Internally displaced children play at al-Takia refugee camp in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015.

The number of people who have been displaced by conflict in Iraq since the start of 2014 has reached 3.2 million, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Friday.

The UN agency said it identified 3,206,736 internally displaced Iraqis (534,456 families) from then through September 29 of this year.

Of those, 42 percent were from the western province of Anbar, the statement added.

Fighting continues on several fronts in Anbar, where a major government operation to recapture the provincial capital Ramadi from the Islamic State group is under way.

“Displacement in Iraq continues to increase; displaced people are in need of comprehensive support; most fled their homes with only what they could carry,” said IOM’s Iraq chief, Thomas Lothar Weiss.

There are 7.6 million displaced people in neighbouring Syria. More than four million fled the country, including about 250,000 to Iraq.

The world is grappling with its worst refugee crisis in 70 years, and UN chief Ban Ki-moon said recently the world body’s humanitarian agencies were “broke”.

Appeals for both Syria’s and Iraq’s emergency response plans are massively under-funded.

Related articles across the web

• Kofi Annan: UN security council must expand and reform - video interview
• Iraq: 2 suicide attacks in Baghdad kill at least 21 people
• U.N. picks four Europeans to lead groups in Syria talks
• UN session begins under clouds of war and crisis
• Obama, Francis, Putin, Castro: Who to watch at UN General Assembly
• Iraq: 2 suicide attacks in Baghdad kill at least 14 people
• Kremlin confirms Putin will hold talks with Obama in US
• Shakira says children should not "pay the price of war"
• Syria complains to UN over West airstrikes
• UN appoints heads of four working groups on Syria