As the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine continue to dominate news headlines, it is easy to forget that there are an unprecedented number of other crises around the globe fuelling record human displacement.

These conflicts are driving humanitarian crises that are often neglected by the world’s media and aid donors.

There are currently 120 million people displaced across the globe – a record number representing the 12^th year in a row the figure has risen.

Tens of millions of these people live in settings of extreme hunger or extreme danger and the nature of the conflicts, access restraints and funding limitations mean many can’t be reached by an already stretched international aid system.

Some of these conflicts and crises are:

Sudan. Ten million people have been displaced since April 2023, with 26 million living with food insecurity and 14 areas declared “at risk” of famine.

Now in its second year, the war between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the regular army has produced the world’s largest displacement crisis.

One report said there had been 2.5 million starvation deaths by September, while others are warning of the world’s worst famine in 40 years.

Myanmar. More than three million people have been displaced, including 800,000 between late October 2023 and March 2024 alone. The 2024 aid response plan is less than 15 per cent funded.

When ethnic armed groups started uniting to take on the ruling military junta late last year, their gains were touted as signs of hope for a new dawn for Myanmar. But there were warnings too that the intensified conflict would the humanitarian crisis.

Since then, displacement has risen above three million and there have been widespread allegations of torture and abuse.

Haiti. Nearly five million Haitians – almost half the population – are facing acute hunger, with 1.6 million at risk of starvation. More than 578,000 people have been displaced by gang violence, including some 300,000 women and girls.

A deployment of Kenyan police arrived in the capital, Port-au-Prince, in July as part of a UN-approved and US-bankrolled force tasked with reining in rampant gang violence and paving the way towards Haiti’s first elections since 2016.

The Sahel. There are 2.6 million people displaced across Burkina Faso, Mail, and Niger with 15.2 million people in desperate need.

Civilians are suffering as the military rulers of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger entrench their power and step-up bloody counterinsurgency campaigns against jihadist militants.

Burkina Faso’s junta is extending its rule even as dissent within the military builds after insurgents killed over a hundred soldiers in June. Troops have carried out their own massacres, and they continue to kidnap critics.

Horn of Africa. Almost 64 million people in the Greater Horn of Africa are in need of aid and protection – equivalent to 22 per cent of the global humanitarian caseload. Sudan and Ethiopia alone are two of the world’s five largest humanitarian disasters. 

Across the region, humanitarian needs continue to be driven by conflict, El Niño-induced flooding, and the lingering impact of extreme back-to-back droughts that have destroyed livelihoods. In Sudan, its civil war is causing some of the worst levels of food insecurity ever seen.

In Ethiopia, 21 million people have been affected by climate shocks, ongoing insurgencies – particularly in the Amhara and Oromia areas. The economy is in freefall because of the conflict.

In South Sudan, where elections due in December – the country’s first since gaining independence in 2011 – remain in doubt. Half of the population are affected by a humanitarian crisis. Somalia is another long-standing emergency zone because of a stalemated war.

Democratic Republic of Congo. There are 7.3 million people internally displaced and 23 million people food insecure because of the conflict between the M23 rebel group and the Congolese army.

The war has intensified, with the fighting increasingly resembling a regional inter-state war. Rwanda has stepped up its support for the M23, placing thousands of troops on the ground, while southern African forces – from Malawi, South Africa, and Tanzania – as well as Burundian soldiers and local militias are fighting with Congolese government forces against them.

All of this means civilian casualties have soared and hunger is on the rise.

Syria. Almost 17 million people are in need of aid – almost 1.5 million more than last year. Seven million are internally displaced and a UN-coordinated aid plan is more than 80 per cent underfunded.

More Syrians need humanitarian assistance this year than at any time since the country erupted into civil war more than 13 years ago. A surge in hostilities between the government (with its Russian allies) and various rebel forces in the northwest that started last October has continued to make matters worse.

Yemen. 18.2 million people are in need of aid and 17.6 million are at risk of severe hunger. A UN-coordinated aid plan is almost 80 per cent underfunded.

Yemen entered its tenth year of war in March, and while a de facto truce remains in place between the main warring parties, key elements of the conflict have shifted.

Houthi rebels are now fighting an internationally recognised but mostly exiled government, which is backed by a Saudi Arabia-and UAE-led coalition that has largely stepped back from the fray.

But the Houthis, backed by Iran, have also been attacking international shipping targets in the Red Sea as a gesture of solidarity for Gazans.

Venezuela. There are 7.7 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants worldwide; including 6.6 million in Latin America. About 7.6 million people require humanitarian assistance within Venezuela, including two million in need of emergency food aid.

Venezuela will hold an election soon with potentially explosive consequences. If opposition candidate Edmundo González wins, as the opinion polls suggest he could if the election is fair, there could be a relaxing of US sanctions, a humanitarian aid influx, and the possible return people who have fled the authoritarianism and economic collapse.

But if Nicolás Maduro wins, many more may join the exodus from Venezuela taking dangerous routes to North America.

Afghanistan. There are 23.7 million people in need of assistance, more than half the population. Around 12.4 million people are food insecure, including four million who are acutely malnourished, most of them children.

The ruling Taliban hope to achieve international recognition, the lifting of sanctions, and the return from the US and the UK of billions of dollars in Afghan Central Bank assets.

Afghanistan represents one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, and the situation is getting worse as Pakistan and Iran begin to deport hundreds of thousands of Afghans, adding to an internal displacement crisis that is made worse by rising poverty.