The ten forgotten humanitarian crises are all in Africa – Politics

Angola, Malawi and the Central African Republic top the list of forgotten humanitarian crises in 2022. The charity Care presents its annual report on ten humanitarian crises that are taking place under the public radar on Thursday. This year, for the first time, all of the crises listed are taking place on the African continent.

Angola is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years, the report says. Almost four million people are suffering from hunger and more than 100,000 children under the age of five are malnourished. There were 1,847 online articles on the situation in the West African country. For comparison: There were 217,201 articles about the legal dispute between actor Johnny Depp and actress Amber Heard in the same time period and language area. In view of the dramatic situation in many African countries, the Vice President for International Programs at Care, Claudine Awute, said it was worrying that there was hardly any reporting on the plight of the people there.

“The United Nations recently warned of a historic hunger crisis in Africa. We experience the extent of this every day in our work. Parents skip meals to keep their children from starving. Fields dry up, livestock die. Families are fleeing because they can’t find food or water.” If the world continues to look the other way, it will have “catastrophic consequences”.

The need for humanitarian aid worldwide rose to a record high last year, emphasized the managing director of Care Austria, Andrea Barschdorf-Hager. 339 million people worldwide lack the everyday things they need to survive. “We also see that crises last longer,” says the expert. The sad record holder in the care ranking is the Central African Republic. For the past six years, little has been reported about the approximately three million people who need humanitarian aid here.

Burundi, sixth this year, also keeps popping up on the list. The Secretary General of Care Germany, Karl-Otto Zentel, also pointed out how quickly the situation could change. In the list for 2021, Ukraine was still number 2 of the crises that received the least attention. This changed quickly with the Russian war of aggression: “With 2.2 million online articles, Ukraine is by far the most reported crisis in 2022.” This once again proves an old observation: “The less physical distance there is between us and a crisis and the better we can identify with the people affected, the more attention we pay to the events.”

Since 2016, Care has been publishing the report on the crisis regions that are underrepresented in the media. Between January and October 2022, 5.8 million online articles in five language areas were analyzed about the 47 global crises that affect more than a million people. Barschdorf-Hager emphasized that it was not about “competition between humanitarian crises”. However, media attention also has an influence on private willingness to donate.

The ten forgotten crises listed by Care for 2022:

1. Angola – The West African country is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years; 3.8 million people are starving in southern Angola.

2. Malawi – The Southeast African country is considered to be one of the countries most affected by the effects of climate change. 37 percent of the children are malnourished.

3. Central African Republic – Almost half of the population does not have enough food due to a civil war that flares up again and again. Almost three fifths of the 5.5 million inhabitants need humanitarian aid.

4. Zambia – Half of the people in the country in Central Africa live on less than 1.90 euros a day. Last year the country was number 1; However, according to Care, hardly anything has improved.

5. Chad – Ongoing unrest is causing displacement in the North African country. Chad also has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world.

6. Burundi – Half of children under the age of five are malnourished in the landlocked Central African country, which is said to be the poorest country in the world.

7. Zimbabwe – Around half of the South African country’s population lives in extreme poverty; seven million people need humanitarian aid.

8. Mali – Many crises meet in the West African country. As a result, Mali has the eighth highest infant mortality rate in the world.

9. Cameroon – Armed violence and conflicts have recently increased significantly in the country in central Africa. 3.9 million people are in need, about 14 percent of the population.

10. Nigeria – 4.4 million people are acutely affected by food insecurity in the landlocked country in the Sahel region. This corresponds to over 17 percent of the population.