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Iraq and Afghanistan hogged the spotlight. But from Haiti to Somalia, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS’TOP 10 UNDER-REPORTED STORIES OF 2006 remind us there’s more suffering on our troubled planet than is caught by the camera lens.
Haiti
Even with the presence of a UN stabilization team, confrontations between various armed groups and impoverished conditions in the capital have cut thousands off from health care and contributed to a high maternal mortality rate.
Colombia
After a 50-year civil war, only Sudan has more internally displaced people. Thousands are retreating to shantytowns springing up everywhere across the country. Mental disorders caused by witnessing or experiencing violence continue to go largely untreated.
Chechnya
Thousands of displaced Chechens returning after a bitter 12-year war find themselves without homes and facing violence, abduction and abuse at the hands of Russian-backed security forces
Somalia
One-quarter of all children born here die before their fifth birthday. Although recent clashes between Islamists and the Western-backed transitional national government drew attention, November’s torrential rains, which followed six months of drought and flooded the Shebelle and Juba Rivers, leaving tens of thousands of families homeless, went unnoticed.
DemocraticRepublic of theCongo
Despite the first elections in decades, fighting between the UN-backed Congolese army and rebel forces has led to the destruction of many villages, alarmingly high levels of sexual violence and virtually no access to food or water for tens of thousands of civilians.
Central African Republic
An estimated 100,000 villagers have been forced to flee their homes, some to neighbouring Chad, while others have sought refuge in the forest after the latest in a string of conflicts and coups since independence in 1960.
India
Decades-long conflicts between Maoist insurgents, Indian security forces and anti-Maoist militias in central India continue to cut tens of thousands off from land, food and essential health care.
Sri Lanka
The murders of 17 aid workers in August 2006 served to underscore the high degree of suspicion of NGOs. Restrictions placed on NGOs have left huge areas of the country, particularly the east, cut off from outside aid.
Malnutrition
Celebs adopting babies from war-striken parts of the world grab headlines, but more than 60 million children go hungry needlessly and are at serious risk of death because of malnutrition. Apart from large-scale humanitarian emergencies, services to treat the most severe forms of malnutrition are generally unavailable.
Tuberculosis
An antibiotic-resistant strain of TB has emerged in South Africa, underscoring the urgent need for new drugs to battle a disease that claims some 2 million lives a year. Drugs now in use for standard treatment were developed more than 50 years ago.
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