Violence, conflict internally displaces a record 38 mln people: report

A record number of 38 million people have been displaced within their own country by conflict or violence, equivalent of the total populations of London, New York and Beijing combined, according to a latest report released Wednesday.

The report was issued by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) under the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

"These are the worst figures for forced displacement in a generation, signaling our complete failure to protect innocent civilians," said Jan Egeland, secretary general of NRC.

According to the report, 11 million people were newly displaced by violent events in 2014 alone, meaning that 30,000 people fled their homes each day last year.

"Global diplomats, UN resolutions, peace talks and ceasefire agreements have lost the battle against ruthless armed men who are driven by political or religious interests rather than human imperatives," said Egeland. "This report should be a tremendous wake-up call. We must break this trend where millions of men, women and children are becoming trapped in conflict zones around the world."

The report also showed that in 2014, there were people living in displacement for 10 years or more in nearly 90 percent of the 60 countries and territories IDMC monitored.

"As new or renewed crises emerge in countries such as Ukraine or Iraq, new caseloads of internally displaced people join an already massive global displaced population who seem blocked from finding ways of ending their displacement," said Alfredo Zamudio, director of the IDMC. Endit