Forgotten humanitarian crises, breaking the silence: Here are the 10 least talked about affecting Africa in 2022
[ad_1]
ROME – The ten least reported humanitarian crises in 2022 all occurred in Africa, according to the annual report”Breaking the Silence” by the British aid organization CARE International . The report highlights the crises that have received the least attention from the global media system during the past year. Angola – for example – is experiencing the worst drought in the last forty years. Nearly four million people don’t have enough food to eat. Yet – just to say – last year there were 50 times more articles in online media about the release of the iPhone 14 (95,118 articles) than about the humanitarian crisis in Angola (1,847 articles).
Eyes on Will Smith’s slap while in Malawi… When actor Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony (217,529 items), the incident received nearly 100 times the coverage of Malawi’s food crisis (2,330 items), where more than a quarter of the population did not enough food to eat. The southeast African country suffers from food shortages due to extreme weather conditions, including droughts and cyclones. All ten countries on the list have been affected by climate-related disasters.
“Silence in the face of lives in danger”. “These are difficult times for Europe – says Andrea Barschdorf-Hager, CEO of CARE Austria – and even more difficult for people affected by humanitarian crises around the world. With the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and climate change, there is no shortage of topics for global news coverage. However – he adds – we see it as our mission to also show silent crises and report on those people who receive little attention, because we cannot and will not remain silent when lives are in danger”.
Hunger crisis in Africa in the shadow of war in Ukraine. In 2021, Ukraine was included in the list of underreported crises. The war in Ukraine was one of the top global news stories in 2022, with over 2 million articles published online. The effects of the war, including extreme levels of food and energy inflation, were felt across Africa. “The United Nations recently warned of a historic hunger crisis in Africa,” warns Claudine Awute, vice president of international programs at CARE – we see its extent every day in our work. Parents skip meals so their children don’t go hungry. Fields dry up and livestock die. Families have to flee because they cannot find food or water. Given this dramatic situation, it is even more worrying that people’s plight is hardly being reported. If we keep looking the other way, the consequences will be dire.”
Change happens through attention. The media, politics, business, civil society and NGOs are called upon to pay more attention to forgotten crises. Humanitarian reporting benefits from exchanges with local experts and letting those affected speak for themselves. NGOs can provide support in this regard. On the donor side, it is also important to listen to people in crisis regions so they get the help they need. “Change happens through attention. And ultimately, the people in Angola, Malawi and many other crisis regions need not only more attention, but also life-saving aid and a future with prospects,” says Barschdorf -Hager.
The 10 humanitarian crises that didn’t make the news in 2022.
Angola – 3.8 million people do not have enough to eat
Malawi – 37% of children are malnourished
Central African Republic – 3.1 million people in need of humanitarian aid
Zambia – 50 percent of people live on $1.90 a day
Chad – Second highest maternal mortality rate in the world
Burundi – 50% of children under five are malnourished
Zimbabwe – 7 million people are in need of humanitarian aid
Evils – Eighth highest infant mortality rate in the world
Cameroon – 3.9 million people in need
Niger – 4.4 million people suffer from severe food insecurity
The methodology used for this survey. Meltwater is an international media monitoring service, it has analyzed more than 5.8 million online articles for CARE in Arabic, English, French, German and Spanish from 1 January to 10 October 2022. From a list of 47 humanitarian crises, those ten crises with the least media presence were identified. The report is being published this year for the seventh time.
A few words about CARE International. Founded in 1945, CARE is now one of the largest humanitarian organizations in the world, operating in over 100 countries. The NGO’s aid has reached more than 170 million people in the past year.
[ad_2]
Source link
