More than 10 million people have been displaced across the globe in the first half of 2016, with Syria, Yemen and Turkey topping the list, according to estimates compiled by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC).
From January to August, the IDMC report said armed conflict displaced 900,000 people in Syria, 478,000 in Yemen and another 355,000 in Turkey. Millions more have fled because of sudden disasters: flooding displaced two million people in China and another 946,000 in Indonesia.
The group tracked internally displaced people (IDPs) in 16 countries, and said IDPs currently comprise two-thirds of the 60 million people displaced by conflict and violence. And it warned that many refugees begin as IDPs, leaving their homes first inside their country in search of safety and assistance, only to later choose or be forced across a border.
The report's release came just ahead of the U.N. General Assembly's Summit for Refugees and Migrants, set to open Monday.
IDMC issued a stark condemnation of the summit for not including the record spike in the number of internally displaced persons, an issue it said is the root of the global refugee problem.
