Iraqi Civilians in Urgent Need of Assistance: MSF’s Top Ten Humanitarian Crises of 2008
One of the greatest challenges facing independent humanitarian action today is that of reaching civilians caught in war and armed conflicts. Nowhere is this more frustratingly illustrated than in Iraq, where MSF has struggled to gain a meaningful foothold since the US-led invasion of 2003. Various military and political actors have sought to use and abuse humanitarian action for political purposes and in doing so have made humanitarian organizations a target for violent attacks. This has undermined the ability of MSF, and other neutral humanitarian organizations to address critical needs of the civilian population.
Read in full: MSF’s Top Ten Humanitarian Crises of 2008
More on Iraq
- MSF Supports Iraqi Hospitals
- Podcast MSF Frontline Reports – Iraq
- Video An Iraqi Girl Struggles to Walk Again
- All MSF content on Iraq
See also:
MSF’s Top Ten Humanitarian Crises of 2008
Massive forced civilian displacements, violence, and unmet medical needs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, and Pakistan, along with neglected medical emergencies in Myanmar and Zimbabwe, are some of the worst humanitarian and medical emergencies in the world, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reports in its annual list of the “Top Ten” humanitarian crises.
The report underscores major difficulties in bringing assistance to people affected by conflict. The lack of global attention to the growing prevalence of HIV-tuberculosis co-infection and the critical need for increased global efforts to prevent and treat childhood malnutrition—the underlying cause of death for up to five million children per year—are also included in the list.
- Somalia’s Humanitarian Catastrophe Worsens
- Beyond the International Spotlight, Critical Health Needs in Myanmar Remain Unmet
- Health Crisis Sweeps Zimbabwe as Violence and Economic Collapse Spread
- Civilians Trapped as War Rages in Eastern Congo
- Millions of Malnourished Children Left Untreated Despite Advances in Lifesaving Nutritional Therapies
- Critical Need of Assistance in Ethiopia’s Somali Region
- Civilians Killed and Forced to Flee as Fighting Intensifies in Northwestern Pakistan
- No End in Sight to Violence and Suffering in Sudan
- Iraqi Civilians in Urgent Need of Assistance
- HIV/TB Co-Infection Poses Health Battle on Two Fronts
