I just came across an article about ten humanitarian crises that should have gotten more coverage in the year 2007, but didn’t, and that have been more or less forgotten, even though they still largely exist.
–Colombia: Internal refugee crisis after four decades of civil conflict Large numbers of Colombians live in areas controlled by militia or guerrillas, with basic human rights under threat and unpredictable violence.
– Sri Lanka: The civil war between the government forces and the separatist Tamil Tigers, taking a horrendous civilian toll.
– Somalia: Violence and increasingly ferocious guerrilla style attacks surpassing even Darfur in its horror and hopelessness.
– Burma: High levels of malaria and HIV made unimaginably worse by the negligence of a regime that spent only 1.4 per cent of its budget on health care.
– Niger, West and East Africa and South Asia: Malnutrition leading to the deaths of five million children under the age of five.
– Chechnya: Torture, abduction, and wars leaving psychological and physical scars on the civilian population with large numbers of people suffering from high levels of anxiety, insomnia and depression.
– Zimbabwe: Inflation at 12,000 per cent, three million fleeing the country, 85 per cent unemployment, collapsed health care system, 3,000 people dying every week from HIV/Aids.
– Central African Republic: Hundreds of civilians executed and at least 100,000 people caught in the crossfire of rival armed groups, fled their villages and are hiding in forests and bush.
– Democratic Republic of Congo: Hundreds of thousands of homeless people hiding in the forest because their villages are no longer safe, scavenging food to stay alive, trying to dodge the rampant cholera, and in the case of women avoiding sexual violence.
– World: 500,000 people to be diagnosed with multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis this year. There have been no major advances in treatment of the disease since the 1960s.
[Source: 10 humanitarian crises forgotten (but not gone) – Belfast Telegraph]
