The International Rescue Committee (IRC) released its annual Emergency Watchlist on Wednesday, spotlighting the 20 countries most likely to face escalating humanitarian needs in the coming year. According to the dire ranking, the top five crises are Sudan, the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Myanmar, Syria and South Sudan, as war and climate change fuel new and ongoing humanitarian emergencies around the world.
āIt is clear that āthe world is on fireā is a daily reality for 100s of millions of people. This is the result of a world fundamentally out of balance. As a humanitarian agency, IRCās job is to meet needs, but also call them out,ā David Miliband, IRC president, said in a statement, echoing a recent phrase used by the UN's top aid official, Tom Fletcher.
Sudan, where war broke out in April 2023, is now the largest humanitarian crisis ever recorded, accounting for 10 percent of the world's people in humanitarian need, despite being home to just 1 percent of the global population. The country's collapse is accelerating as a brutal civil war, fuelled by outside powers, devastates civilian lives.
The Occupied Palestinian Territory remains second on the monitoring list after more than a year of conflict that has devastated the Gaza Strip. Myanmar, third on the list, has seen armed groups unite and advance rapidly across the country, while also being hit by extreme flooding and other climate-related disasters. Meanwhile, Syria has re-entered the top 4 countries of concern for the first time in several years.
According to the latest United Nations estimates, some 305 million people in more than 30 countries and territories will be in need of humanitarian assistance and protection in 2025. The 20 countries on the IRC's Watchlist account for 82 percent of the total, despite representing only 11 percent of the world's population.
Each year, the IRC publishes a list of the 20 humanitarian crises expected to deteriorate the most in the coming year. According to the analysis, the following ten countries are likely to continue to face the worst humanitarian crises in 2025: (1) Sudan, (2) Occupied Palestinian Territory, (3) Myanmar, (4) Syria, (5) South Sudan, (6) Lebanon, (7) Burkina Faso, (8) Haiti, (9) Mali, and (10) Somalia.
The list of those 20 countries most affected by severe humanitarian crises also includes, in alphabetical order Afghanistan, Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria, Ukraine, and Yemen.
According to the IRC, 77 percent of the world's displaced people - some 123 million as of October 2024 - are due to emergencies in the Watchlist countries. The list of countries also accounts for more than 30 percent of the world's extreme poor.
"The concentration of extreme poverty is remarkable. The world is being cleaved into two camps: between those born in unstable conflict states, and those with a chance to make it in stable states. This is a trend that needs to be addressed for moral and strategic reasons," Miliband said.
āThe moral case is that with more resources than ever before, they need to be used to help the world's most vulnerable. The strategic case is that problems that start in Sudan or Syria do not stay there: instability spreads.ā
Wednesday's report says the four deep-seated imbalances in the international system that are driving the crises are "more conflict and less diplomacy," the growing number of attacks on civilians, the climate crisis adding to humanitarian needs, and economic inequality as wealth accumulation grows and poverty reduction suffers.
The IRC calls for humanitarian assistance reform and policy changes that can rebalance the scale of emergencies. Proposals include reforming the humanitarian aid system, reforming the UN Security Council to better protect civilians, and investing in climate adaptation and resilience to mitigate the impact of climate shocks.
āBusiness as usual will not reverse this trend. Civilians will continue to suffer the worst impacts of burgeoning conflict and risk perilous journeys if we donāt break with the status quo,ā Miliband said.
āThe international community has both an incredible opportunity and responsibility to change the terms of humanitarian and diplomatic engagementā in those countries worst affected by humanitarian emergencies.
Established in 1933 to help the politically persecuted, the International Rescue Committee is one of the largest non-governmental organizations (NGOs) focused on supporting refugees worldwide. Its international headquarters are located in the United States.
The NGO provides emergency and long-term assistance to refugees and people displaced by war, persecution, or natural disaster. The IRC helps people affected by humanitarian crises survive and rebuild their lives. The International Rescue Committee currently operates in more than 40 countries.
Further information
Full text: Emergency Watchlist Report 2025, International Rescue Committee (IRC), report, released December 11, 2024
https://www.rescue.org/sites/default/files/2024-12/CS2405-Watchlist-25-Report%20Final%20DIGI.pdf