Record 114 million people now displaced worldwide; Myanmar people among worst hit, says UN

A woman looks through debris in the aftermath of military strike on a camp for displaced people near the northern Myanmar town of Laiza on October 11, 2023, two days after the assault that killed 29 people and wounded dozens. Twenty-nine people were killed and dozens wounded in a military strike on a camp for displaced people in northern Myanmar, a spokesman for an ethnic rebel group that controls the area told AFP on October 10. - AFP

GENEVA (AFP): The number of people displaced from their homes worldwide is estimated to have exceeded 114 million, the United Nations said on Wednesday -- a record figure.

The main drivers in the first half of 2023 were the conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo; a prolonged humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan; and a combination of drought, floods and insecurity in Somalia, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said in a statement.