The armed conflict in Yemen, the one in Eritrea, the Syrian Civil War and the confrontations in South Sudan are the four most critical points for living on the planet. In all of them, more than half of its population needs humanitarian aid. However, the pandemic, as pointed out by Raquel González, head of Institutional Relations at Doctors Without Borders Spain, “has added another layer of complexity and vulnerability to the existing humanitarian crises.”
And it is that while the funds have stagnated, with 3,900 million dollars in 2020, practically the same figure as the previous year, the number of alerts launched by the UN has grown by 27%. “For the first time, the gaps between what is requested by humanitarian organizations and what has been covered is 52% “, underlines Francisco Rey, co-director of the Institute for Conflict Studies and Humanitarian Action (IECAH), while Raquel González regrets, along the same lines, that” there are services that have been interrupted, such as vaccination campaigns, or health care prenatal and postnatal “.
The pandemic, experts say, has demonstrated the difficulty that organizations have international to prevent possible catastrophes. For Francisco Rey, “the international humanitarian aid system has become obsolete.” Coordination mechanisms between national and international media must be strengthened, “he argues.
Meanwhile, the number of displaced people continues to grow: 82 million people in the world are refugees or displaced, according to figures from the end of 2020. Experts add: the international community is not knowing how to deal with the humanitarian crises caused by these displacements.
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
