Global humanitarian crisis

Pointing specifically to the countries of Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, where the UN estimates that more than 20 million people are facing starvation from famine, the United Nations in mid-March proclaimed that the world is witnessing the worst humanitarian crisis since 1945.

In each of these countries, war and insurgency are not only causing food shortages, they are preventing aid from reaching the people most in need of it. 

• In Nigeria, the Islamist militant group Boko Haram controls parts of the northeastern region. Though its area of influence has been greatly reduced in the last few years, thanks to intervention by regional militaries (along with Nigeria’s army, soldiers from Chad, Niger and Cameroon all have fought against Boko Haram), civilians in the northeast still lack government services and the security that goes with them.

• Somalia has the longest-running insurgency of the countries mentioned, having been in conflict with the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab since 2006. In that time, control of much of the country, including the capital, Mogadishu, has changed hands several times. 

Al-Shabaab’s strength is currently waning but not enough for the Somalis in need to receive help. As of press time, a drought in Somalia was threatening more than 6.2 million people with the prospect of famine, and many of them are in areas where humanitarian aid is unavailable due to al-Shabaab’s presence.

• A civil war in South Sudan that has been ongoing (with varying levels of intensity) since 2013 threatens to completely topple the world’s newest country. Many citizens of South Sudan lack even the most basic of services, and both government and rebel forces have been accused of stealing humanitarian aid sent to the country.

• A civil war in Yemen has been taking place since an uprising in 2014, when the Houthi, an ethnic group from northern Yemen, took over major cities, including the capital, Sana’a. 

A coalition of Arabian Peninsula countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, all of which support the internationally recognized Yemeni government in exile, has regularly made military strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen. It also has been accused of targeting civilians.

The UN estimates that 19 million people in Yemen are in need of humanitarian aid, but blockades by the Arabian coalition make it difficult to get aid into the country. 

• At the same time that the UN was describing the current humanitarian crises, its subsidiary UNICEF was making its own proclamation, calling 2016 the deadliest year for children in Syria since the start of its civil war in 2011.

According to UNICEF, at least 652 children were killed in Syria in 2016, but it is believed that that number falls far short of the actual tally. UNICEF also revealed that at least 850 children had been conscripted to fight in that civil war last year. 

As of press time, UNICEF provides humanitarian aid for more than six million children in Syria.