Ethiopia, May 21 -- Addis Ababa, May 21, 2022 (Walta) - The number of people who fled their homes and sought shelter within their own countries hit a record high of close to 60 million by the end of 2021.

A report by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) said disasters - including weather events such as cyclones and floods in Asia as well as protracted conflicts in places like Syria, Afghanistan and Ethiopia - were factors behind new displacements last year.

"The world is falling apart, too many countries are falling apart," said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council which set up the IDMC in 1998 to document displaced people whom he said would otherwise be "unseen".

In total, over 59 ...