The total number of people internally displaced by armed conflict, generalised violence and human rights violations worldwide as of the end of 2012 was estimated to be 28.8 million. This represents an increase of 2.4 million on the previous year, and is the highest figure IDMC has ever recorded. Around 6.5 million people were newly displaced, almost twice as many as the 3.5 million during 2011.

In 2011, 14.9 million people were internally displaced throughout the world due to natural disasters, mostly related to weather events such as floods and storms. 89% of the displacement occurred in Asia.

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The National Commission on Land and Other Properties (Commission Nationale des Terres et Autres Biens or CNTB) in collaboration with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and its Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) organised a workshop on the role of the CNTB in promoting durable solutions for internally displaced people (IDPs), on 10 November 2011 at Chez André in Bujumbura.  

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n recent decades, many cities and towns around the world have seen dramatic population growth, with significant inflows from rural areas. People forcibly displaced by armed conflict, violence or natural disasters have moved to urban areas in search of greater security, better access to basic services and greater economic opportunities.

Displacement continues to rise in the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. But the good news is that this year’s Global Overview shows a steady decline in IDP numbers in Africa, dating back from 2004. This positive trend gives us hope. Indeed, the African continent remains at the forefront of policy development in support of IDP rights. In 2009, the African Union adopted the Kampala Convention – the first ever instrument for the protection and assistance of IDPs to bind countries across a whole continent.

According to the government agency Acción Social, around six per cent of national territory has been abandoned, while between 3.3 and 4.9 million people have been displaced by conflict and violence in Colombia. Roughly half of the internally displaced families owned or occupied land before their displacement. Almost all of them have lost it as a result.

Armed conflict broke out in Côte d’Ivoire in 2002, which caused the country to be divided in two: the north under the control of the Forces Nouvelles rebels and the south in the hands of the government. It also caused the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. In the west of the country, and in particular in the two regions of Moyen Cavally and Dix-Huit Montagnes, the crisis provoked a series of successive displacements involving population groups with competing claims over land.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been internally displaced in Zimbabwe as a result of the actions of their own government.

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In the north-western department of Chocó, near Colombia’s border with Panama, forcibly displaced people have established “Humanitarian Zones” in a bid to hang on to their land and livelihoods. (...)

Joint handbook by OCHA/IDD, UN HABITAT, UNHCR, FAO, OHCHR, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)

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Para Que Se Sepa – in English Let It Be Known – is a compilation of life stories told by people displaced by Colombia’s years of internal armed conflict and massive human rights violations.

Internal displacement in Kenya is a complex and multi-faceted social problem that revolves around and reflects unresolved issues of land and property, as well as the struggle for the control of political and economic resources. (...)

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