Last year alone, 20.5 million people became refugees in their own countries, two-thirds of them in three territories: Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Palestine, the IDMC advanced in its annual report, released today.

These people joined, last year, many others who have been living for years displaced from their homes to escape violence within their own countries.

Wars, conflicts and violence caused almost 70 million people to become internally displaced, with almost half of this world population being in Sudan, Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Colombia and Yemen.

The number has increased by 49% in the last five years, fueled by the escalation of recent and prolonged conflicts in Ethiopia, the DRC, Sudan and Ukraine, the document highlighted.

Although the vast majority of internally displaced persons flee conflicts, there are increasingly more refugees caused by climate reasons, the report prepared by the IDMC stressed.

Catastrophes such as floods, storms, earthquakes and forest fires caused more than 26 million internal displacements in 2023 -- 56% of the total global displacements, pointed out the organization created by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

This type of disaster was reported in 148 countries and territories during the year 2023, causing the third largest number of internally displaced persons in the last decade.

Even so, displacements associated with climate-related disasters decreased by a third compared to 2022, partly due to the change in climate phenomena from La Niña to El Niño during the year.

The two climate phenomena are linked to the surface temperatures of the waters of the Central and Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean, with the first case registering a decrease in temperature and, in the case of El Niño, an increase.

Both are responsible for a series of significant changes in precipitation and temperature patterns in various geographical areas of the planet.

Storms and floods led to fewer displacements in most of Asia, but floods in other areas caused record numbers of internally displaced persons, especially in the Horn of Africa.

The largest number of displacements due to catastrophes occurred in the East Asia and Pacific regions (nine million) and in Sub-Saharan Africa (six million).

The report listed some of the most worrying situations of the past year, recalling the forest fires in Canada and the cyclone 'Gabrielle' in New Zealand which "led both countries to report the highest numbers of displacements due to disasters ever".

The IDMC document also highlighted the earthquakes registered in the world in 2023, adding that these natural disasters caused 6.1 million displacements, the highest number since 2008, with most of them being registered in Turkey and Syria, but also in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Morocco.

"Although data gaps on the duration of displacement due to disasters make this number conservative, it is demonstrated that, like conflicts, catastrophes can keep people displaced for long periods of time", alerted the monitoring center.

The total number of internally displaced persons -- whether due to conflicts or natural catastrophes -- was 75.9 million people at the end of last year, the report concluded, underlining that the value represents an increase in relation to 2022, when the number was 71.1 million people.

"The ongoing increase in conflicts worldwide is forcing millions more people to flee their homes and making it harder to find solutions", affirmed the leader of the IDMC, Robert Piper, who is special advisor to the UN Secretary-General for solutions for internal displacements.

According to the official, it is essential to give visibility to internally displaced persons in order to reduce the problem.

"We see horrible images of people fleeing violence, of houses destroyed by bombs, storms, forest fires and earthquakes, makeshift camps filled with families who have lost everything. The images of Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan are just the most recent in a trend of increasing displacement of civilians worldwide. But when the cameras move away, these people forced to abandon their homes often become invisible", he stressed.

These people, who "struggle to survive and rebuild their lives, did not choose this destiny", stressed the representative, defending that they should have the same rights as any other citizen, but often do not have the same opportunities.

"It can take months or even years until internally displaced persons stop needing help and protection and finding lasting solutions for displacement is never easy", admitted Robert Piper, adding that "being invisible does not help".

Therefore, the advisor to António Guterres appealed for "strong government leadership, international support and funding and a genuine commitment to listening to the internally displaced persons themselves" to try to find "clear paths for concrete solutions".

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