Revealed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on 13 June, this alarming figure underscores a growing global crisis.

The UNHCR attributed the surge in displacement to ongoing conflicts in regions such as Gaza, Sudan and Myanmar. The displaced population now mirrors the population size of Japan.

"Conflict remains a very, very big driver of mass displacement" stated UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi.

At the end of 2022, 117.3 million people were displaced, and this number grew to 120 million by April 2023.

This marks a significant increase from 110 million the previous year, continuing a 12-year trend of rising displacement figures.

Reflecting on his eight-year tenure, Grandi noted that the displacement numbers have more than doubled. He called it "a terrible indictment on the state of the world".

He also highlighted climate change as a factor exacerbating the crisis, driving both conflicts and population movements.

International law disregarded

The UNHCR declared 43 emergencies across 29 countries last year, a four-fold increase over previous years.

Grandi noted "the way conflicts are conducted ... in complete disregard" of international law and "often with the specific purpose of terrorising people".

"This, of course, is a powerful contributor to more displacement."

The UNHCR's report detailed that of the 117.3 million forcibly displaced at the end of 2023, 68.3 million were internally displaced within their countries.

The number of refugees and those needing international protection rose to 43.4 million.

Contrary to popular belief, most refugees do not migrate to wealthy nations.

"The vast majority of refugees are hosted in countries neighbouring their own, with 75 percent residing in low- and middle-income countries that together produce less than 20 percent of the world's income" the UNHCR said.

Displacement figures will continue to rise

Since it began in April 2023, Sudan's civil war has displaced over nine million people, contributing significantly to the rising numbers. Many Sudanese continue to seek refuge in Chad, one of the world's poorest nations. Similarly, ongoing conflicts in Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo have led to millions being displaced.

In Gaza the UN estimates that 1.7 million people, or 75 percent of the population, have been displaced due to the conflict. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine, following Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, has resulted in 750,000 newly displaced individuals within the country, with a total of 3.7 million internally displaced people by the end of 2023.

The UNHCR predicts that figures for those forcibly displaced will continue to rise unless there is a significant shift in international geopolitics.

Sources

UCA News

CathNews New Zealand

A ceasefire has been declared by South Sudan officials and rebel leaders.

While Bishop Barani Hiiboro, president of the Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishop's Conference, welcomed the ceasefire he says:

"if it is to mean anything for the suffering people of South Sudan, then our leadership must face the task of rebuilding our broken pieces. Read more

United Nations (UN) officials have expressed concern about the fate of the South Sudanese people.

The mandate for the UN peacekeeping mission in the country is set to expire.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the UN Security Council the South Sudanese people "have simply suffered far too much for far too long and we must not take their resilience against incredible odds for granted".

Lacroix is the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations.

South Sudan became an independent nation in 2011.

The mainly Christian and Animist population had been involved in a civil war with Muslim citizens - now mostly located in Sudan - for decades.

The civil war sprang up again in 2013, between the majority Dinka and Nuer tribes.

The net result is famine, the possibility of genocide and over three million displaced people.

While political and economic instability continue, "humanitarian needs will remain dire," Mark Lowcock says.

Lowcock is the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

He estimates about half South Sudan's 12.23 million population will be relying on emergency food aid by early 2018.

Although both Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby had planned to visit South Sudan in October, the visit was cancelled for the meanwhile.

The deteriorating security situation was the reason their visit was cancelled.

Francis has since held a prayer service for South Sudan and Congo, which is also suffering from the effects of war.

In his homily during the prayer service, Francis said "...Prayer works by the power of God, for whom nothing is impossible".

Source

• Crux
• Upper Nile Times

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, said Pope Francis will visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu, 260 kms north of the capital.

This is in the heart of the former conflict zone.

The Pope will meet victims of Sri Lanka's civil war, which lasted from 1983 to 2009.

Francis's pilgrimage to the 400-year old shrine is expected to highlight ongoing human rights abuses and the deteriorating circumstances of Tamils, following the crushing of the Tamil Tiger insurgency.

Since then the north of the country has been under military occupation.

Reconciliation has stalled as the Sri Lankan government has refused to acknowledge war crimes.

Continue reading

He'd been away from Sri Lanka since February of 2010, when he fled the country for security reasons, and was looking forward to seeing his family.

But the happy homecoming would be short lived.

On January 28, a little over three weeks after he'd returned, he was abducted by a group of armed men in a white van.

"They accused me of being an LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] member who had come to Sri Lanka to regroup the LTTE," he said over the phone from the United Kingdom, where he has claimed asylum.

When Rojananth repeatedly denied these accusations, the men began torturing him.

"They beat me on the soles of my feet with pipes and electrical wires, and they beat me with wires and plastic pipes filled with sand on my back," he said. "They submerged my head in water and held me under until I suffocated."

The next day he was hung upside down and the torture continued.

"I was severely beaten," he said. "My head was covered with a petrol-sprayed polythene bag. I was suffocating and eventually became unconscious."

"When they asked questions or interrogated me, they burned me with cigarettes on the chest, shoulders and back," he added. Continue reading.

Source: UCANews

Image: Scars criss-cross the back of an ethnic Tamil man, who was tortured by Sri Lankan security forces in Batticaloa in September of 2012, UCANews

They recognize Tutela Legal as a particularly valiant part of their movement that played a crucial role in establishing its legitimacy and in gaining respect for efforts to protect rights even in the midst of a civil war.

As one who has known Tutela Legal from its earliest days more than 30 years ago, collaborated with it closely during the organization's difficult and dangerous formative years, and had a hand in shaping its work, I am especially disturbed by the archbishop's sudden and poorly explained decision to shut it down.

Tutela Legal was established in 1982 by Salvadoran Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas.

His predecessor as archbishop, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, had been murdered by a sniper on March 24, 1980, as he was saying Mass.

The murder of Romero, whose candidacy for sainthood is being promoted by Pope Francis, was one of thousands of death squad killings in that period that helped plunge El Salvador into a terrible civil war that lasted 12 years. Continue reading

Archbishop Jose Luis Escobar of El Salvador recently closed the diocesan human rights office, Tutela Legal, with little explanation. People and organisations across the world have protested against the decision.

Aryeh Neier, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, shares the history of Tutela Legal, and argues that the creation and work of the office during the civil war in El Salvador "should be a matter of great pride for the Catholic church in Latin America", with the office's files protected to support those people still ensuring justice is done for the tens of thousands of victims of crimes during that period.

Source: National Catholic Reporter

Image: Open Society Foundations

Aryeh Neier is the former executive director of Human Rights Watch and president emeritus of the Open Society Foundations.

The pope told people gathered in St. Peter's Square that Syrian and rebel forces must put down their arms.

He urged the international community to "put all its efforts" toward helping Syria find a solution to the "tragic situation."

"It is not confrontation that offers hope to resolve problems, but rather the ability to meet and dialogue," the pontiff said.

"With great suffering and concern I continue to follow the situation in Syria" he said.

"From the bottom of my heart, I would like to express my closeness in prayer and solidarity with all the victims of this conflict, with all those who suffer, especially children," Pope Francis said.

SOURCES

Vatican Radio

AP/Washington Post

Fox News

Image: Getty Images/Fox News

Father Francois Mourad died at the Franciscan monastery of Saint Anthony of Padua, near the Turkish border, while trying to defend nuns and local Christians who had sought refuge there.

"I try to live this war with the people, not abandon them,"
said a priest from Aleppo in an interview with Catholic News Agency during a visit to Italy.

Since the Syrian conflict began more than two years ago, it has claimed the lives of more than 93,000 people.
At least 4.25 million Syrians have been internally displaced, and 1.5 million have become refugees in nearby countries.

The priest, who spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, said he has evangelised differently since the war began.

"First I tried to take Christ to people through music and I was very involved with it in Church," he said. "But now I need to be poor with the people and suffer with them."

"Many Muslims have asked me why I do this, because they are surprised," the priest said. "But this interreligious dialogue between Muslims and Christians is now stronger."

About eight months ago, he said, a group of young priests and local Muslims opened two schools for 425 internally displaced Muslim children.

"We give them food to eat every day, we play with the children and just live alongside both Christians and Muslims."

Before the war, the priest said, "we had a beautiful life" — but now "we live a big evil because we see our youth going to the army and dying, and churches in danger."

While the Assad regime had "made mistakes", he added, Syrians had "a marvelous peace between Muslims and Christians" prior to the war.

Father Mourad, a former Franciscan, had founded a new monastic foundation and was in the process of rebuilding the ancient monastery of St Simeon Stylites, despite the problems of the war.

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

AsiaNews

Image: Terrasanta.net

Referring to spreading violence in different regions in central and eastern Sudan, and newly created South Sudan, the bishops' statement urges the international community to intervene to stop the fighting.