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

GENEVA: The number of people displaced by war and persecution around the world climbed above 122 million this year due to a failure to resolve multi-year conflicts such as those in Sudan and Ukraine, the U.N. refugee agency said on Thursday, noting that funding to help the refugees has fallen to 2015 levels.

There were over 2 million more people displaced globally by the end of April 2025 than there were the previous year despite the return of nearly the same number of Syrians after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s rule, according to the report by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

The report attributed the rise to major conflicts in Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine and a “continued failure to stop the fighting”.

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“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,” Grandi said in a statement alongside the report.

The surge in displacement numbers comes as funding to help them has fallen to 2015 levels when the total number of refugees around the world stood at about half current levels, UNHCR said.

It described the cuts in aid as “brutal and ongoing” and said the situation was untenable, leaving refugees and others vulnerable.

Humanitarians complain that a lack of political leadership in brokering peace deals is prolonging conflicts and stretching aid groups tasked with addressing their impacts.

The agency, whose largest donor has historically been the US, has previously said that the cuts put millions of lives at risk and left women refugees at a greater risk of rape and children at risk of trafficking.

UNHCR has not given details on which donors have reduced their funding. U.S. President Donald Trump has cut most foreign aid while Britain and European neighbours are spending less on aid and more on defence.