Deep dive: The humanitarian crises overshadowed in 2022

Devex offices are closed this week for a summer break. Instead of our regular Newswire, we’re taking deep dives into some of this year's key development topics. Today, we dig into neglected humanitarian crises around the world.

This year the global community’s attention span for humanitarian crises has largely focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But in the shadows are many underreported crises that have not entirely registered on the global consciousness despite the number of people impacted.  

Hunger levels not seen in decades

Four failed rainy seasons in a row have pummeled the Horn of Africa into the worst hunger crisis in 40 years, with Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya bearing the brunt. Over 50 million people in the region are expected to face high levels of acute food insecurity this year.

The World Health Organization classified the drought within its highest level of health emergency. It’s the first time in the agency’s grading system, which started in 2011, where a drought and food insecurity crisis reached this level of emergency.

Food insecurity becomes a health crisis as malnutrition impacts immunity leading to preventable outbreaks — including acute watery diarrhea, pneumonia, and measles. This disproportionately impacts children. “Usually, you end up getting two or three diagnoses that really collapse people's health systems,” a Somali nurse tells me. 

She also tells me there aren’t enough trained professionals to manage the burgeoning demand to administer nutritional therapy — and the cost of treatment is spiking due to the Ukraine crisis.

I was in Somalia in February when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Even before the war, inflation was already high. In the wake of COVID-19 supply chain disruptions and as vast numbers of livestock died and crops withered, the price of food rapidly escalated. Families worried about another failed rainy season, which ended up happening. The rainy season from March to May was the driest in 70 years. The next rainy season in October is likely to fail, which would be unprecedented.

Funding shortfalls have forced aid groups to make tough decisions. In June, the World Food Programme said it must stop prevention programming in Somalia for children under 2 years old, as well as lactating and pregnant women and deprioritize programming for people in the “crisis” stage of food insecurity. A WFP representative described it as “taking the food from the mouths of hungry people to the mouths of starving people.”

In South Sudan, food insecurity is at its highest levels since the country’s independence in 2011. WFP said in June it would need to suspend a third of its food aid in the country due to a lack of funds. In Sudan, more than one-third of the population are food insecure.

The Sahel and Lake Chad regions are also facing the worst food insecurity in decades. In Burkina Faso, jihadi conflict is forcing health centers to close despite the escalating need to treat children for malnourishment, Devex contributor Sam Mednick reports.

“Roads are either lined with explosives or pop-up jihadi checkpoints, making it dangerous to travel between towns,” she writes.

For Devex Pro members, a data analysis by my colleague Miguel Antonio Tamonan shows that even before this year’s widespread food insecurity, previous years of food aid “were not adequate to meet preexisting needs.”

Catch up on the situation:

• Drought reaches top WHO health emergency status for the first time
• Livestock dies in droves in Somalia — and without rains ‘humans are next’
• Children bear brunt of health crisis in Horn of Africa drought
• WFP suspends aid to a third of South Sudan recipients amid food crisis

The most neglected and underfunded

According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, the most neglected displacement crises globally last year included the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, South Sudan, Chad, Mali, Sudan, Nigeria, Burundi, and Ethiopia. For the first time in the organization’s annual list, all crises are in Africa.  

"The war in Ukraine has highlighted the immense gap between what is possible when the international community rallies behind a crisis, and the daily reality for the millions of people suffering far from the spotlight," the organization wrote.

A June report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs found the level of aid needed to manage the world's humanitarian crises is a record $46.3 billion. UNOCHA’s Financial Tracking Service shows the three largest response plans — Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen — are the most underfunded, writes my colleague David Ainsworth.

+ The humanitarian funding gap hits a new high this year. Sign up for a free 15-day trial of Devex Pro to take a look at the numbers and analysis, plus access all Devex's essential coverage, exclusive events, special reports, career resources, and more.

An undeclared famine

Over 13 million people need food aid in northern Ethiopia. Last year, the country broke the world’s record for displacement.

Humanitarian aid has been deliberately denied to populations in need. Following a blockade of aid into Tigray, the government declared an “indefinite humanitarian truce” in March. Since then aid shipments have only slowly improved, but still, large swaths of the country’s north are difficult to access. Ongoing fuel shortages also impact the distribution of what little aid is available.

As a result, there is widespread malnourishment and people have died from lack of access to basic medicines.

Mark Lowcock, former United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said the Ethiopian government blocked a declaration of famine in Tigray. He told my colleague William Worley that Russia and China helped Ethiopia delay meetings of the U.N. Security Council to discuss a famine declaration.

The European Union cut off budget support for Ethiopia in 2020 due to the conflict, but Brussels Correspondent Vince Chadwick reports that the European Commission has earmarked €1 billion ($1 billion) in development assistance for Ethiopia for the 2021-2027 budgetary period, which does not include direct funding to the government.

Exclusive: Russia, China foiled UN meetings on Tigray famine, says Lowcock

A fragile truce

A U.N.-brokered truce in Yemen has led to an increase in fuel shipments and a resumption of flights, as well as a simmering down in fighting. In early August, the truce was extended by another two months.

“However, Yemenis still face desperate challenges. Food is increasingly unaffordable, as a result of rising unemployment and inflation. Over 45% of wheat imports come directly from Russia and Ukraine. It is essential that critical aid and essential supplies are able to reach people most in need,” said Zeleke Bacha, Yemen deputy director of operations for the International Rescue Committee, in a press release, where the organization called for negotiation of a longer-term agreement.

One of the casualties of the long-standing war is the country’s health systems, which are in a state of collapse — about half the health facilities are nonfunctional and even the functioning half only operate to varying degrees.

Meanwhile, the U.N. needs $80 million to prevent a major oil spill off the coast of Yemen.

+ Catch up on all our coverage of the Yemen crisis. 

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