Wars now displace over 122 million people as aid funding falls UN says

GENEVA - The number of people forcibly displaced from their homes worldwide has dropped slightly from a record high but remains “untenably high”, the United Nations said on June 12.

A record 123.2 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced from their homes at the end of 2024, said UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.

That figure dropped to 122.1 million by the end of April 2025, as Syrians began returning home after years of turmoil.

Nearly two million Syrians have been able to return home from abroad or from displacement within the war-ravaged country.

But the UNHCR warned that how major conflicts worldwide played out would determine whether the figure would rise once again.

The agency said the number of people displaced by war, violence and persecution worldwide was “untenably high”, particularly in a period when humanitarian funding is evaporating.

“We are living in a time of intense volatility in international relations, with modern warfare creating a fragile, harrowing landscape marked by acute human suffering,” said Mr Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

“We must redouble our efforts to search for peace and find long-lasting solutions for refugees and others forced to flee their homes.”

The main drivers of displacement remain sprawling conflicts like those in Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine, UNHCR said in its flagship annual Global Trends Report.

Syria’s brutal civil war erupted in 2011, but former president Bashar al-Assad was finally overthrown in December 2024.

The report said the first months of 2025 saw rising numbers of Syrians returning home.

As at mid-May, more than 500,000 Syrians are estimated to have crossed back into the country since the fall of Mr Assad, while an estimated 1.2 million internally displaced people (IDPs) have returned to their areas of origin since the end of November.

UNHCR estimates that up