The annual report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) also cites the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and Myanmar as having seen their highest number of internally displaced people in 2021.

It comes as a record 59 million people globally were recorded as being internally displaced by the end of last year due to protracted conflicts and new waves of violence.

That's an increase of over four million globally from a year earlier, the report adds.

The report by the displacement monitoring organisation founded by the Norwegian Refugee Council reveals that sub-Saharan Africa was the most affected.

In northern Ethiopia, an 18-month civil war has unleashed a massive humanitarian crisis in which millions are uprooted from their lives.

The exact death toll of the war - marked by accusations of abuses and atrocities that some of which rights groups say could amount to war crimes - remains unclear.

In the country’s northernmost region of Tigray where fighting initially broke out in November 2020, millions are still in a desperate need of aid.

In other parts of the country, an unprecedented surge in ethnic and religious violence saw tens of thousands fleeing their homes.

A government military operation in the country’s largest Oromia region is currently under way against the armed group the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) - and is feared could result in civilian deaths and worsen the humanitarian crisis.