Humanitarian crises that demand your attention now

It’s not just Gaza and Ukraine. Wars and other humanitarian emergencies continue to rage around the globe heading into 2025. Many of them – even Sudan, the world’s largest displacement crisis – garner relatively little media coverage and struggle to get their share of donor aid money. And even when the funds are there for a robust response, securing the access to actually deliver one can be all but impossible.

At the start of each year, our team of specialist editors produces a list of 10 crises to watch. With so many to choose from, and bearing in mind the particularly worrisome humanitarian funding backdrop, the 2025 list has been extended to 13. Several more settings – Lebanon or South Sudan, for example – could easily have been added.

Sudan: Famine and fighting spread as warring parties weaponise hunger

Numbers: More than 12 million people have been displaced since conflict erupted in April 2023. Some 25 million people – over half the population – are facing acute hunger, and famine has been declared in at least five areas for which experts say they have reliable data.

All signs are trending downwards as the war in Sudan nears the two-year mark. What started as a dispute over plans to merge the paramilitary-turned-rebel Rapid Support Forces into the regular army has turned into a nationwide conflict drawing in an ever-expanding number of militia and rebel groups. The conflict has produced the world’s largest displacement crisis, with over 12 million people uprooted, including nearly 3.5 million to neighbouring states, and the biggest hunger crisis too, a product of the warring parties’ weaponisation of starvation. Half of the country (around 25 million people) are facing acute food insecurity, and famine has been detected in at least five areas (and is projected in five more areas by May), according to the Famine Review Committee, part of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the frequently hamstrung system for measuring food crises. The RSF has been charged with committing genocide by local communities (especially in Darfur), human rights groups, and foreign governments, and the army is also widely accused of carrying out war crimes. Initiatives to end the war have been disjointed and arms keep flowing into the country as the belligerents and their external backers seem committed to prolonging (and profiting from) Sudan’s catastrophic collapse.

The Horn of Africa: Regional power politics stirs instability

Numbers: Some 64 million people were in need of aid across the Horn of Africa last year – one fifth of the global humanitarian caseload. Nearly 20 million people are internally displaced in just three countries – Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia.

The violence of Sudan’s civil war wouldn’t be so calamitous if it wasn’t for the meddling of regional powers jostling for dominance. The United Arab Emirates — looking to expand its footprint in Africa — provides weapons to the RSF, smuggled through a pliant Chad, Central African Republic, and Libya. The Sudanese armed forces, the RSF’s rival, are backed by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. With the fracturing of the liberal world order, these so-called “middle powers” have a determinative influence over the warring sides. Any hope of progress on peace talks – a distant prospect for the moment — must take account of their interests. But Sudan is only one aspect of the broader instability across the Horn of Africa in which local, regional, and global conflict dynamics are enmeshed. Ethiopia and Somalia are another. Landlocked Ethiopia’s demand for a port and naval base in Somaliland (a breakaway region of Somalia) has caused deep ructions. Somalia saw the deal as a violation of its sovereignty and responded with a defence agreement with Egypt – Addis Ababa’s longstanding competitor. A Turkish mediation appears to have de-escalated tensions in recent weeks, though there is much still to be concerned about. Unaddressed is the status of self-governing Somaliland, strategically positioned on the Gulf of Aden. US President-elect Donald Trump looks set to recognise the territory – overriding African Union objections – as a hedge against China’s influence in Djibouti. The regional power politics does nothing for the tens of millions of people affected by conflict and climate disaster.

Palestine: The toll of Israel’s wars and unending occupation

Numbers: Since October 2023, the Israeli military has killed almost 46,000 Palestinians in its assault on the Gaza Strip. The indirect death toll from starvation, disease, and lack of healthcare is likely significantly higher. Nearly the entire population of 2.1 million people is displaced, and 92% of homes in the enclave have been destroyed or damaged. 

In early November, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant – who is wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court (ICC) – reportedly said there is nothing left for Israel to achieve militarily in Gaza. US military officials reached that same conclusion as far back as last August. Yet the siege and assault on the enclave have continued. Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu (also wanted by the ICC) is widely seen as having blocked ceasefire agreements any time one has been close. If a deal is finally reached, Gaza has been brutalised beyond recognition and its people forced to endure staggering levels of violence and deprivation. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have concluded that Israel is committing acts of genocide. If Israel’s leadership decides to end the war, it will undoubtedly impose ceasefire conditions that will make recovery exceedingly slow and limited. Israel’s government has also made it abundantly clear that it is opposed to Palestinian self-determination and statehood. Instead, Israel is building military infrastructure in Gaza that suggests it intends to stay, while dramatically expanding land theft and settlement building in the West Bank, where repression and military and settler violence have intensified. All of this – as well as Israel’s pulverisation of southern Lebanon and its occupation of more territory in Syria – has taken place with utter impunity and the backing of the US, Germany, UK, and other major Western powers. Palestinians have been the main victims, but the Western-led post-World War II system of international institutions and law intended to manage conflicts and prevent atrocities has also taken a big hit with far-reaching implications.

For more information visit:thenewhumanitarian.org