UN refugee agency says more than 122 million people forcibly displaced worldwide
A family is greeted by locals after their return to their home, in a neighbourhood in Maarat al-Numan, on the outskirts of Idlib, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File)
GENEVA — The UN refugee agency says the number of people forcible displaced by violence and persecution around the world has risen to more than 122 million, up by about two million from last year and a near-doubling over the last decade.
UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi nonetheless pointed to some 'rays of hope' over the last six months, including the return home of nearly two million Syrians as their country tries to recover from more than a decade of civil war.
The findings come as the refugee agency released its Global Trends Report on Thursday, which said the number of people driven abroad or displaced in their home countries by war, violence and persecution as of April rose to 122.1 million, up from 120 million a year earlier.
Among those, the numbers of internally displaced people jumped by more than nine per cent to 73.5 million at the end of last year. The numbers represent cumulative figures from years of conflict, violence and persecution, and some displaced people returned home last year even as others fled.
The report comes at a time when humanitarian groups are facing budget cuts from the United States and other traditional Western donors.
UNHCR said nearly two-thirds of people who crossed national borders to flee remained in neighboring countries, countering the 'widespread perception in wealthier regions' that a majority of people were fleeing in a bid to reach places like Europe or the United States.
The agency said Sudan, which has been riven by civil war, has become home to the world's largest displacement crisis, with more than 14 million people displaced by the conflict — surpassing Syria, at 13.5 million. More than 10 million in Afghanistan have been forcibly displaced, and some 8.8 million within or from Ukraine, UNHCR said.
The Associated Press
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Globe and Mail
20 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
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CTV News
a day ago
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Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Mourners pay respects to late US Rep. Charles Rangel as his body lies in state at New York City Hall
NEW YORK (AP) — Mourners are paying their respects to former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel as his body lies in state Thursday at New York City Hall, an honor bestowed to a short list of political figures, including U.S. presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant. The outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat died May 26 at a New York hospital. He was 94. Rangel spent nearly five decades on Capitol Hill and was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. His funeral takes place Friday at St. Patrick's Cathedral in midtown Manhattan. A wake was held Tuesday at a church in Harlem, the upper Manhattan neighborhood where Rangel, nicknamed the 'Lion of Lenox Avenue,' was born and raised. Rangel's body arrived at City Hall on Wednesday, where there was a private evening viewing for his family in the landmark neoclassical building at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in lower Manhattan. On Thursday morning, a small group of mourners quietly came to pay their respects in City Hall as the surrounding streets bustled with tourists and workers. Rangel's closed casket sat in the building's marbled rotunda draped with an American flag. Uniformed police stood at rigid attention on either side of him, backed by the state and nation's flags. Mike Keogh, a 63-year-old lobbyist and former city council staffer, was among those who knew Rangel personally. 'He had the greatest voice in New York politics at the time. It was so rich and so full,' recalled Keogh. 'It just made you feel really warm to be around him and to really hang on every word.' Tina Marie grew up in Harlem and recalled Rangel as a part of the neighborhood's famed Gang of Four— Black Harlemites who rose to the very top of city and state politics in the 1970s through the 1990s. The others were David Dinkins, New York City's first Black mayor; Percy Sutton, who was Manhattan Borough president; and Basil Paterson, a deputy mayor and New York secretary of state. 'I didn't get to make the other three people's funerals so I wanted to come and pay my respects,' said Marie, who now works for the state education department steps from City Hall. 'I didn't agree with all the things they did, but they stood up for people who couldn't stand up for themselves.' Besides Presidents Lincoln and Grant, the others accorded the City Hall honors after death include statesman Henry Clay, newspaper publisher Horace Greeley and Civil War generals Abner Doubleday and Joseph Hooker. The last person to lie in state in City Hall was City Councilman James Davis, who was assassinated by a political opponent in the council's chambers, located the floor above the rotunda, in 2003. Doors opened for the public to pay their respects to Rangel at 9 a.m. Thursday. The viewing will run until 5 p.m. and will be followed by an honor guard ceremony with pallbearers representing the 369th Regiment, an all-Black unit from World War I known as the Harlem Hellfighters. Rangel's funeral at St. Patrick's on Friday will also be public and livestreamed. The Korean War vet defeated legendary Harlem politician Adam Clayton Powell in 1970 to start his congressional career. Rangel went on to become the dean of the New York congressional delegation and the first African American to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee in 2007. He was censured in 2010 by his fellow House members — the most serious punishment short of expulsion — following an ethics scandal. Rangel relinquished his post on the House's main tax-writing committee, but continued to serve until his retirement in 2017, becoming one of the longest-serving members in the chamber's history. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, also a New York Democrat, lauded Rangel as a 'patriot, hero, statesman, leader, trailblazer, change agent and champion for justice' when his death was announced last month.
