The number of people around the world forced to abandon their homes likely increased to more than 84 million throughout the first half of 2021, the UN refugee agency said Thursday, attributing the increase mostly to conflicts in Africa.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the number of displaced people increased from 82.4 million at the end of 2020 - a stark increase of over 1.6 million displaced people.

"The international community is failing to prevent violence, persecution, and human rights violations, which continue to drive people from their homes," the agency's head, Filippo Grandi, said in a statement.

"In addition, the effects of climate change are exacerbating existing vulnerabilities in many areas hosting the forcibly displaced," Grandi added.

The agency also attributed the hike in displacement to the pandemic, poverty, food insecurity, and climate, mentioning that most of the displaced are "hosted in developing regions."

There were 26.6 million refugees forcibly displaced worldwide by mid-2021, 6.6 million of which were displaced from Syria, 5.7 million from Palestine, and 2.7 million from Afghanistan.

The agency said over 4.3 million new internal displacements were recorded between January and June in 33 countries where it was monitoring the displacement situation.

Those internally displaced amounted to 48 million, and it was fueled by intensifying violence - the phenomenon was significant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia, as well as Afghanistan, Burma, Mozambique, and South Sudan.

The agency, however, said that 1.1 million people returned to their areas or countries of origin during the period of monitoring, i.e. the first half of 2021.