CARE International has released the top 10 countries suffering a humanitarian crisis that rarely feature in the spotlight.
North Korea’s starving population has topped the list for the most underreported humanitarian crisis in the world, according to CARE International.
The organisation’s Suffering in Silence report measured the least reported humanitarian crises from the world’s media in terms of articles.
Despite North Korea receiving an abundance of news attention over leader Kim Jong-un and his missile program, little media attention focuses on the 70 per cent of the population relying on government food aid to survive.
Seven of the top 10 countries suffering were from Africa with internal turmoil, severe weather disasters and malnutrition all contributing to the desperate crises around the world.
Here is the list of the top 10:
10. Peru
The worst flooding in a decade in Peru left more than 210,000 homes damaged and thousands homeless. In April nearly half of the country was in a state of emergency.
The El Nino Costero, ocean warming due to man-made climate change, increased the torrential rainfall triggering landslides. Nearly 1.7 million people were affected.
9. Central African Republic
A tiny nation situated in the centre of Africa, violent clashes have marred the nation’s stability.
Nearly 70 per cent of the nation is controlled by armed groups with 1.1 million people displaced by September 2017, according to CARE.
Nearly 600,000 people have fled their homes with 512,000 of them seeking refuge in nearby countries such as Cameroon, Chad or the Democratic of Congo.
8. Lake Chad Basin
Violent attacks related to militant group Boko Haram has meant 2.4 million people were displaced over the last two years in the Lake Chad Basin – consisting of North Cameroon, West Chad, South-East Niger and North-East Nigeria – according to CARE.
Up to seven million people are acutely malnourished as eight years of turmoil plunges the area into a continuous cycle of despair.
7. Vietnam
The most powerful storm in a decade, Typhoon Doksuri, ravished the long and exposed Vietnam coastline in September triggering widespread power outages and damage to 1.5 million people.
An estimated 14 people were killed, 112 injured and four others missing as 11,000 hectares of rice field and crops were destroyed.
6. Mali
Conflict in Mali, particularly in the northern and central parts of the country, have left more than 900,000 people without clean drinking water, sanitation facilities and hygiene, according to CARE.
This has resulted in disease outbreaks posing a major risk.
5. Democratic Republic of Congo
More than 1.7 million people, 5,500 people per day, fled their homes in 2017 as a result of ongoing violence that has been occurring for two decades.
The UN, EU and the African Union made a joint statement last year calling for an urgent response from political leaders.
The ongoing violence has left two million children acutely malnourished and four million displaced.
4. Sudan
Starvation, extreme weather conditions and poverty have contributed to Sudan’s dire humanitarian crisis. Of the five million people suffering from poverty in Sudan, 88 per cent are women and children.
3. Burundi
Violence and political turmoil since the 2015 Burundi election have seen hundreds of thousands of people flee into exile.
Human rights groups fear for the future of the country with escalating violence resulting in nearly 2.6 million people – 27 per cent of the population – uncertain on how to feed their families.
2. Eritrea
The eastern African nation is cut-off from the outside world, according to CARE, with the media rarely reporting on the severe drought, lack of food and water shortages affecting more than 700,000 people.
The tiny nation relies heavily on agriculture, despite natural hazards, with women and children at most risk of malnutrition and disease.
1. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
North Korea grabs headlines because of leader Kim Jong-Un, but the UN estimates up to 18 million people are food-insecure.
The nation’s political regime – combined with frequent floods, rising temperatures and droughts – has left millions searching for nutritious food.
The humanitarian crisis is unfolding in a secretive state that relies on humanitarian aid to provide for the millions starving.
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