Five Humanitarian Crises Largely Overlooked in 2015

Five Humanitarian Crises Largely Overlooked in 2015

Bogota. From civil war and urban gang violence to drought, some humanitarian crises around the world receive less media attention and donor funding than others and are less visible.

Below are the top five humanitarian crises of 2015, in no particular order, which aid agencies say deserve more attention on the world stage:

Central America's hidden displacement

Rampant gang violence, poverty and the lack of jobs push hundreds of people a month to leave the "Northern Triangle" nations of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala and seek work and refuge in the United States and other Latin American countries.

In El Salvador and Honduras – which have the world's highest murder rates – entire city neighborhoods are controlled by powerful street gangs, known as maras. They use extortion, sexual violence against girls and women, threats, killings and forced recruitment of children to exercise control.

"We have a situation that affects the lives of thousands of people because of widespread violence related to organized crime. What you have here is forced displacement," said Vicente Raimundo, head of the European Union humanitarian aid department (ECHO) regional office for Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean.

"Our concern is for those who are fleeing their homes because they are under threat, their relatives have been killed or they fear they are next on the list. They need to be protected. This is a big issue and we need to do more," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview from the Nicaraguan capital Managua.

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