Pakistanis suffered most displacement in 2009: report

Pakistan suffered the highest number of internally displaced people in 2009 due to the Taliban insurgency and Pakistan's military response, a United Nations study showed on Monday. The number of internally displaced people worldwide reached 27.1 million individuals in 2009, the highest number since records began in the mid 1990s, said the report. Out of a total population of 170 million, over 3 million Pakistanis were newly displaced in 2009, the most in the world and three times more than second-placed Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). "The military operations of governments and armed non-state actors caused most displacement, and many people were displaced more than once," said the report, published by the Norwegian Refugee Council, a non-governmental organization. "The massive scale of displacement witnessed in countries such as Pakistan is a sad reminder that civilians are the ones who pay the highest price of armed conflict," it added.