The world’s largest refugee crises, primarily driven by conflicts involving Islamist groups and countries, are largely ignored by the international community, while at the same time the Palestinian refugee situation has been deliberately perpetuated across generations.
The fighting between Muslim factions in Sudan has now entered its fourth year and continues across large parts of the country, causing new displacement and prolonging the tragedy for millions of people.
Since the war began in April 2023, around 14 million people have been forced to flee, of whom 9 million remain displaced within Sudan and 4.4 million have left the country. Today, one in four Sudanese is displaced.
Millions of children have spent three years of their childhood in displacement, most with little or no access to school, and more than 58,000 children arrived alone in neighboring countries, separated from their families while fleeing, often injured and deeply traumatized.
After three years, the world’s largest refugee crisis has received only 16 percent of the 2.8 billion dollars required to deliver aid inside Sudan, and 8 percent of the 1.6 billion dollars needed for the regional refugee response, according to Marie-Helene Verney, UNHCR representative in Sudan.
South Sudan has also been affected by the conflict in neighboring Sudan and has received 878,000 Sudanese refugees.
After more than a decade of civil war in Syria, this remains one of the world’s largest and most prolonged refugee crises, with millions of internally displaced people and refugees in neighboring countries and elsewhere in the world. Some 13.8 million people in Syria have been forced to leave their homes, and the population lives in widespread poverty. After 14 years of conflict 72 percent of the population (16.7 million people) depended on aid in 2025.
In Afghanistan, there are approximately 2.4 million registered refugees and asylum seekers, while around 2.2 million people are internally displaced within the country itself. According to the latest UNHCR reports, more than 6.4 million Afghans are displaced globally, making them one of the world’s largest refugee groups. Humanitarian needs in Afghanistan are enormous. Two-thirds of Afghanistan’s population — around 28 million people — are in urgent need of assistance. The UN warns that the situation could rapidly worsen if relief efforts are not strengthened.
The conflicts in Nigeria are driven by jihadist groups such as ISWAP (Islamic State), Boko Haram, Lakurawa (al-Qaeda), and Ansaru. By the end of 2024, Nigeria had 3.5 million internally displaced persons and had also received 127,000 refugees from 41 neighboring countries.
The refugee crisis in Burkina Faso is one of the world’s most neglected emergencies. Escalating violence from terror groups linked to al-Qaeda, Islamic State, and the Islamist group Ansarul Islam has displaced around two million people — nearly 10 percent of the country’s population.
The Islamist terror group Hezbollah’s use of southern Lebanon as a launch platform for missiles against civilian targets in northern Israel has forced Israel to respond, resulting in 1.4 million people fleeing their homes in Lebanon, while up to 100,000 people have been forced to flee northern Israel.
Mali remains the epicenter of a prolonged crisis, with growing numbers of refugees due to conflicts involving Russian mercenaries, al-Qaeda, and Islamic State. The number of refugees in Mali from neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso now exceeds 200,000, while more than 334,000 Malians are refugees in neighboring countries and around 400,000 Malians are internally displaced within the country.
In Niger, an armed conflict is ongoing between two major jihadist coalitions allied with al-Qaeda and Islamic State. The country hosts several vulnerable refugee populations, including nearly 500,000 internally displaced persons and more than 400,000 refugees and asylum seekers from Nigeria, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
Haiti is experiencing its worst refugee crisis ever, with more than 1.4 million internally displaced people due to escalating gang violence.
While the refugee agency UNHCR, through its budget of approximately 80 billion kronor, seeks to absorb refugees in all other refugee situations around the world, UNRWA’s mission is, with an annual budget of 12 billion kronor, to perpetuate the refugee status of the Arab population that refused to accept the UN partition plan of 1947 and that, together with five Arab countries, attacked the newly established Jewish state in May 1948.
The just over 700,000 Arab refugees who existed in 1948 have now grown to 5.9 million people who are expected to maintain their refugee status and also allow their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to inherit the same poverty, so they can be used as a political weapon against Israel.
