Wars and extreme weather conditions have driven up the number of people in Africa who are fleeing within their own country.

A report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), published in Geneva on Tuesday, says around 35 million Africans live as refugees and displaced people within their own countries as of 2023.

According to the report, the number of internally displaced people has tripled within 15 years. Almost half of all internally displaced people worldwide live on the African continent.

Most of them, or 32.5 million people, have fled from violence and armed conflicts.

Five countries – Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Somalia – accommodate 80 per cent of the refugees and displaced people.

Many of these people are forced to flee over a longer period or multiple times.

However, extreme weather conditions such as droughts and floods are increasingly becoming causes of flight.

According to the report, the number of internally displaced people rose from 1.1 million in 2009 to 6.3 million at the end of last year.

Since more extreme weather events are expected as a result of climate change, the number of people fleeing from natural disasters is likely to continue to rise.

In some countries, such as Somalia and Sudan, the causes of flight also overlap, with people first fleeing from conflict, and later from flooding, for example. 

(dpa/NAN)