Chapter 1 in the second half of 2024. During the year, 1.6 million refugees returned to their home country and 8.2 million IDPs returned to their area of origin. Over 9 in 10 refugees and IDPs returned to or within just eight countries.21 Many of those who returned did so in adverse conditions or encountered extremely fragile socio-economic situations on their return. However, by the end of April 2025, returns to and within Syria had increased. Compared to the previous years, more refugees and IDPs also expressed their intention to return in the next twelve months.22 The number of known stateless people, including people with undetermined nationality, totalled 4.4 million at end-2024. While this figure is broadly in line with the previous year’s estimate, the number of stateless people who acquired citizenship rose by 47 per cent to 47,200. In addition, several countries took important political and legislative steps to resolve and prevent statelessness. New or revised estimates of the number of stateless people were also reported for at least eight countries. Key displacement situations in 2024 Conflicts in some of the largest displacement situations escalated further during 2024, such as in Sudan and Myanmar. Gang violence in Haiti worsened with little end in sight. The war in Gaza, which remains unresolved, had a devastating impact on the civilian population. As a consequence of the regional crisis in the Middle East, displacement erupted in neighbouring Lebanon between September and November. The prolonged conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has led to one of the largest, yet also most overlooked, internal displacement crises globally, with an escalation in the eastern region in 2024. Fighting on the frontlines in the war in Ukraine remains intense and was combined with coordinated aerial attacks. As active fighting has largely ceased in Afghanistan, countries hosting large numbers of asylum-seekers are enacting policies to remove millions of Afghans. In the year’s most unforeseen development, after the Assad government in Syria fell in December, there were renewed hopes among forcibly displaced Syrians that they would be able to return. Forced displacement from and within the Central Sahel23 grew to 3.5 million people due to intensifying conflicts in the region, an increase by 89 per cent from end-2020. For more information about Myanmar, Syria and the countries in the Sahel, see the Spotlights on these situations below. The war in Sudan triggered the world’s largest displacement crisis with a total of 14.3 million Sudanese remaining displaced at the end of 2024, almost all within the country or in neighbouring countries. This was 3.5 million more people than 12 months prior and the population remaining displaced at the end of 2024 represents nearly one in three of the national population. Amid further escalations of conflict across large parts of the country during the year, more people in Sudan became internally displaced. The number of IDPs grew by 2.5 million (+28 per cent), with the majority of them originating from the heavily affected regions of Khartoum, Southern and Northern Darfur and Aj Jazirah.24 The overall rate of internal displacement in Sudan slowed towards the end of 2024. In early 2025, data indicated that the number of IDPs had decreased, as they began to return.25 However, the situation remains critical across the majority of Darfur. An attack on the Zamzam IDP Camp in North Darfur in April 2025, led to the displacement of more than 406,000 people or 81 per cent of the total population hosted in the camp.26 The number of Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers also grew to reach 2.8 million at the end of 2024, up by more than a million. Most sought safety in Chad (1.1 million at end-year), Egypt (602,700)27 and South Sudan (487,700). While generously extending protection to Sudanese refugees, South Sudan is also grappling with its own challenges. For example, reabsorbing the nearly three-quarters of a million South Sudanese refugees who have returned since the beginning of the conflict in April 2023, 404,700 of whom arrived in 2024 alone. 21 These were Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine. 22 See the section on the spotlight on the Syria situation below. 23 The Central Sahel comprises three countries: Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. 24 See Sudan Mobility Overview (4), International Organization for Migration (IOM). 25 See Two Years of Conflict in Sudan: Visualizing the World’s Largest Displacement Crisis, IOM 26 See DTM Sudan Focused Flash Alert: Al Fasher (Zamzam IDP Camp), North Darfur (Update 008), IOM. 27 As of December 2024, 930,000 Sudanese were registered by UNHCR in Egypt as asylum-seekers. The Government of Egypt reported 1.5 million Sudanese people having arrived in the country since the onset of the crisis. See also the Sudan Situation on the Operational Data Portal. 8 UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2024