The Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization Doctors Without Borders has released its annual list of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Heading the list was Somalia. According to the group, “Already struggling to survive with little or no access to even basic health-care services, Somalis experienced some of the worst violence in over a decade in 2008, with people in the central and southern parts of the country living under increasingly deteriorating humanitarian conditions. While difficult to verify given the collapsed health-care system, Somalia has some of the worst health indicators in the world: one in ten women die during child birth and more than one in five children die before their fifth birthday.”  Also on the list are post-cyclone Burma, war-ravaged Congo and untreated childhood malnutrition in countries as diverse as Haiti, Bangladesh and Côte d'Ivoire.

 

Top Ten Humanitarian Crises of 2008 (Doctors Without Borders)