Fighting in northwest Syria, including Idlib, has uprooted more than a million Syrians—triggering the largest displacement in the country’s nine-year-old war. Here’s what you need to know.

Must-read books about the refugee experience that will broaden your understanding of displaced persons across the world

The Battle for Raqqa, expected to be one of the fiercest since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, is intensifying. The assault to take the city from ISIS has displaced more than 100,000 people since April. Some 200,000 are thought to remain trapped in ISIS-controlled areas of the city, which once boasted a population of more than half a million. In all, up to 370,000 people could be displaced by fighting.

As the European refugee crisis highlights, displaced people are increasingly travelling to or through towns and cities, rather than being accommodated in centralised camp settings. Today, more than half of the world’s displaced people live in urban areas and will, on average, continue to be displaced for over a decade. The humanitarian sector must adapt to meet the challenges of an urbanising world and the increasing role of cities as places of refuge, as well as sites of heightened risk of crisis, marginalisation, and inequality. It is therefore critical that humanitarian actors take a coordinated and collaborative approach to supporting refugees and migrants, tailoring their response to suit the urban context and its various stakeholders.

The International Rescue Committee’s emergency response experts have ranked the countries most at risk of humanitarian catastrophe next year.