Conflict forced nearly 12 million people to flee within their own country last year, the highest level of such internal displacement in 10 years, international monitors said.

A total of 11.8 million people were uprooted from their homes and displaced internally in 2017 -- nearly double the 6.9 million who suffered the same fate a year earlier, according to a report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center and the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The newly displaced bring the total number of people living in internal displacement due to conflict close to 40 million worldwide, the study said.

The report found that 76 percent of those newly displaced last year were concentrated in just 10 countries, with Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq alone accounting for more than half. The report also said that 18.8 million people across 135 countries were displaced last year by natural disasters like floods, storms and cyclones. (AFP)