Record 68.5m people displaced in 2017, UN refugee agency says

Nearly 69 million people who had fled war, violence and persecution were forcibly displaced last year, the UN refugee agency said, a record for the fifth straight year.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the continued crises in places like South Sudan and Congo, as well as the exodus of Muslim Rohingya from Burma that started last year, raised the overall figure of forced displacements in 2017 to 68.5 million.