Humanitarian News

The economic crisis in Sri Lanka is turning into one of the country's worst humanitarian crises in decades, while 6.7 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) warned in a statement today. Millions of families are facing shortages of food, fuel, cooking gas, essential supplies and medicines as the humanitarian impact of the economic crisis continues to multiply.

Children endure horrific conditions in armed conflict, according to the Annual Report of the United Nations Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict published this week.  The year 2021 saw a deadly mix of conflict escalation, military coups and takeovers, protracted and new conflicts, as well as violations of international law, all of which had a devastating impact on the protection of children around the world.

The German aid organization Welthungerhilfe warns that the number of people suffering from hunger is rising worldwide, and at the same time food and transport prices are exploding, so that the hunger crises are continuing to spread globally.  According to the non-governmental organization (NGO), the situation has become particularly severe in the Horn of Africa, where 17 million people currently do not have enough food to eat. Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya are experiencing the worst drought in 40 years.

According to the State of Food and Nutrition in the World 2022 (SOFI) report, as many as 828 million people went hungry in 2021. The study paints a bleak picture of global food security. Conflict, climate extremes, economic shocks and rising inequalities have led to unprecedented numbers of families being driven into hunger.

The global food crisis, fueled by conflict, climate shocks and the COVID-19 pandemic, is worsening due to the impact of the war in Ukraine, which is driving up the price of food, fuel and fertilizer, the World Food Program (WFP) said in a report released June 24, 2022.  Millions of people worldwide are at risk of starvation if immediate action is not taken to respond. The WFP says there is now a very real risk that global food needs will soon exceed the capacity of the UN agency or any other aid organization.

The world’s wealthiest countries top-up climate finance with funds diverted from world’s poorest, finds a new report, released by the non-governmental organization (NGO) CARE International. According to the report, most of the public climate finance reported by rich countries is taken directly from development aid budgets, despite long-standing commitments to provide new money.

The situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was the most neglected displacement crisis in the world in 2021, according to a report by the non-governmental organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). The analysis, released June 1, lists the top ten least noticed displacement crises in the world in 2021.