274m people across world expected to be in need of humanitarian aid: UN
UNHCR workers push wheelbarrows loaded with aid supplies for displaced Afghan families as a Taliban fighter secures the area outside the distribution centre on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan October 28, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
Around 274 million people across the world will need humanitarian aid and protection this year, the UN said on Thursday, on the eve of World Humanitarian Day.
In a report titled Global Humanitarian Overview 2022, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said: "In 2022, 274 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection.”
Describing it as "a significant increase from 235 million people" in 2021, it noted that the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has a role on the rise.
The last year’s figure was already the highest in decades, it also said.
The UN body also noted in the last year’s report that one in 33 people across the world is in need of humanitarian aid.
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However, the number of people in need of humanitarian aid was around 132 million globally in 2019, and it is expected to hit 274 million this year.
Designated by the UN General Assembly in 2008 to mark the anniversary of the 2003 bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 22 aid workers, World Humanitarian Day is observed every year on Aug. 19.
The OCHA says that while the Democratic Republic of Congo takes the lead with the number of people in need of humanitarian aid (27 million), around 26 million Ethiopians are also in dire need of humanitarian assistance.
Afghanistan, grappling with economic and humanitarian crises one year after the Taliban take over, is home to around 24.5 million people in need of humanitarian aid.
While around 20.7 million people of Yemen are in need of aid, Myanmar follows it with 14.4 million people.
Around 14.3 million Sudanese people and 14 million Syrians are also in need of humanitarian assistance, it said.
Another report of the OCHA reveals the number of aid workers who were victims of attacks in 2021. It said that over 460 aid workers, with 140 of them killed, became the victims of attacks last year.