Conflicts and natural disasters drove a person to flee within his/her country every second last year, raising the number of internally displaced people to a record high, two nongovernmental organizations announced Thursday.

The increase in numbers came despite strict restrictions on movement imposed by authorities around the world to prevent the outbreak of Covid-19, which observers had expected would lead to a reduction in the number of displaced people last year.

But the year 2020 also witnessed severe storms, conflicts and violence that forced 40.5 million people to flee within their countries, according to a joint report issued by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center and the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The number is the highest number of additional IDPs recorded in a decade, bringing the total number of internally displaced people around the world to 55 million, according to the report.

"My numbers this year were unusually high," the director of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, Alexandra Belak, told AFP, noting that the increase in the number of IDPs is "unprecedented."

The number of internally displaced people now more than doubled the number of people who fled across the border as refugees (about 26 million).

"It is a shocking matter that someone was forced to flee his home inside his country every second of the past year," the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, said in a statement.

"We fail to protect people most at risk from conflicts and disasters," he added.

Belak pointed out that the matter is "especially worrying that these large numbers were recorded against the background of the Covid-19 epidemic."

She also said that the actual numbers may be higher due to movement restrictions hampering data collection and the fact that "fewer people have gone to emergency shelters for fear of contracting" the virus.

She stated that the epidemic has also exacerbated the social and economic conditions for the displaced, warning that "these numbers may increase further as countries enter further into an economic crisis."

The report concluded that three quarters of the people who were internally displaced last year were victims of natural disasters, especially those associated with extreme weather events.

Strong hurricanes, monsoon rains and floods struck vulnerable and congested areas in Asia and the Pacific, while the Atlantic hurricane season was "the most active that has been recorded," according to the report.

"The extended rainy seasons across the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa have forced millions to leave their homes," he said.

Climate impactExperts report that climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.

"We can only expect that, in light of the future repercussions of climate change, these disasters will become more frequent and severe, and thus the number of internally displaced persons will increase," Pelak said.

The report stated that about ten million newly displaced people last year fled as a result of conflict and violence.

He added that the escalation of violence and the increasing presence of extremist groups in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Burkina Faso caused an exacerbation of displacement crises, which are the fastest growing in the world last year.

Likewise, conflicts such as those in Syria, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo continued to force large numbers of people to flee.

Unlike disaster-induced displacement, which is usually not prolonged as residents return to rebuild their damaged or destroyed homes once the storms are over, conflict-induced displacement may continue for years, according to the report.

The report also warned that the meeting of conflict and natural disasters aggravates the problem, as 95 percent of the displacements recorded last year took place in countries considered vulnerable to the repercussions of climate change.

He stated that "climate change and the excessive exploitation of natural resources may exacerbate instability and conflicts, which may in turn lead to displacement."