MOGADISHU, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Some 578,000 people were displaced in 2019 in Somalia largely due to conflict and violence, according to a report released on Friday.
The report by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)'s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) said the figure was the highest in a decade.
"Disasters had almost as much impact, triggering 547,000 new displacements, half as a result of floods and the other half as a result of drought in the southern regions of Bay, Lower Shabelle and Bakool," IDMC said.
It said Horn of African nation is among the sub-Saharan African countries most affected by internal displacement, with over 2.6 million IDPs at the end of 2018.
Somalia was on the verge of famine in 2017 after four consecutive seasons of drought. Hundreds of thousands of people dependent on livestock and agriculture for survival were forced to abandon their rural homes and move to urban areas to find new livelihood opportunities, says the report.
According to IDMC, displacement associated with drought continued in 2018, with 249,000 new displacements reported.
"Most IDPs settle in informal urban settlements where conditions are very poor and forced eviction is common," IDMC said.
The report said the newly displaced joined those whose displacement had become protracted while many are displaced more than once.
