A record 38 million people worldwide have been displaced within their own country due to conflicts or violence, according to a new study released Wednesday by the Norwegian Refugee Council's Internal Displacement Monitoring Center.
Eleven million were newly displaced last year, the equivalent of 30,000 people each day.
"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 the Norwegian Refugee Council, according to The Associated Press.
The group said the number of internally displaced worldwide was 4.7 million more than in 2013.
Most of the newly displaced people live in just five countries - Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, Congo and Nigeria, according to the report
In 2014, Iraqi civilians were the most displaced, with at least 2.2 million forced to flee from the Islamic State group.
Syria has the most internally displaced, with 7.6 million, or 35 percent of the population, forced to relocate due to the country's 5-year-long civil war. At least 1.1 million were newly displaced in 2014. Over 220,000 people have been killed and 1 million wounded in that conflict, according to the AP.
Egeland said the report should serve as a wake up call for international diplomacy.
"What it really is a damning verdict of international diplomacy, of the lack of good governance in countries, lack of regional cooperation," he said, adding that conflicting governments should "sit down and discuss reconciliation and cooperation" with the armed groups so they don't "pull in opposite directions, but pull in the same direction."
