The UN will need at least $41 billion over the next year to serve millions of needy people in a world affected by covid-19, conflict and climate change.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday (2) that 274 million people around the world may need some type of emergency aid in 2022, 17% more than this year, which was once a record.
This represents one person in every 29 on the planet.
“Never has the number of people in need of help been so high,” said Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.
While in 2022 it will take 41 billion dollars to help the most vulnerable people in 63 countries, this year the amount was 35 billion dollars and four years ago half as much.
The annual report published on Thursday provides a panorama of the humanitarian crisis in which Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Myanmar are highlighted, as well as climate change, which also occupies a large part of the document.
Also cited is the covid-19 pandemic, which will soon enter its third year, after officially causing more than five million deaths – although the WHO considers the real number to be two or three times higher.
– Hungry –
covid-19 has already pushed 20 million people into extreme poverty in the past 12 months, according to the report.
It also brought many health systems into chaos, which had consequences for the fight against other fatal diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This year, 23 million children have not had access to basic immunization treatments.
At the same time, climate change and the natural disasters it brings could force 216 million people to move within their own country by 2050.
Furthermore, climate change makes famine an “as real as it is terrifying possibility for 45 million people in 43 countries,” the document warns.
“Without lasting and immediate action, 2022 could be catastrophic in a world in which 811 million people are undernourished.”
Afghanistan has seen a combination of decades of conflict with severe drought and an economy in free fall since the Taliban took power in August.
Two-thirds of citizens need help and nine million people are on the brink of hunger. The UN will need $4.5 billion to serve 22 million Afghans next year.
– Ethiopia, most worrying situation –
Billions of dollars will also be needed to help the populations of Yemen and Syria, countries with years of war.
But Ethiopia’s needs are particularly troubling, since the federal government’s offensive against the Tigre region. A brutal year-long war that forced millions of people to flee to other areas of the country.
In Ethiopia, 26 million people are dependent on humanitarian aid and 400,000 are on the brink of starvation.
For Martin Griffiths, Ethiopia perhaps presents the “most worrying situation”, but he recalls that other regions of the world also register extremely serious situations.
The Under Secretary General warned of the risk of sectarian violence in Ethiopia causing a division of society and a chaotic exodus like the one registered in Kabul (Afghanistan) in August.
If fighting were to reach the capital of Addis Ababa, triggering sectarian violence across the country, it would “broke (…) the fabric of Ethiopia,” said Martin Griffiths.
He warned that in this case, the aid needs of the African country would increase “exponentially”.
At the same time, Griffiths said the aid would limit the damage.
Last year, humanitarian organizations helped 107 million people, 70% of the total in need, including 500,000 people rescued from hunger in South Sudan.
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