Ethiopia features on the Watchlist for the third year in a row but rises into the top five for the first time due to escalating conflict. At the same time, climate change, desert locusts and the COVID-19 pandemic all further deepen the challenges facing the country in 2021, and drive up the number of people in need to the second highest in the world.

Burkina Faso entered the IRC’s Watchlist for the first time last year and it is now ranked at six as conflict activity continues to rise rapidly and spread, driving steep increases in humanitarian need, one of the world’s fastest growing displacement crises and - with COVID-19 - bringing a risk of famine.

Rapidly escalating conflict in northern Mozambique is the key factor that has pushed the country not just onto Watchlist for the first time, but straight into the list’s top ten countries of most concern.

COVID-19, climate change and rising conflict are all driving up the humanitarian risks facing Chad in 2021.