CRISES, DISASTERS DISLODGE 17 MILLION PEOPLE IN MUSLIM WORLD IN 2014: IINA REPORT

Jeddah, 10 Dhulqo’dah 1436/25 August 2016 (MINA) – A recent report on Sunday revealed that the number of the displaced people and refugees in member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) during the year 2014 stood at 17,073,686 while compared to 12,693,075 in 2013, an increase of 34.5 percent with 4,380,611 more people.

The report, published by the Islamic Cooperation Humanitarian Affairs Department (ICHAD-OIC), showed that this increase is an outcome of 45 crises and disasters that hit 27 member states including minorities in Myanmar and Central Africa. It also noted that some of those crises and disasters are still ongoing.

The report stated that 16 crises and wars occurred in 14 member states as well as in countries where Muslim are minorities such as Myanmar and Central Africa, have dislodged 15,703,259 refugees and displaced, while 1,370,427 were dislodged from 29 natural disasters occurred in 19 member states, in addition to Myanmar and Central Africa.  International Islamic News Agency (IINA) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

According to the ICHAD, Syria topped the number of refugees with an increase of 38.07 percent and now stood at 6.5 million, followed by Iraq’s 14.86 percent which stood at 2.53 million refugees, Nigeria 7.03 percent with 1.2 million, Somalia 6.44 percent with 1.1 million and Pakistan by 5.21 percent with 890,000 refugees.

The report also showed that more than 702,000 Muslims in Central Africa and 146,000 Muslims in Myanmar were dislodged as a result of crises and disasters.

The report highlighted that the number of displaced people because of crises rose to 15.73 million during 2014, which is 92 percent of all dislodged people, compared to 8.43 million in 2013, which was 66.4 percent of dislodged people in the previous year, while the number of displaced people by results of natural disasters dropped to 1.37 million during 2014, which is 8 percent of all dislodged people, compared to 4.24 million in 2013, which was 33.6 percent of dislodged people in the previous year.

Also, ICHAD predicted a further increase in number of this category, because of crises that surround member states such as Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria and other states, which are worsening the situation even more, calling for the need to strengthen the humanitarian aid system.

It was suggested in the report that OIC member states can further improve their performance in humanitarian aids through platforms that promote cooperation among the Islamic countries and humanitarian organizations.

ICHAD said that such platform will act as a mechanism to facilitate the development of common visions and strategies to face the humanitarian crises and disasters that are occurring member states, and that it will contribute to the advancement of humanitarian work in the Islamic World. (T/P008/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)