The secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, said Ukraine was last on the list of “unprecedented human suffering”, which Asian and African countries had already suffered.
In a tweet, Egeland said humans across the world were suffering at unprecedented levels. He said as many as 18 million people in Afghanistan needed immediate help. He added that in Yemen, 13 million people were suffering from starvation while 15 million in the central Sahel needed urgent humanitarian assistance. Nearly four million people in Somalia have been beset by drought, Egeland added.
– 18 million people in Afghanistan are in need of assistance.⁰- 13 million in Yemen are suffering from hunger.⁰- 15 million in the central Sahel are in need.⁰- 4 million in Somalia are affected by drought.
⁰Human suffering is reaching unprecedented levels across the world, Ukraine is the latest in a long list.— Jan Egeland (@NRC_Egeland) March 10, 2022
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Egeland was not alone in pointing out the double standards that prevailed when it came to people’s responses to the war in Eastern Europe compared to the Middle East and South Africa region. North (MENA). The overwhelming condemnation and global outrage in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked a wave of highlighting human suffering elsewhere and exposing racial bias in how the conflict is handled depending on the situation. geographical.
Earlier on March 9, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also took to Twitter to highlight the plight of people in Ethiopia’s Tigray and Eritrea regions. He said as many as seven million people needed urgent healthcare, food and water.
For more than a year, a de facto blockade has deprived 7 million people in #Tiger urgently needed health care and access to food and people are dying. We call #Ethiopia & #Eritrea to ensure immediate and safe access and to work for peace. Life is precious – everywhere. #EndTheSiege pic.twitter.com/PzAPTeNCK8
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 9, 2022
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These thoughts came days after the global media was called out for coverage of the Ukrainian refugee crisis, with many pointing out that notable media presenters weren’t even subtle with their racist reporting.
Presenters from several media including Al-Jazeera and CBS were seen comparing refugees from multiple conflict zones in the MENA region to refugees from Ukraine, who have fled their country by the thousands amid the ongoing Russian military operation since February 24.
Similarly, on February 28, several refugees, activists and journalists alleged that foreign nationals residing in Ukraine were being turned away as they attempted to cross the border into the European Union in order to escape fighting with Russia.
Several people took to Twitter to say that refugees fleeing the war between Russia and Ukraine were not allowed to enter while Ukrainian nationals were housed. A professor, Gérard LF Chouin, claimed that African students residing in Ukraine were prohibited from crossing the Polish border. He called on European countries to allow the entry of these scholars and “stop the nonsense”.
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