Floods, earthquakes, wars… Humanitarian crises follow one another in 2023

The conflict in the Middle East and the humanitarian situation in Gaza have attracted attention in recent weeks and seem to eclipse other less publicized crises: floods, earthquakes, strikes by the Turkish army against Kurdish forces, war in Sudan, etc. Over the past six months, humanitarian crises have followed one another.

The war in Sudan has displaced nearly six million people and half the country is awaiting humanitarian aid. Floods in Derna in Libya: several thousand dead and tens of thousands displaced. There have been deadly earthquakes in Morocco, and more recently in Afghanistan. And we could add the war in Ukraine, of course, which will enter its third year in February. Without even counting the conflict in Gaza, there are 114 million displaced people and refugees in the world, according to the estimates of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), published Wednesday October 25 in a press release. A new record.

The most affected countries: DRC, Afghanistan, Sudan

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is experiencing one of the most serious humanitarian and displacement crises in the world. And the international organization for migration received only 37% of the funds required for its operations. Another country is particularly underfunded: Afghanistan. The World Food Program had to give up helping ten million Afghans to feed themselves this year. While a third of the population does not know what their next meal will be. Roughly equivalent situation in Sudan. “All eyes are in fact on the conflict in Gaza. And it’s often like that. Before, humanitarians explained to us that the war in Ukraine tended to attract the majority of donations, to the detriment, sometimes, of others crises. But that is changing, there too. Since if last year, the humanitarian appeal for Ukraine was almost 100% funded, this year, it is only 50% at a time when we talk to each other”details Dominique Hyde, who works at the High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and has just returned from Sudan.

Turkish strikes against Kurdish forces

In mid-October, the Turkish Parliament extended by two years the army’s mandate authorizing it to carry out cross-border operations in Syria and Iraq. Almost daily operations, while the Turkish army rarely communicates on these strikes. It’s the Ankara attack, the 1^er October, which triggered these new strikes against Kurdish groups in northern Syria. The Kurdish commando who attacked the Interior Ministry in the Turkish capital on the day of the opening of the National Assembly is in fact accused of having come from Syria. Ankara even claims that its members reached its territory by paragliding.

The organization Human Rights Watch published a report this week which denounces the lack of protection of civilian populations during the Turkish strikes and cites an assessment given by the Rojava information center which estimates that between October 5 and 10 , Turkish drones in northeastern Syria have killed at least 11 civilians and injured many others.