“This should serve as a wake-up call to resolve and prevent destructive conflict, end the persecution and address the underlying causes that force innocent people to flee their homes,” Grandi added.
The UNHCR said the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide was approaching 90 million at the end of 2021, propelled by new waves of violence or protracted conflicts in countries including Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Myanmar , Nigeria, Afghanistan and the Congo.
Since then, the war in Ukraine has forced more than 6 million people to flee the country and another 8 million are displaced inside Ukraine.
The 100 million figure represents more than 1% of the world’s population and includes refugees and asylum seekers as well as people displaced within their own countries by conflict – a figure that the Internal Displacement Observatory recently valued at 53.2 million – UNHCR said in a statement.
“The international response to people fleeing war in Ukraine has been overwhelmingly positive,” Grandi said. “Compassion is alive and we need a similar mobilization for all crises in the world.”
However, Grandi stressed that ultimately “humanitarian aid is a palliative, not a cure”.
“To reverse this trend, the only answer is peace and stability so that innocent people are not forced to play between acute danger at home or precarious flight and exile,” Grandi said.
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