Figure 1.11: Countries with most people internally displaced by conflict and violence as of the end of 2016 Source: IDMC People internally displaced amid ongoing conflict live in flux, and are likely to become displaced again, whether within or across borders. Multiple and chronic displacement is commonplace in DRC, while IDPs in Syria have been compelled to flee as many as 25 times because a single move has not protected them from constantly shifting frontlines and the breakdown of basic services.59 Each displacement chips away at IDPs’ resilience and self-reliance and increases their vulnerability and impoverishment.60 Some conflicts and the displacement they cause may fall off the international radar and become overshadowed by “newer” crises. Because their underlying drivers go unaddressed, they resurface cyclically when a new wave of violence and displacement erupts. DRC is a striking case in point. There were more than 920,000 new displacements associated with conflict in 2016, the highest in the world, but its crisis received very little international media attention during the year. additional strain on already weak institutions.61 As a result, IDPs have little chance of achieving durable solutions, and the protracted nature of their plight solidifies with each passing year. The remaining 13.3 million IDPs live in upper middle and high income countries. The prevalence of conflict and internal displacement in these wealthier income brackets means that the development community’s perception of violence is no longer associated only with low-income countries, prompting new strategies for response by organisations such as the World Bank.62 Much internal displacement takes place in lowincome countries weakened by decades of war. Two-thirds of the world’s IDPs, or 27 million people, live in low and lower middle-income countries (see figure 1.12). Every sub-Saharan African country that hosts IDPs is in this income bracket, as are most of their counterparts in the Middle East. The governments of such countries have relatively little capacity to meet their IDPs’ protection and assistance needs, and displacement puts ON THE GRID: Global internal displacement in 2016 27