A Danish humanitarian organisation that protects refugees and internally displaced people in its report published last Friday forecasts an unprecedented spike in global refugee crisis and people forcibly displaced or to be displaced from their homes this year, next year and beyond. It says, African country, Sudan, torn apart by civil war will remain the centre of the global humanitarian crisis with its already 12.6 million people displaced within the country and beyond its borders. The DRC further projects that by the end of 2026, another 2.1 million displaced will join the existing internally and externally displaced refugees. Bangladesh may not be directly impacted by the humanitarian crisis in a remotely placed Muslim majority country, Sudan. The country has been experiencing a gruesome humanitarian crisis since mid April2023 (which also coincides with the Muslims' holy month of Ramadan) as two rival generals leading two factions of the country's military started a war to settle old scores paying no heed to the endless sufferings and miseries they have been inflicting on their own people.
Close to home in Myanmar, a civil war involving the different ethnic minorities who comprise 30 to 40 per cent of the country's 60 million people and occupy 57 per cent of the land area along Myanmar's international borders is ongoing. The ethnic insurgent groups now fighting the military junta of Myanmar include the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the Arakan Army (AA) and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA). Also, engaged in the war is the People's Democratic Forces (PDFs), comprising dissident students, teachers, lawyers and other civilians who oppose the military junta for its taking power through a coup d'etat in February 2021. Together the year-long offensive launched by the anti-junta forces have made significant gains against the Naypiydaw government. Recently, the Arakan Army (AA) has gained control of much of the Rakhine State of Myanmar along the south-eastern border of Bangladesh. Notably, Rakhine State's Rohingya population, who are mostly Muslims, fled their homeland in their hundreds of thousands to escape persecution at the hands of the Myanmar military which carried out in two phases genocidal campaigns against them (Rohingya people) from October 2016 till January 2017 and then from August 2017 till now. The Rohingya population naturally fled their ancestral homeland to save their lives and crossed the international border into Bangladesh. Now more than 1.2 million Rohingya people are sheltered in the cramped refugee camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas of Cox's Bazar. Recently, some of the Rohingya who are still remaining in the Rakhine State are being subjected to murderous campaigns by the Arakan Army similar to those conducted by the Myanmar Army. Many Rohingya as a result fled their homes and undertook perilous journeys across the sea, while others crossed the border into Bangladesh. Already undergoing acute socio-economic crises, the burden of the refugees to Bangladesh is like the last straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. Now, any fresh waves of the Rohingya seeking safe shelter in Bangladesh is the last thing that Bangladesh can tolerate. Apart from what Bangladesh is facing as a result of the ongoing Myanmar civil war, other countries including Thailand, China, India, etc., neighbouring it are also experiencing influx of displaced people from that country. The DRC, in this connection, reports that 20 million, that is one third of the country's entire population, are in need of humanitarian support, not to speak of those 3.5 million who have been internally and externally displaced. The DRC further warns that by the end of 2026, the new victims of forced displacement in Myanmar will be around 1.4 million. Unless the international community comes forward to help Myanmar resolves its internal crisis, the country risks breaking apart. That would also turn this south-east Asian region into another hotspot of victims of forced displacement. The international community including its close neighbours, especially, China and India, would then be required to extend a hand to resolve matters, so any breakup of Myanmar may not suck everyone nearby into its vortex of senseless conflicts.
Unfortunately, the time for such fresh cases of humanitarian tragedies to take place could not be worse. That is because the world's leading donors including the US, the UK and Germany have drastically cut humanitarian aid to the UN and other charities. The US's humanitarian aid arm, the USAID, for instance, has cut 83 per cent of its fund dedicated for the purpose. The same is the story with other major donors. Now in the face of the humanitarian crises due to wars and occasional outbreaks of internal strife in different countries in the global South on the rise, the imperative is that the responsibility of helping the victims of those conflicts will rest on the larger global community. That would not be an impossible proposition for the simple reason that contributions by close to 200 members minus the few very rich ones of the UN General Assembly, can, perhaps, create a sizeable fund to help the people in need anywhere in the world. Indeed, at the moment, we are in an age of 'war and impunity'. What strikes those concerned most is the impunity with which some countries are carrying out genocide through a declaration that they are doing it with unabashed moral and material support of those who are at the same time lecturing the rest of the world about higher human values. What a display of contrasts! So, the era of looking up to some other nations with supposed higher moral standards and as a source of support and guidance is also over. The strife-torn world will have to fend for itself henceforth.
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