Chapter 4 IDP population (millions) Figure 11 | IDPs of concern to UNHCR vs Global number of conflict-generated IDPs | 1997-2017 (end-year) 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 ‘97 ‘98 ‘99 ‘00 ‘01 Conflict-generated IDPs* ‘02 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 ‘07 ‘08 IDPs of concern to UNHCR ** ‘09 ‘10 ‘11 ‘12 ‘13 ‘14 ‘15 ‘16 ‘17 * IDMC. ** includes people in an IDP-like situation from 2007. Syria remained the country with the second-highest IDP population, despite a decrease from 6.3 million at the end of 2016 to 6.2 million at the end of 2017. However, unlike Colombia, this end-year population was the result of both increases and decreases. The protracted conflict increased the IDP population in Syria by some 2.9 million, while, at the same time, 597,200 IDPs returned to their areas of origin. In addition, 2.5 million other decreases were mainly due to statistical adjustments based on the endyear IDP population provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The IDP population in the DRC continued to increase substantially from 1.6 million at the end of 2015 to 2.2 million at end-2016 and then almost doubling to 4.4 million by end-2017. The volatile security situation in the eastern provinces provoked nearly 1.9 million new displacements. Some 255,600 displaced people returned home, nearly half of them with UNHCR assistance. The situation in the DRC is described in more detail on page 36. As in Syria, the IDP population in Iraq decreased, although it still remained large. The total Iraqi IDP population decreased by nearly 1.0 million, from 3.6 million to 2.6 million over the course of 2017. Some 1.5 million displaced people returned home, nearly half a million with UNHCR assistance. At the same time, nearly 558,300 people were newly displaced in the country. 34 Some 2.1 million people were internally displaced in Somalia at the end of 2017, making this the fifthlargest IDP population. The IDP population increased by some 569,300 due to new displacements. Other countries with an IDP population of over 1.0 million reported at the end of 2017 included Yemen (2.0 million), Sudan (2.0 million), South Sudan (1.9 million), Afghanistan (1.8 million), Ukraine (1.8 million), Nigeria (1.7 million), and Ethiopia (1.1 million). Over the course of 2017, nearly 8.5 million IDPs were forced to move within their countries due to conflict and violence, according to data reported by UNHCR offices. This number is almost twice as high as in 2016 (4.9 million) and close to the record of 8.6 million people newly internally displaced in 2014. More than 2.9 million people were newly displaced in Syria, followed by the DRC (1.9 million), South Sudan (595,800), Somalia (569,300), Iraq (558,300), and the Philippines (543,000). During 2017, the 2.9 million new displacements in Syria happened mainly because of multiple military operations in various parts of the country. 44 It included operations of Free Syrian Army factions under the banner of the Euphrates Shield, military operations in the eastern countryside of Aleppo governorate, the launch of a large-scale offensive 44 See: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/ idpmovements_jandec2017_final.pdf. unhcr > Global trends 2017