Four reasons why Myanmar ranks as one of the countries most at risk of experiencing a worsening humanitarian crisis in 2024.

It was in the middle of the night when the conflict erupted in a village in the Konzo Zone of Ethiopia that forced 40-year-old Makito, her family and many of her neighbours to flee for their lives. The conflict took everything they had from them: their livestock looted, their home destroyed, and their harvest and village burned down.

The IRC’s 2023 Emergency Watchlist reveals how the guardrails created to reduce suffering during crises have been weakened or dismantled all together.

Mid-December 2022, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) published its annual Emergency Watchlist, identifying the 20 countries in the world most at risk to face a severe humanitarian crisis or a deterioration of an ongoing humanitarian crisis in 2023. Once again, our unique methodology based on 67 indicators and discussions with key stakeholders in the region, concluded that the situations in 5 West African countries are of high concern. Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria are all countries where conflict, climate change, and economic turmoil impact the lives of millions of people and limits their access to quality health, education, and protection services, food, and sometimes, even to benefit from humanitarian assistance. These countries need the world’s attention to help displaced and host populations survive, recover, and rebuild their lives. This report aims to dive into these contexts and unpack the accelerators of the humanitarian crisis to then better identify the guardrails that decision makers need to rebuild so people can move from harm to home.

Millions of people have been uprooted from their homes in Ukraine and are need of aid. As the world responds, those enduring ongoing crises in Afghanistan, Yemen and other countries will also be impacted by the conflict and must not be left behind.