t the end of 2024, 11.6 million people were displaced in Sudan; 7.4 million in Syria; 6.2 million in the Democratic Republic of Congo—and the list goes on.
According to a 2025 report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, there were a record 83.4 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the end of last year. Like refugees, IDPs have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict, violence, or natural disasters. However, unlike refugees, they have not crossed an international border but instead remain within their home country. With few prospects to return to their homes, many IDPs have lived in protracted displacement for years.
Despite accounting for roughly 60% of the world’s displaced population, IDPs receive less aid, minimal global attention, and are largely neglected by international policy. While the world focuses on cross–border movement, it continues to overlook those displaced within domestic confines. The result is a profound legal and policy gap that must be urgently addressed.
Where the IDP crisis is most evident
Nowhere in the world is the plight of IDPs more dire than in sub–Saharan Africa. At the close of 2024, the region was home to nearly half of the world’s IDPs due to long–running conflicts like those in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Climate–related disasters over the years have also played a major role. In 2022 alone, there were devastating floods in Nigeria, landslides in Kenya, and a record–breaking drought in Somalia, compounding displacement crises.
The situation is most pressing in Sudan. Since the outbreak of civil war in April 2023, nearly 12 million people have been forcibly displaced, more than 7 million of whom are IDPs. International efforts to broker peace talks have repeatedly failed, and violence between the two warring parties continues unabated. Meanwhile, infrastructure has been destroyed, essential services have collapsed, and the international response remains severely underfunded and inefficient.
For many, crossing a border is not an option, as neighboring countries have closed or militarized their borders. In effect, Sudan’s IDPs are left with few options. And they are not alone; the displacement crises are paralleled for IDPs in other countries, including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Yemen. In many instances, these cases tend to receive limited coverage and protections.
A legal protection gap
This invisibility isn’t new. While refugees benefit from international legal protections under the 1951 Refugee Convention, IDPs remain in a grey zone. They haven’t crossed an international border, don’t appear in asylum statistics, and rarely make front–page news.
The most notable source of protection comes from the United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, a set of nonbinding principles created in 1998 to address the lack of specific global standards for IDPs. In contrast to refugees, there is no legally binding international convention that protects IDPs’ rights. As a result, most IDPs are dependent on domestic political will. But often, their governments are unable or unwilling to provide adequate protections, and foreign aid is inconsistent, if not severely lacking.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo—where there are over 6 million IDPs—more than three decades of conflict between the government and various rebel groups in the country’s eastern provinces have severely restricted humanitarian access and inflicted a devastating toll on basic services and infrastructure.
In Africa, 33 countries have ratified the Kampala Convention, the first legally binding continental instrument on internal displacement in the world. Adopted by the African Union in 2009, it establishes a legal framework for the rights of IDPs and the obligations states have to address and prevent internal displacement. These frameworks influenced national laws or policies in several African countries such as Chad and Niger.
However, not every member of the African Union has ratified it, including countries with serious displacement crises like Sudan. This leaves protection gaps across the continent. Meanwhile, the absence of treaties focused on IDPs in other regions speaks to a concerning lack of engagement with the issue.
What needs to change
It is critical that we recognize internal displacement as a global crisis rather than just a local issue. With tens of millions of people internally displaced by conflict, climate change, and disasters, the impacts spill across borders—fueling instability and poverty and creating migration pressures.
Yet the disparity of legal protections and aid between refugees and IDPs reveals a broader failure of the global humanitarian system. Despite facing similar violence or climate events as cross–border refugees, IDPs receive disproportionately less support. Addressing this gap demands a coordinated international response.
At the same time, countries need to invest in long–term solutions, including national protection frameworks. Countries that have not signed or ratified frameworks like the Kampala Convention should be urged to immediately do so. And donor countries and organizations should prioritize funding local humanitarian efforts and sustainable solutions rather than just providing short–term aid.
a global affairs media network
The world’s invisible majority Is internally displaced
Photo by Eugene Chystiakov on Unsplash
November 20, 2025
Internally displaced persons account for around 60% of the world’s displaced population, but the world continues to concentrate on cross–border movement. Yet this is a global problem rather than a local one, and must be addressed as such, writes Diana Roy.
A
t the end of 2024, 11.6 million people were displaced in Sudan; 7.4 million in Syria; 6.2 million in the Democratic Republic of Congo—and the list goes on.
According to a 2025 report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, there were a record 83.4 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the end of last year. Like refugees, IDPs have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict, violence, or natural disasters. However, unlike refugees, they have not crossed an international border but instead remain within their home country. With few prospects to return to their homes, many IDPs have lived in protracted displacement for years.
Despite accounting for roughly 60% of the world’s displaced population, IDPs receive less aid, minimal global attention, and are largely neglected by international policy. While the world focuses on cross–border movement, it continues to overlook those displaced within domestic confines. The result is a profound legal and policy gap that must be urgently addressed.
Where the IDP crisis is most evident
Nowhere in the world is the plight of IDPs more dire than in sub–Saharan Africa. At the close of 2024, the region was home to nearly half of the world’s IDPs due to long–running conflicts like those in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Climate–related disasters over the years have also played a major role. In 2022 alone, there were devastating floods in Nigeria, landslides in Kenya, and a record–breaking drought in Somalia, compounding displacement crises.
The situation is most pressing in Sudan. Since the outbreak of civil war in April 2023, nearly 12 million people have been forcibly displaced, more than 7 million of whom are IDPs. International efforts to broker peace talks have repeatedly failed, and violence between the two warring parties continues unabated. Meanwhile, infrastructure has been destroyed, essential services have collapsed, and the international response remains severely underfunded and inefficient.
For many, crossing a border is not an option, as neighboring countries have closed or militarized their borders. In effect, Sudan’s IDPs are left with few options. And they are not alone; the displacement crises are paralleled for IDPs in other countries, including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Yemen. In many instances, these cases tend to receive limited coverage and protections.
A legal protection gap
This invisibility isn’t new. While refugees benefit from international legal protections under the 1951 Refugee Convention, IDPs remain in a grey zone. They haven’t crossed an international border, don’t appear in asylum statistics, and rarely make front–page news.
The most notable source of protection comes from the United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, a set of nonbinding principles created in 1998 to address the lack of specific global standards for IDPs. In contrast to refugees, there is no legally binding international convention that protects IDPs’ rights. As a result, most IDPs are dependent on domestic political will. But often, their governments are unable or unwilling to provide adequate protections, and foreign aid is inconsistent, if not severely lacking.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo—where there are over 6 million IDPs—more than three decades of conflict between the government and various rebel groups in the country’s eastern provinces have severely restricted humanitarian access and inflicted a devastating toll on basic services and infrastructure.
In Africa, 33 countries have ratified the Kampala Convention, the first legally binding continental instrument on internal displacement in the world. Adopted by the African Union in 2009, it establishes a legal framework for the rights of IDPs and the obligations states have to address and prevent internal displacement. These frameworks influenced national laws or policies in several African countries such as Chad and Niger.
However, not every member of the African Union has ratified it, including countries with serious displacement crises like Sudan. This leaves protection gaps across the continent. Meanwhile, the absence of treaties focused on IDPs in other regions speaks to a concerning lack of engagement with the issue.
What needs to change
It is critical that we recognize internal displacement as a global crisis rather than just a local issue. With tens of millions of people internally displaced by conflict, climate change, and disasters, the impacts spill across borders—fueling instability and poverty and creating migration pressures.
Yet the disparity of legal protections and aid between refugees and IDPs reveals a broader failure of the global humanitarian system. Despite facing similar violence or climate events as cross–border refugees, IDPs receive disproportionately less support. Addressing this gap demands a coordinated international response.
At the same time, countries need to invest in long–term solutions, including national protection frameworks. Countries that have not signed or ratified frameworks like the Kampala Convention should be urged to immediately do so. And donor countries and organizations should prioritize funding local humanitarian efforts and sustainable solutions rather than just providing short–term aid.
