Conflict and hostilities combined with economic contraction and governance challenges continue to devastate communities and increase humanitarian and protection needs in the Middle East and North Africa region.
Over 12 million people are internally displaced across the region, with some displaced multiple times facing protection risks and human rights violations, including gender-based violence, which is particularly affecting women and girls. Protracted and escalating hostilities in parts of Syria, Yemen and Libya continue to force people to flee their homes and communities and exacerbate civilian suffering, deaths and injuries.
The economic crisis, including soaring inflation and fuel shortages in several countries, exacerbates an already fragile food security and nutrition situation and erodes people’s coping capacities. Many are resorting to negative coping mechanisms such as skipping meals, increasing debt and child marriages to meet basic needs.
Benghazi, Libya
A mother holds her 2-month-old twins in an IDP settlement in Benghazi. She and most of her neighbours fled the now-destroyed town of Tawergha, some 600 km west of Benghazi. The town was devastated in some of the heaviest fighting of the Libyan conflict between 2011 and 2015. Her husband and eight of her nine children live in a two-room shelter with a corrugated metal roof. Winter is the most difficult time. She said: “It is very difficult to keep the children warm and to find proper treatment and medicine whenever they get sick.” However, despite the situation, she is grateful that her children are currently safe and healthy. “My children’s well-being is the most important thing, so I thank God every day for that.”
OCHA/Giles ClarkeIn Syria, despite relative stability in the third quarter, food prices remain 90 per cent higher than in the first half of 2020, while the fuel crisis and currency depreciation in Yemen continue to increase prices of essential commodities, affecting critical services and aid operations. The Beirut Port explosions multiplied Lebanon’s worst economic crisis in its recent history. The Lebanese pound continues to depreciate, unemployment is rising, prices of basic goods are surging rapidly, and the threat of hunger is looming for the poorest people. Acute malnutrition remains a major characteristic, with increasing numbers of acutely malnourished children and women reported in multiple countries. This includes parts of Yemen, where cases of young children suffering from severe acute malnutrition have increased by 15 per cent.
COVID-19 has had a devasting impact on people, stretched health systems and other basic services and intensified already high humanitarian needs. Years of active conflict in the region have decimated basic infrastructure. This combination of factors along with the economic downturn has left countries in the Middle East and North Africa struggling to keep up with the pace of the pandemic, including absorbing confirmed cases in health facilities or maintaining other essential health services such as routine vaccinations. Even worse is the pandemic’s socioeconomic impact; it has eroded livelihoods, reduced remittances, increased unemployment and pushed vulnerable people further into poverty.
Millions of people rely on humanitarian assistance for their basic needs, including through cross-border operations. However, partners continue to face access challenges reaching affected communities due to conflict, insecurity, blockades and bureaucratic impediments; the COVID-19-related containment measures have further constrained this access – as infection rates surge, more movement restrictions are expected.
In the coming year, the challenges remain immense. Over 45 million people across the region will need some form of assistance. If left unaddressed, conflict and violence, political and economic instability and food insecurity will continue to drive up humanitarian and protection needs across the region.
Source: OCHA
