38 million people in the world displaced by conflict - Report says

At least 38 million around the world have been displaced in their own countries as a result of conflict and violence.

This is according to a report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) published by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which describes the figures as the worst in a generation.

38 million is equivalent to the combined populations of London, New York, and Beijing.

Nigeria joins other conflict-torn countries like Iraq, South Sudan, Syria and Democratic Republic of Congo in having the most newly displaced people, accounting for 60% of the total figures.

Ukraine, which has seen fighting between pro-Russian separatists and government forces, appeared in the report for the first time, with 646,500 people internally displaced there in 2014.

Commenting on the startling figures, Jan Egeland, the NRC's secretary general, said the figures should act as a wake-up call to global political leaders.

He further said that "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"

The report placed Syria tops as having the highest number of internally displaced people, with 7.6 million (at least 35% of the population) people having left their homes because of the conflict.

Furthermore, the UN said the number of people living as refugees from war or persecution had exceeded 50 million for the first time since World War II.