A record 55 million people around the world have fled their homes but not their countries and are living as internally-displaced people.

In its annual report, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre says the rise can be attributed in part to conflicts in Ethiopia and Mozambique, but also to natural disasters.

It's warned that climate change is likely to drive displacement still higher.

The centre said numbers had been rising steadily over the past decade, and warned that only sustained political will, aimed at resolving conflict, and addressing climate change, can bring them down.