The 10 countries of greatest concern for 2023

There are ten countries of greatest concern for 2023, according to the annual list compiled by the non-governmental organization International Rescue Committee (IRC): Somalia and Ethiopia. These are: Somalia, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Haiti and Ukraine.

The report entitled “Emergency Watchlist 2023” includes 20 countries, 11 of which are located in the Horn of Africa, which are more at risk of breaking out in new crises of the year or of worsening the existing ones. It is home to 80% of the world’s people who face severe food insecurity, despite the fact that it is only 13% of the world’s population.

For the first time, first on the list is Somaliawhere the two-year drought in combination with rising global commodity prices and one Islamist insurgency have caused catastrophic food shortages, leading in the death of children, which are expected to worsen.

The Islamist group al-Shabaab is blocking humanitarian access, while escalating violence between rebels and government forces at the end of 2022 portends that the crisis will continue to worsen in 2023, according to the IRC.

David Miliband, its leader NGOpointed out that millions of Somalis are starving and rich countries should not wait until famine is officially declared to provide the one billion dollars missing from the UN’s requested funding for the country.

“The underfunding of the appeal clearly demonstrates that people believe we are not at a critical moment. This is wrong,” Miliband stressed. He added that many rich countries are self-centered, which is not morally or strategically correct. “The isolation, the introversion of too many of the richest parts of the world leaves too many of the poorest parts of the world forced to fend for themselves in a way that they are unable to do,” he explained.

Miliband declared that the war on Ukraine he exacerbates the problem because rich countries focus on him, but he praised the UN, which provides 90% of aid to Somalia.

“In the US, Ukraine is not used as an excuse to back off (Washington) from dealing with global issues. It is being used by the government as an excuse to get involved in East Africa,” he said.

Somalia has been hit particularly hard by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine because it is too dependent on imported food, with 90% of the wheat it imports coming from Russia and Ukraine.

In Ethiopiawhere an estimated 20 million people do not have enough food, a truce signed in November between the federal government and Tigray rebels after two years of fighting raised hopes that humanitarian access would improve.

“Some help has gone through,” Miliband explained. “But we have a lot of lost ground to make up.”