FILE- In this Wednesday, May 20, 2015 file photo, Ibrahim Omar, 45, right, and his children, Aseya, 3, Heyam, 6, Maryam, 10, and 1-year-old Saeed, pose for a photo as they stand next to their father in their room, at an orphanage that has been turned into a center for Yemeni refugees, in Obock, northern Djibouti. A major aid agency says 27.8 million people around the world were internally displaced by conflict and natural disasters last year, or as many as the combined populations of New York City, London, Paris and Cairo. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File)
The Associated Press
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - A major aid agency said Wednesday that 27.8 million people around the world were internally displaced by conflicts and natural disasters last year, calling it a global crisis.
That's as many as the combined populations of New York City, London, Paris and Cairo - or an average of 66,000 people displaced every day in 2015.
A report by the Norwegian Refugee Council said that 8.6 million of last year's internally displaced were uprooted by conflict, more than half of them in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
The group says Yemen alone accounted for one quarter of conflict-related displacement worldwide last year, with 2.2 million people uprooted, or 20 times more than in 2014.
The impoverished Arabian Peninsula country, which is gripped by a war pitting Yemen's Shiite rebels known as Houthis and their allies against forces loyal to the internationally backed government, which is being aided by a Saudi-led coalition and its airstrikes' campaign targeting the rebels.
Yemen was followed by Syria with 1.3 million displaced and Iraq with 1.1 million, the report said.
The group's Middle East director, Carsten Hansen, said that while the world's attention was focused on Middle Eastern refugees, or those who fled their homelands, millions were displaced internally in the region.
"While richer, stable countries have been scheming to keep asylum seekers out of their borders and deny them protection, millions remain trapped in their own countries with death ... just around the corner," he said.
The total of those internally displaced by conflict in the world now stands at 40.8 million, including the newly displaced 8.6 million last year.
"This is the highest number ever recorded, and twice the number of refugees worldwide," said Jan Egeland, the head of the NRC.
FILE- In this Tuesday, May 19, 2015 file photo, Ashwaq, 12, stands outside her family's tent, at the Markaze refugee camp in Obock, northern Djibouti. The Middle East has accounted for more than 50 per cent of the world's population internally displaced by conflict in 2015, with nearly 4.8 million new people forced to flee their homes. A major aid agency says 27.8 million people around the world were internally displaced by conflict and natural disasters last year, or as many as the combined populations of New York City, London, Paris and Cairo. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File)
The Associated Press
FILE- In this Wednesday, May 4, 2016 file photo, Syrian refugee boys await approval to enter Jordan at the Hadalat reception area on the Syrian-Jordanian border, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northeast of the capital of Amman. A major aid agency says 27.8 million people around the world were internally displaced by conflict and natural disasters last year, or as many as the combined populations of New York City, London, Paris and Cairo. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh, File)
The Associated Press
FILE- In this Tuesday, May 19, 2015 file photo, Abo Bakr Mohammed, 12, who suffers from epilepsy, covers himself with a mosquito net in his family's room, in an under-construction orphanage that has been turned into a transit centre for Yemeni refugees, in Obock, northern Djibouti. A major aid agency says 27.8 million people around the world were internally displaced by conflict and natural disasters last year, or as many as the combined populations of New York City, London, Paris and Cairo. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File)
The Associated Press
FILE- In this Thursday, May 5, 2016 file photo, migrants and refugees are silhouetted as they stroll through a makeshift camp at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece. A major aid agency says 27.8 million people around the world were internally displaced by conflict and natural disasters last year, or as many as the combined populations of New York City, London, Paris and Cairo. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
The Associated Press
FILE- In this Wednesday, May 4, 2016 file photo, a Syrian refugee man and boy cross into Jordan at the Hadalat reception area on the Syrian-Jordanian border, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northeast of the capital of Amman. A major aid agency says 27.8 million people around the world were internally displaced by conflict and natural disasters last year, or as many as the combined populations of New York City, London, Paris and Cairo. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh, File)
The Associated Press
A Syrian woman cooks at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece, on Tuesday May 10, 2016. About 54,000 refugees and migrants are currently stranded in Greece as 10,000 are camped in Idomeni, after the European Union and Turkey reached a deal designed to stem the flow of refugees into Europeâs prosperous heartland. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
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