Report: Ten Overlooked Humanitarian Crises That Didn't Make Headlines in 2025 : Shared by Tom McDermott

In my pre-UNICEF days I worked for a couple of NGOs including CARE in Bangladesh, so I have always appreciated the efforts of CARE and other NGOs to widen our awareness that there are many crises that never make the headlines. Note that 9 of the 10 crises they identify are in Africa.  
Tom

CARE Crisis Report: Ten Overlooked Humanitarian Crises That Didn't Make Headlines in 2025

Michelle Nunn, President and CEO of CARE; Charlene Pellsah Ambali, Assistant CARE Country Director in Zimbabwe

CARE

January 28, 2026

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Summary

CARE released its tenth annual Crisis Report analyzing global online media coverage of humanitarian crises from January 1 to September 30, 2025.

The Central African Republic received the least coverage with only 1,532 online articles, making it the most overlooked humanitarian crisis of 2025. More than 2.4 million people are in need there, with one in five displaced from their homes. The Central African Republic has appeared in every edition of the Crisis Report since its launch in 2016.

Eight of the ten most neglected crises are in Africa, with climate change identified as a key accelerator driving more frequent severe weather events, harvest failures, and mounting pressure on water and food supplies. Namibia ranks second with 1.3 million people lacking sufficient food, while Zambia comes third with 5.5 million people relying on humanitarian aid.

The complete list of ten overlooked crises includes: 

* Central African Republic (one in five displaced), 

* Namibia (1.3 million facing food insecurity),

* Zambia (5.5 million dependent on aid), 

* Malawi (four million face food insecurity), 

* Honduras (over 50% below poverty line), 

* North Korea (10.7 million affected by undernutrition), 

* Angola (2.6 million in need, half children), 

* Burundi (1.2 million without enough food), Zimbabwe (one in four children under five malnourished), and 

* Madagascar (one in seven reliant on humanitarian aid).

International media monitoring service Meltwater analyzed five million online articles from about 345,000 online media outlets in Arabic, German, English, French, and Spanish, identifying the ten crises with lowest media attention from a list of 43 humanitarian crises each affecting at least one million people.

Quotes

"As disasters and conflicts continue to escalate worldwide, humanitarian crises are increasingly forced to compete for public attention—and for the lifesaving funding that follows. For more than a decade, the CARE Crisis Report, spearheaded by our colleagues from CARE Austria and CARE Germany, has shined a light on emergencies that risk being overlooked. Visibility is not just about awareness, it is fundamental to human dignity and survival. When crises fall out of the public eye, they are less understood and too often sidelined by decision-makers, even as millions of people continue to face urgent and unmet needs."

"It was heartbreaking to see the severity of the 2023/24 El Niño-induced drought in Zimbabwe affecting millions of people in Zimbabwe so widely overlooked by the media. Communities struggled to access clean water and sufficient food. The lack of international attention is hardly helpful when families in urgent need are hoping for support. The world must step up and notice disasters like these—only then will there be enough pressure to support communities quickly and adequately."