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After heavy rains, a landslide a remote village in western Sudan in early September. It was the temporary home of hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had fled the conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary, to what they had hoped would be a safe location. In all, more than 1,000 people are feared to have died in the landslide.

At the end of 2024, were living in internal displacement worldwide. While more attention is usually paid to people who cross borders and become refugees, the reality is most people who are displaced stay within as IDPs.

A changing climate and the associated extreme or erratic weather affects everyone living in the same region—but it does not affect everyone equally.

IDPs because they've been displaced. They are likely to have used up whatever money and other assets they had prior to their displacement, leaving them unable to make the same adaptations as those who have not been displaced.

In northern Mozambique, the center of a jihadist insurgency since 2017, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes—with many seeking refuge in the port city of Pemba. After their houses were destroyed by a cyclone in 2019, IDPs living in Pemba . But when these were burned down by insurgents, the IDPs were left with nothing at all.

Research I carried out with ODI Global colleagues on the city of Herat in western Afghanistan who had not been displaced by conflict were able to make simple lifestyle changes during periods of drought and extreme heat. These included switching to clay or earthenware jars to keep their water cool, or buying air conditioners.

But IDPs were unable to make similar adjustments. Their coping strategies focused more on reducing consumption, such as skipping meals or no longer eating meat.

When IDPs arrive in a new area, the only land available to settle on is often free to use because no one else wants to live there. In Mosul, a city in northern Iraq, stagnated reconstruction following the liberation of the city from the Islamic State militant group in 2017 has resulted in a . This has left many IDPs residing in unfinished or makeshift shelters on unpaved roads that are prone to flooding during heavy rains.

And in , where a large number of people moved after fleeing Colombia's longstanding civil conflict, IDPs settled in an area susceptible to landslides as it was the only place with cheap accommodation and land available for building. A killed more than 300 people there, destroying several neighborhoods that were populated almost entirely by people displaced by conflict.

Furthermore, IDPs are often overlooked in whatever disaster management or disaster risk reduction plans may exist. or speaking a different native tongue—both common traits among displaced people—can result in them not heeding early warnings when they are given.

Evidence shows that early warning systems can be effective for displaced people who have sought refuge abroad. In Bangladesh, for example, Rohingya refugees from Myanmar the national early warning system, allowing them to strengthen their shelters and stockpile food before cyclones hit.

However, early warning systems are only effective if they are implemented and understandable to all of the communities at risk. The UN's initiative, which aims to ensure everyone has access to early warning systems for hazardous weather or climate events, has only been implemented very slowly. This is particularly true in the countries most vulnerable to climate change.

Reducing the risk

Reducing the vulnerability of displaced people to climate change and related extreme weather is no easy task. It will require decision-makers—humanitarian and development aid workers, government officials and local city planners—to listen and learn from what local populations are already doing to adapt and build their own resilience.

has a huge role to play. But people who have just moved to a new area may not know about—or be capable of making—the same adaptations as people who have lived there for generations.

There are also limits to individual adaptation, of course. Displaced people need to be included in any disaster risk reduction or risk management efforts, as well as in national adaptation plans.

Yet in 2023, that nearly three-quarters of all national adaptation plans (31 of 42) did not address the effects of climate change on people who were already displaced. And this research did not include countries with high levels of displacement which lack national adaptation plans altogether.

Unless these issues are addressed, there will continue to be tragedies on the scale of the one seen recently in Sudan.