Medical aid charity has grim diagnosis on world's humanitarian crises

Published on Monday 22 December 2008 21:02

SPIRALLING violence in Somalia, refugees fleeing violence in eastern Congo, and medical emergencies in Burma and Zimbabwe were among the top ten humanitarian crises of 2008, according to an annual list released by Doctors Without Borders.

Other crises on the group's list, which was released on Sunday, included: malnutrition, which claims five million young lives across the globe each year; HIV, tuberculosis, fighting in Pakistan's tribal areas; difficulties in distributing aid in Iraq; violence and harsh climatic conditions in south-east Ethiopia's Somali region; and the continuing Darfur crisis and civil war in Sudan.

Dr Christophe Fournier, international council president of the group, which is also known as Mdecins Sans Frontires, said: "With the release of this list, we hope to focus much needed attention on the millions of people who are trapped in conflict and war, affected by medical crises."

The group began issuing the annual list in 1998 after a devastating famine in southern Sudan went unnoticed by the American media.

The group said Somalia experienced some of the worst violence in over a decade in 2008, aggravating problems in a country whose collapsed health system means one in ten women dies during childbirth and one in five children dies before their fifth birthday.