UN chief hopes number of internally displaced cut by half

United Nations, Feb 24  The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed hope that the head of the countries will commit at the World Humanitarian Summit in May to reducing internal displacement across the globe by at least 50 percent by 2030.

He made the remarks on Tuesday while visiting a camp of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Goma in Congo, Xinhua quoted UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric as saying.

Visiting a camp of IDPs, Ban was deeply moved by what he saw and heard. "He stressed that the number of displaced people has never been higher and that the international community needs to improve the way humanitarian assistance and development support are provided to ensure that no one is left behind," said Dujarric.

"This will be one of the main objectives of the World Humanitarian Summit he is convening in Istanbul in May," the spokesman said, referring to the first such summit in the UN history which is to be held in Turkey.

Ban said he hoped that world leaders will commit to reducing internal displacement by at least 50 percent by 2030, the spokesman said.

The growing number of refugees around the world is overshadowed by even greater numbers of internally displaced people, who have not crossed an international border in search of shelter and safety.

As of the end of 2014, a record-breaking 38 million people were forcibly displaced within their own country by violence, up from 33.3 million for 2013.

A massive 11 million of these IDPs were newly uprooted during 2014, equal to 30,000 people a day, reports said.

In mid-2014, the UN refugee agency cared for around 26 million of the world's IDP population at that time. Like refugees, they were forcibly displaced by conflict, generalised violence and human rights violations.

The UN Refugee Agency helps IDPs as part of a wider intervention by the international community.

It is reported that the majority of the increase in new displacement during 2014 was the result of protracted crises in Congo, Iraq, Nigeria, South Sudan and Syria. The five countries accounted for 60 percent of new displacement worldwide.