A staggering total of 120 million people are living forcibly displaced by war, violence and persecution, the UN said Thursday, branding the ever-increasing number a “terrible indictment on the state of the world”.
The United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR said forced displacement globally had once again smashed records, with conflicts in places like Gaza, Sudan and Myanmar forcing even more people to flee their homes.
The global displaced population is now equivalent to that of Japan, it pointed out in a statement.
“Conflict remains a very, very big driver of mass displacement,” UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi told reporters.
At the end of last year, 117.3 million people were displaced, UNHCR said in a report.
And by the end of April, the number had swelled further, with an estimated 120 million people around the world living in displacement.
The number is up from 110 million a year ago, and has been rising for 12 consecutive years — nearly tripling since 2012 amid a combination of new and mutating crises and a failure to resolve long-standing ones, UNHCR said.
Grandi told AFP he had been shocked at the high displacement figure when he took the job eight years ago.
Since then it has “more than doubled”, he said, describing this as “a terrible indictment on the state of the world”.
– Figures will keep rising –
Grandi pointed to a palpable increase in crises, and also highlighted how climate change is impacting population movement and driving conflicts.
UNHCR last year declared 43 emergencies across 29 countries — more than four times what was common just a few years ago, he told reporters.
In particular, Grandi noted “the way conflicts are conducted … in complete disregard” of international law, and “often with the specific purpose of terrorising people”.
“This of course is a powerful contributor to more displacement.”
Grandi acknowledged there currently seemed to be little hope of bucking the trend.
“Unless there is a shift in international geopolitics, unfortunately, I actually see the figure continuing to go up,” he said.
Of the 117.3 million displaced at the end of 2023, 68.3 million people were internally displaced within their own country, Thursday’s report showed.
The number of refugees and others in need of international protection meanwhile climbed to 43.4 million, it said.
UNHCR countered the perception that all refugees and other migrants go to wealthy countries.
“The vast majority of refugees are hosted in countries neighbouring their own, with 75 per cent residing in low- and middle-income countries that together produce less than 20 per cent of the world’s income,” it said.
– ‘Human tragedies’ –
Sudan’s civil war has been a key factor driving up the numbers.
Since the war broke out in April 2023 between rival generals, it has displaced more than nine million more people, leaving nearly 11 million Sudanese uprooted at the end of 2023, UNHCR said.
The numbers were still rising. Grandi pointed to the many still fleeing to neighbouring Chad, which has received some 600,000 Sudanese in the past 14 months.
“Hundreds and hundreds every day are crossing from one devastated country to one of the poorest countries in the world,” he told AFP.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo and Myanmar, millions more people were also internally displaced last year by vicious fighting.
And in the Gaza Strip, the UN estimates 1.7 million people — 75 per cent of the population — have been displaced by the war sparked eight months ago by Hamas’s October 7 attack inside Israel.
As for the war raging in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the UN estimated that around 750,000 people became newly displaced inside the country last year, with a total of 3.7 million internally displaced people registered by the end of 2023.
The number of Ukrainian refugees and asylum-seekers increased by over 275,000 to six million, it said.
Syria remains the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 13.8 million people forcibly displaced inside and outside the country, UNHCR said.
AFP
German authorities deported at least 137 Nigerian citizens across five chartered flights between February and June 2026, according to migration monitoring reports.
Data from the DERS Team and Refugees4refugees.org shows the deportations occurred in phases, with 27 Nigerians returned in February, 37 in March through a joint European Union operation, 24 in April, 23 in May, and 26 in June.
The February operation departed from Stuttgart and landed at Lagos Cargo Airport, with Baden-Württemberg listed as a primary participant. The March operation represented the largest single return of Nigerians recorded over three years and was executed in collaboration with Spain, Austria, and Belgium.
The reports indicate a growing reliance on multi-national chartered flights by European states to repatriate undocumented or non-resident individuals to Nigeria.
The United States has condemned the killing of members of the family of Plateau-based cleric, Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo, describing the attack as horrific and urging Nigerian authorities to ensure those responsible are brought to justice.
In a statement shared on X on Thursday, the US Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs expressed condolences to the victims’ families and called for stronger measures to prevent further attacks on vulnerable communities across Nigeria’s Middle Belt.
“The United States strongly condemns the horrific killing of members of Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo’s family in Plateau State, Nigeria. The continued violence targeting Christian communities and other vulnerable populations in Nigeria’s Middle Belt is deeply alarming,” the bureau said
The US said it had already engaged Nigerian officials on the worsening security situation, stressing that urgent action was needed to curb recurring attacks and hold perpetrators accountable.
“As I discussed last week with Nigerian officials, we must do more to prevent violent acts. The perpetrators must be held accountable, and urgent action is needed to strengthen security and protect Christians and other vulnerable communities,” the statement added.
The bureau reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to working with the Nigerian government to combat terrorism and violent extremism, stressing that Christians and other Nigerians should be able to practise their faith without fear of violence.
The statement followed the July 12 attack on Kum community in Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State, where nine members of Rev. Dachomo’s extended family, including a two-month-old baby, were killed.
According to the cleric, the attackers, believed to be armed Fulani militias, asked for him by name before opening fire on his relatives.
Dachomo, who serves as Regional Chairman of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, said his family had repeatedly been targeted because of his outspoken criticism of the violence in Plateau State.
He recalled that his grandmother and an uncle were also killed in previous attacks, adding that days after burying his relatives, he received a written death threat from the same group, warning that he would be their next target.
Saudi Arabia has updated its tourist eVisa programme for 2026, limiting eligibility in Africa to only three countries as part of its list of 66 nations whose citizens can apply through the Kingdom’s online visa platform.
The move leaves most African countries, including Nigeria, outside the simplified entry scheme.
The electronic visa allows eligible travellers to visit Saudi Arabia for tourism, leisure activities, family visits and Umrah, excluding the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Applications are completed online, eliminating the need for embassy visits and lengthy visa processing.
Saudi authorities said the eVisa forms part of ongoing efforts to expand tourism, attract international visitors and simplify travel procedures through a fully digital application system. The visa is available only to citizens of approved countries and territories listed on the Kingdom’s official tourism portal.
Below is the list of African countries eligible for Saudi Arabia’s eVisa.
1. Mauritius
2. Seychelles
3. South Africa
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