Global displacement to rise by 6.7 million people by end of next year, aid group says

GENEVA: Some 6.7 million additional people are expected to be newly displaced around the world by the end of next year, the Danish Refugee Council said on Friday, just as aid cuts from key donors like the United States take effect.

The U.N. refugee agency said last year that the number of forcibly displaced people around the globe stood at over 117 million people and warned that number could rise.

“These are not cold statistics. These are families forced to flee their homes, carrying next to nothing, and searching for water, food, and shelter,” said Charlotte Slente, secretary general of the Danish Refugee Council in a statement.

Twenty-seven countries account for nearly a third of all global displacements.

The projection is based on an AI-driven model that predicts displacement trends by analysing over 100 indicators including factors such as security, politics and economics in those countries.

It forecasts that nearly a third of new displacements will be from Sudan, which is already the world’s worst refugee crisis after nearly two years of war.

Another 1.4 million people are expected to be forcibly displaced from Myanmar, the report said.

U.S. President Donald Trump is cutting billions of dollars in foreign aid programmes globally as part of a major spending overhaul by the world’s biggest aid donor.

The Danish Refugee Council is one of the aid groups hit and has had more than 20 contract terminations.

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Cuts from Washington and other key donors are already impacting refugees.

The U.N. refugee agency said that funding shortages had shuttered programmes to protect adolescent girls from child marriage in South Sudan and a safe house for displaced women in danger of being killed in Ethiopia.

“Millions are facing starvation and displacement, and just as they need us most, wealthy nations are slashing aid. It’s a betrayal of the most vulnerable,” said Slente.