Global Report on Internal Displacement 2025

The Global Picture: Conflict & Disasters Overlap, Eroding Resilience (Part 4)

The data presented in this report differentiates between conflict and disasters as triggers of displacement, but the reality is that in many countries their drivers and impacts are intertwined, making crises more complex and prolonging the plight of those displaced. All but four of the 49 countries and territories where conflict displacements were identified last year also recorded disaster displacements. The number of countries reporting both has tripled since 2009. 

The increase is in part the result of greater data avail- ability, but it also shows a clear trend. Some of the world’s largest and most protracted conflict displacement situations are increasingly affected by disasters such as floods and storms, and this combination further erodes IDPs’ resilience. 

An analysis of data from IDMC and the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN), which assesses countries’ vulnerability and ability to adapt to climate change, reveals that more than three-quarters of people internally displaced by conflict and violence as of the end of 2024 were living in countries with high or very high vulnerability to climate change. 

​The events that unfolded last year in Nigeria’s north-eastern state of Borno, which is home to nearly half of the country’s 3.4 million people displaced by conflict and violence, illustrates this reality. Severe floods took place during the rainy season against the backdrop of a government-led initiative to close all displacement camps in the state by the end of 2024. Seventeen had been closed by June, but some had to reopen to host people fleeing the floods, which facilitated the provision of humanitarian aid. Even after the flood waters receded, some IDPs had to stay in camps as they kept facing challenges to recover their livelihoods. 

Above-average rainfall also triggered flood displacements in the eastern provinces of DRC, which have long been affected by conflict. Roads between major urban areas were inundated or blockaded by non-state armed groups, cutting the delivery of much needed aid to hundreds of thousands of IDPs. The combined effects of conflict and floods aggravated sanitary conditions and increased waterborne diseases, whilst reducing agricultural production and heightening food insecurity. 

Yemen reported its highest number of disaster displacements on record last year. Most took place in Al Hodeidah, Hajjah and Ma’rib governorates, which are home to nearly half of the country’s 4.8 million IDPs, and forced some to flee again. The floods also moved landmines and unexploded ordnance, increasing the number of casualties and injuries and hampering the delivery of aid to those displaced. 

In Mozambique and Myanmar, cyclones Chido and Yagi hit populations already uprooted by conflict and violence, prolonging their displacement and delaying their recovery. Similar events had affected the same areas and vulnerable population groups in previous years. The list goes on. From Afghanistan to the Philippines and from South Sudan to Syria, the overlapping impacts of conflict and disasters continue to set back IDPs’ prospects of putting an end to their displacement. 

​Disasters are likely to continue to trigger repeated displacement, prolong the plight of those already uprooted, and undermine durable solutions and sustainable development efforts. Such considerations make building disaster resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries an ever-present imperative 
 
Global Report on Internal Displacement 2025. Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Norwegian Refugee Council. Geneva, Switzerland.