Dec 13, 2018

The countries most at risk of humanitarian disaster in 2019

Haley Britzky

A child drinks water from a well in Nyamlel, South Sudan. Photo: Stefanie Glinski/AFP/Getty Images

The International Rescue Committee has identified Yemen, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Afghanistan and Venezuela as the countries most at risk for major humanitarian crises going into 2019.

The big picture: David Miliband, president and CEO of the IRC, told Axios these countries are the "best evidence of the world's fragility." He says the three main takeaways of the report are that the world's worst humanitarian crises are growing, reaching beyond each country's borders, and not heading for near-term solutions.

Miliband told Axios that one of the things that keeps him up at night is that the "traditional sources of compassion and humanitarian assistance in the West are turning their back on these people." According to Miliband, the political climate in the U.S. with respect to refugees "has gone from relatively benign, to quite toxic."

"I hope that America can regain its confidence and be seen as a haven for people fleeing unspeakable suffering."

— IRC CEO David Miliband

The next five countries on the most at-risk list are Central African Republic, Syria, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

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The countries most at risk of humanitarian disaster in 2019

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