GENEVA: Some 6.7 million additional people are expected to be newly displaced worldwide by the end of next year, the Danish Refugee Council said on Friday, just as aid cuts from key donors take effect.

The UN refugee agency said last year that the number of forcibly displaced people around the globe stood at over 117 million people and warned that number could rise.
“These are not cold statistics. These are families forced to flee their homes, carrying next to nothing, and searching for water, food, and shelter,” said Charlotte Slente, secretary-general of the Danish Refugee Council in a statement.

These are not cold statistics. These are families forced to flee their homes, carrying next to nothing, and searching for water, food, and shelter.

Charlotte Slente, Secretary-general of Danish Refugee Council

Twenty-seven countries account for nearly a third of all global displacements.
The projection is based on an AI-driven model that predicts displacement trends by analyzing over 100 indicators, including security, politics, and economics in those countries.
It forecasts that nearly a third of new displacements will be from Sudan, which is already the world’s worst refugee crisis after almost two years of war.
“Starvation has been used as a weapon of war, pushing Sudan from one catastrophic famine to another,” the report said.
Another 1.4 million people are expected to be forcibly displaced from Myanmar, the report said.
The US is cutting billions of dollars in foreign aid programs globally as part of a significant spending overhaul by the world’s biggest aid donor.
The Danish Refugee Council is one of the aid groups hit and has had more than 20 contract terminations.
Cuts from Washington and other key donors are already impacting refugees.
The UN refugee agency said that funding shortages had shuttered programs to protect adolescent girls from child marriage in South Sudan and a safe house for displaced women in danger of being killed in Ethiopia.
“Millions are facing starvation and displacement, and just as they need us most, wealthy nations are slashing aid. It’s a betrayal of the most vulnerable,” said Slente.
She blasted the decision to cancel 83 percent of USAID’s humanitarian aid programs around the world.
Slente said: “We’re in the middle of a global ‘perfect storm’: record displacement, surging needs, and devastating funding cuts.”
She said major donors “are abandoning their duty, leaving millions to suffer. This is more than a crisis. It is a moral failure.”

COTONOU: Benin President Patrice Talon on Friday said he would not stand for an unconstitutional third term in office but would be watching the choice of his successor closely.
The former businessman has been in charge of the nation since 2016, and his second office term ends next year.
“I’m telling you again for the umpteenth time, no, I will not be a candidate,” he said in an interview with Jeune Afrique.
“This question troubles me. I have strengthened the constitution myself to stipulate that no one can serve more than two terms in their life.”
The question over his succession was revived in September last year when one of his close friends, Olivier Boko, was arrested on suspicion of attempting a coup with the former sports minister Oswald Homeky.
The two men were sentenced to 20 years in prison in January for “plotting against the authority of the state.”
“I experienced the Olivier Boko episode like a drama and personal tragedy,” Talon was quoted as saying in the interview.
He said he would also be “careful” about the choice of his successor and intended to ensure that whoever took over did not want to reverse what he said was a decade of reforms.
“The next president of Benin will be my president, from my country, my family, my community and everything that is dear to me,” he added. Talon went on to criticize “deteriorating” relations with Benin’s Sahelien neighbors Niger and Burkina Faso and the lack of security cooperation.
“We contact them regularly,” he said. “We don’t get a response.”
“Our army is facing terrorist groups that operate freely in sanctuaries deserted by the defense and security forces” of Niger and Burkina Faso, “which allows them to regroup and attack en masse,” he added.
Niger and Burkina Faso, with which Benin shares a northern border, are governed by military juntas which have turned their back on Western support.
Extremist violence has spilled over Benin’s border, but the authorities in Niamey and Ouagadougou accuse Benin of hosting foreign military bases to destabilize them.
“There is obviously nothing like this on Beninese soil,” he added.