UN report: Record 65.6 million people displaced worldwide last year

GENEVA - Devastating conflicts, violence and persecution in places like Syria and South Sudan had left a record 65.6 million people uprooted from their homes by the end of 2016, the UN said on Monday.

That number marks a jump of just 300,000 from the end of 2015, but is more than six million higher than at the end of 2014, according to a fresh report published by the UN refugee agency.

This is "the highest figure since we started recording these figures", UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said.