(Geneva) The UN will need at least $ 41 billion in 2022 to rescue 183 million of the most vulnerable people in a world ravaged by COVID-19, conflict and climate change.
In total, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday, 274 million people are expected to need emergency assistance next year, a jump of 17% from a year ago. 2021 already record.
This represents one in 29 people in the world.
Never has the number of people in need of aid “been so high,” said Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, during a press briefing in Geneva.
Giving help to so many people “can’t last, and yet it has to last,” he said.
Where $ 41 billion will be needed next year to help highly vulnerable people across 63 countries, it was $ 35 billion this year and half as much four years ago.
OCHA’s big annual report released on Thursday draws a long catalog of this misery, where Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Burma feature prominently alongside climate change.
Not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic, which will enter its third year early next year and has already officially killed more than five million, probably two to three times more according to the WHO.
The specter of famine
COVID-19 has thrown 20 million people into extreme poverty over the past year, the report points out.
It has also plunged many health systems into chaos, with a deleterious effect on the fight against other scourges such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. This year, 23 million children were unable to receive basic vaccines.
At the same time, global warming and its attendant natural disasters could force 216 million people to seek refuge elsewhere in their own country by 2050.
It is still climate change that makes famine “such a real and terrifying possibility for 45 million people in 43 countries,” the report warns.
“Without lasting and immediate action, 2022 could turn out to be catastrophic” in a world where 811 million people are already malnourished, the text says.
Afghanistan, for its part, combines decades of conflict, with catastrophic drought and an economy in free fall since the Taliban took power in August.
Two-thirds of the population need help, and nine million people are on the brink of famine. The UN needs 4.5 billion for 22 million Afghans next year.
Ethiopia ‘most worrying’
Yemen and Syria, where war has been going on for years, also need help, but Ethiopia’s needs are particularly dire since Addis Ababa’s offensive against Tigray.
This brutal war, which has lasted for more than a year, has caused the displacement of millions of people.
According to the OCHA report, 26 million people depend on humanitarian aid in the Horn of Africa country and 400,000 are on the verge of starvation.
For Martin Griffiths, Ethiopia presents perhaps the “most worrying situation”, although he hastens to add that there are many other extremely serious situations around the world.
But Martin Griffiths also wanted to highlight the successes of humanitarian aid, which helps limit disasters.
Last year, OCHA provided aid to 107 million people, 70% of those the organization wanted to reach, including half a million people in South Sudan rescued from famine.