They may not always make the news, but these crises impact millions of people, including vulnerable children, around the world
Tamara, 13, looks outside the window of her house in Taiz, Yemen where she was severely injured by a landmine explosion months before. Photo: Al-Baraa Mansoor / Save the Children.
Violent conflict, extreme climate events, deadly diseases and global economic shocks are devastating children’s lives and threatening their futures. Today, more people are forcibly displaced globally than at any other time since the beginning of the century.
Nearly 300 million people will need urgent humanitarian support in 2024. That’s 1 in 27 people. Among them, a whole generation of children.
As new emergencies occur, some crises can slide out of the headlines. But Save the Children will still be there, working to provide the things you can’t put in a bag: security, education, shelter, health, protection.
Here are 8 crises around the world we shouldn't forget about.
BY GIVING TO SAVE THE CHILDREN TODAY, YOU CAN HELP PROTECT A CHILD’S LIFE AND FUTURE.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
.jpg-ch1807767.jpg/tqnl054bn1k42oq25an30imw2m06ppu1.jpg?g=top&w=2562&format=webp&itok=wzjsOpwd "Liliane, 13, in a displacement camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo where she now lives after fleeing conflict in her hometown")
Liliane, 13, in a displacement camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo where she now lives after fleeing conflict in her hometown. Photo: Hugh Kinsella Cunningham / Save the Children
Ongoing conflicts in the DRC are turning children’s lives upside down, uprooting millions from their homes, destroying children’s schools, play areas and hospitals and exacerbating hunger and poverty. Families have lost their livelihoods and homes, and children face violence, harm and abuse, with limited access to medical care or education.
The country is also suffering the impacts of the climate crisis with more frequent and severe droughts and flooding destroying homes, displacing families, devastating crops and increasing the risk of disease outbreaks.
READ MORE: What's happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
MYANMAR
Nan Nan*, 10, lives with her family in an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp. She plays an important role in her family by helping her mother prepare meals and do household chores. During the farming season, Nan Nan*s parents have a more stable income. During the off-season, they struggle making ends meet and, at most, the family eats two meals per day. Save the Children provided Nan Nan*s family with rice, dried fish, beans, water buckets, and tarpaulin when they relocated to this IDP camp. In addition, Save the Children provided WASH facilities and a tube well for the families at the IDP camp.
Humanitarian needs in Myanmar continue to grow as a result of the combined effects of the conflict, a deep economic crisis, and soaring inflation.
This year, one-third of the population will need humanitarian assistance, including six million children.
The impact of the socioeconomic crisis is pushing families to take negative coping measures. Pulling children out of school to work, child labour, early marriage, and even giving children up in exchange for money, are some of the tragic lengths that families are going to, to provide for their children.
SUDAN
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A school and an Internally Displaced People's (IDP) area in West Darfur that were supported by Save the Children have been destroyed between 27th and 28th of April 2023, due to the ongoing fighting in Sudan. West Darfur is one of the most affected areas and the humanitarian toll is massive there. Many people now suffer multiple displacement and lack of food and essential services.
Sudan is facing its worst-ever humanitarian crisis. The eruption of fighting in the capital city of Sudan in April 2023, combined with pre-existing challenges linked to protracted conflicts, climate disasters, disease outbreaks and economic degradation, have left nearly 25 million people, including some 14 million children in need of humanitarian aid.
Over 6 million people have been uprooted from their homes with some 5 million people displaced internally and over 1 million people fleeing to neighbouring countries.
Sudan now has the highest number of internally displaced people in the world. It is also the most significant child displacement crisis in the world, with a recorded 3 million children uprooted from their homes.
READ MORE: The latest on the situation in Sudan.
SYRIA
Northwest Syria has been hit by floods on March 19 2023, less than a couple of months after the earthquake that turned most of the buildings into rubble, and killed and displaced thousands of people. Save the Children has assessed the needs of people in one of the IDP camps in West Idlib through one of our partner organizations and will visit the camp and distribute protection kits for the affected children, in conjunction with group psychological support activities.
Nearly 13 years of conflict, a deepening economic crisis and the lasting impacts of the earthquakes are devastating the lives of a generation of young people.
In 2024, 16.7 million people will need support - the highest number since the beginning of the crisis - 45% of them children.
A year after the devastating earthquakes, families are still trying to piece their lives back together amid a complex and multi-layered crisis. Children across northern Syria are once again facing huge risks to their physical and mental health following escalations in violence since October. The latest escalations have caused more deaths and injuries and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
READ MORE: Türkiye and Syria earthquake: how you can help.
HAITI
Save the Children's Infant and Young Child Feeding Program Advisor Rose Nalda uses a MUAC band to examine the degree of malnutrition of beneficiary Withmaly, 3.
A deadly combination of escalating violence, worsening political and economic turmoil, widespread poverty, growing food insecurity and a cholera outbreak in Haiti has left nearly 3 million children in need of humanitarian assistance.
The compounded effects of gang violence, violent civil unrest, roadblocks and increased cases of kidnappings have exacerbated gender-based violence and child protection risks, including the recruitment of children into armed gangs.
YEMEN
A drawing workshop was held with children in Southwestern Yemen as part of the Flowers for Children campaign. A Yemeni artist worked with a group of children aged between 8 and 17 to draw flowers on the walls of one of the schools that were damaged by bombardment. This workshop was carried out as part of the wider Flowers for Children campaign as a symbol of solidarity for children affected by war across the world.
Nine years of war in Yemen have left more than 18 million people – over half of the population – in desperate need of food, water, and life-saving assistance. Millions of Yemenis face widespread displacement, food insecurity and limited access to basic services.
Children have been killed and maimed, uprooted from their homes and seen their schools and hospitals destroyed.
READ MORE: How we support children when a disaster strikes.
THE SAHEL
They burned businesses and shops and took away the herds,” says Sandrine*. “We fled empty-handed.” At the time, Sandrine was pregnant and had to carry her youngest child on her back, as well as look after her other child, five-year-old Issouf*. The family was just one of millions caught up in the violence sweeping through their homeland of Burkina Faso, and neighbouring Mali and Niger. Slowly but surely, however, they are rebuilding their lives. Little Issouf*, now seven, is at a Save the Children-supported learning centre. “I am learning to read,” says Issouf. “I like studying. I want to become a doctor.” His teacher is delighted with his progress. “Issouf! I often call him my baby! He’s good. He is good at reading. If I tell him to break a word down, he breaks it down easily.” This centre is a temporary stop for Issouf – if all goes well, he will be enrolled in regular school next year to continue his education, and keep building a better future for himself and his family.
The Central Sahel region of Africa, which includes Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, is home to some of the world's most challenged communities facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
An already highly conflictive region has become even more unstable due to the impact of the climate crisis. Droughts have altered the structure of the economy, leading to social changes and coping strategies fuelling conflict, because of access to water or land.
As a result, 10.8 million people need humanitarian aid, and there are about 3 million IDPs, with 2,1 million in Burkina Faso alone, becoming one of the world's fastest-growing displacement crises.
70 percent of population movements in the Sahel are linked to conflict: security incidents, attacks and kidnappings are a daily reality for millions of civilians and humanitarian workers in the field.
As with most conflicts, children are the ones being affected the most. They account for more than 50% of displaced people in the region and 1 in 3 children have been taken out of primary school due to deteriorating security.
AFGHANISTAN
-stands-in-front-of-rubble.jpg-ch1904079.jpg/ox762xv22f44yx4e346gvo8n18tqk46v.JPG?g=top&w=2562&format=webp&itok=uYjbxGz8 "Jawid*,4, stands in front of his collapsed home in, following the earthquakes in Herat province, Afghanistan.")
Jawid*, 4, stands in front of his collapsed home in, following the earthquakes in Herat province, Afghanistan. Atabek Khadim / Save the Children
More than two years since the Taliban regained control in Afghanistan, conditions for children and their families remain catastrophic.
A perfect storm of climate disasters, a severe economic crisis and the collapse of essential services have led to one of the worst food crises ever recorded. Some 23 million people need humanitarian assistance this year. 1 in 3 people are facing extreme hunger and 41% of children under 5 are currently facing acute malnutrition.
Over 95% of families are not able to meet all of their basic needs, such as food and shelter.
The crisis is taking its toll on mental health and well-being, with 26% of girls and 16% of boys showing signs of depression.
READ MORE: Afghanistan: a crisis on top of a crisis.
COX'S BAZAR
Some 7,000 Rohingya refugees, including at least 4,200 children, are now homeless after the first large fire of the year swept through a camp on Sunday in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Nearly 800 shelters were completely destroyed in the blaze which struck Camp 5, one of the 33 camps which make the Rohinyga settlement the biggest refugee camp in the world, with an additional 93 shelters partially damaged, according to the UNHCR. Learning centres, mosques, washing facilities and child friendly spaces were also damaged in the fires, with no casualties yet reported. The needs of the Rohingya refugees remain immense and urgent, especially as they approach the monsoon seasons, which could bring more risks of floods, landslides, and diseases.
Six years since Rohingya refugees fled from violence in Myanmar to Bangladesh, conditions in the camps for refugees are getting worse rather than better.
Living in squalid and overcrowded conditions, almost 1 million Rohingya refugees remain almost entirely dependent on humanitarian aid to survive. Unable to work or access formal education opportunities, Rohingya refugees remain stateless and unprotected.
Three in four children are out of school, and living conditions in the camps mean there is a major risk of disease outbreaks, including diarrheal diseases and measles.
Rohingya children in Cox's Bazar are now eating 20% less than they were last year due to food ration cuts.
READ MORE: Rohingya crisis: how to help.
When a crisis strikes, Save the Children is there
We’re there before, during, and after a crisis. We help communities prepare for the next disaster – because it’s not a matter of if, but when.
We’re there when disaster strikes, to provide the urgent supplies families need to survive.
And we deliver what can’t be packed in a bag – what children need to recover and rebuild their futures.
Donate now to help us prepare better, respond faster and protect longer when the next disaster strikes. Please donate what you can so we can provide children with the things you can’t fit in a bag.
