internally displaced with the Ukrainian
authorities. Of these, the United Nations estimated
that 800,000 resided permanently in Governmentcontrolled areas, while others moved frequently
across the “contact line” or registered as IDPs to
maintain access to their pensions. Most of those
displaced had been living in displacement since the
peak of hostilities in 2014, unable to return home in
the absence of a sustained peace.64
Cameroon experienced a trebling of its internally
displaced population from 221,700 at the start of 2018
to 668,500 at the end, with over half a million new
displacements. While the majority of IDPs continued
to flee violence from the Southwest and Northwest
regions, the incidence of internal displacement in the
Far North slowed gradually amid increasing numbers
of returns to the region.65 People in the Far North were
especially vulnerable due to loss of property, limited
access to services, and general mistrust and
stigmatization by community members on suspicion of
collaboration and affiliation with Boko Haram.58
inter-communal violence in various pockets of the
country over territory, pasture and water rights in
pastoralist and agro-pastoralist areas along regional
boundaries.66
Other countries with high levels of new internal
displacement included Somalia (602,700), Nigeria
(581,700), Cameroon (514,500), Afghanistan (343,300),
DRC (322,000), CAR (266,400), Yemen (264,300),
Syria (256,700), the Philippines (212,600), Iraq
(150,200), Colombia (118,100), Mali (82,100), Niger
(51,800), Burkina Faso (44,700), Libya (33,200) and
Congo (30,200).
As in previous years, Iraq continued to have the
highest number of returns in 2018 with close to 1
million people (945,000) returning to their localities
of origin. This was followed by the Philippines with
445,700 returns, the vast majority of which were to
locations on the island of Mindanao. CAR also saw
306,200 returns, followed by Nigeria (176,200),
Yemen (133,600), Pakistan (83,500), Afghanistan
(73,500), Cameroon (67,700) and Libya (43,700). ■
Other countries with significant IDP populations
reported at the end of 2018 included CAR (641,000),
Azerbaijan (620,400), Myanmar (370,300) and
Georgia (282,400).
Over the course of 2018, about 5.4 million people
were forced to move within their countries due to
conflict and violence, according to data reported by
UNHCR offices. [Figure 16]. This is a significant
reduction compared with 2017 (8.5 million) and similar
to 2016 (4.9 million).
The dramatic increase of over 1.5 million internally
displaced people in Ethiopia was mainly the result of
unhcr > Global trends 2018
63 “2019 Humanitarian needs overview:– Iraq”. See: www.
humanitarianresponse.info/sites/www.humanitarianresponse.info/
files/documents/files/2019_hno_irq_28122018.pdf
64 “2019 Humanitarian needs overview:– Ukraine”. See: www.
humanitarianresponse.info/sites/www.humanitarianresponse.
info/files/documents/files/ukraine_2019_humanitarian_needs_
overview_en.pdf
65 “2018 Apercu des besoins humanitaires: – Cameroon”. See: www.
humanitarianresponse.info/sites/www.humanitarianresponse.info/
files/documents/files/cmr_hno18_v1.3_light.pdf
66 “Ethiopia humanitarian needs overview 2019”. See: www.
humanitarianresponse.info/sites/www.humanitarianresponse.
info/files/documents/files/ethiopia_humanitarian_needs_
overview_2019.pdf
39