WORLD

A record 33.3 million people around the world had been internally displaced by conflict at the end of 2013—that’s 4.5 million more than 2012, an international report said this week. (Reuters)

Use our mapping resources to better understand internally displaced people, refugees, and asylum-seekers.

Discussion Ideas

• According to the Reuters article and the Norwegian Refugee Council, most internally displaced persons (IDPs) forced to migrate due to conflict live in just five countries. What are these five countries? What is the primary source of conflict in each?
  • Syria: Syria has been engaged in a brutal civil war for more than three years. Use our resources to better address the Syrian refugee crisis.
  • Colombia: Colombia endures constant conflict between the government and paramilitary organizations on one side and grass-roots guerrillas on the other. Use our resources to understand that Colombia is not defined by these conflicts.
  • Nigeria: Nigeria has nearly split into two regions, with the north dominated by the terrorist organization Boko Haram. Use our resources to better understand Boko Haram.
  • Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): The DRC has endured decades of land-use, ethnic, and religious conflict. The recent Ituri conflict had its roots in land use. The Lendu people practice agriculture, while the Hema people are semi-nomadic pastoralists. The recent Kivu conflict was waged between the government and rebel Tutsi, and then Hutu, militia groups. The Lord’s Resistance Army, a radical Christian militia movement mostly active in neighboring Uganda and South Sudan, has also been reported in the DRC. Use our resources to trace the dwindling movement of the Lord’s Resistance Army through central Africa.
  • Sudan: Sudan’s Darfur region endures conflict between the Sudanese government and rebel groups who accuse the government of oppressing Sudan’s non-Arab population. The conflict has resulted in the indictment of Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity. A border conflict with South Sudan has also simmered since South Sudan achieved independence in 2011. Use our resources to learn more about the refugee crisis in Sudan and South Sudan.

• The Reuters article says that the 33.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) fled conflict. Why else would people flee their homes and communities?
  • Natural hazards, such as drought, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, wildfires, or flooding.
  • Accidents or man-made hazards, such as factory fires, mine disasters, or contaminated water.

• Our media spotlight, “Mapping Displaced People Around the World,” says that “[t]he vast majority of displaced people come from the developing world.” Not all, though. What developed, industrialized nations have experienced large numbers of IDPs in the 21st century?
  • England and Wales: Many people were displaced and forced to rebuild their homes after floods devastated Great Britain in 2014 and 2007.
  • Japan: Thousands were forced to evacuate towns surrounding the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant after a tsunami led to the meltdown of three nuclear reactors in 2011.
  • Australia: Thousands of people were left homeless following the nation’s worst natural disaster, the so-called Black Saturday Bushfires in 2007.
  • United States: The population of New Orleans, Louisiana, has still not recovered from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in 2005.