Curtis Ward | The humanitarian crisis next door

Reviewing the geopolitical and international security landscape makes my head spin. It is difficult to address some of these issues because of fast moving parts and an analysis of any select situation at any given moment in time could be turned inside out in less than 24 hours. Also, critical domestic issues occupy much of our time. Yet, if we ignore geopolitical and international security issues, even if only a snapshot in their evolution, is ignoring consequences.

Issues most threatening to world peace are being militarily determined on the battlefields. Geopolitics sometimes trail security-related components of the global situation but cannot be ignored. These conflicts are major contributors to a devastating global humanitarian crisis. Natural disasters, and disasters caused by global warming and climate change also contribute to the crisis. There are no easy remedies or solutions in sight.

FORCED DISPLACEMENT AND MASS STARVATION

The devastating humanitarian situation in Gaza, driven by the military and political objectives of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, tops the list. The international community is finally paying attention to the devastating humanitarian situation which result from Israel’s military response to Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel. The humanitarian crisis is not collateral damage but central and deliberate to the main objectives of the Netanyahu-led Israeli government. Ethnic cleansing is evident with every military attack on the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Netanyahu’s political objectives and military actions are clear – total military and political occupation of Gaza. He is starving the Palestinian people to force their expulsion from their homeland. Starving the Palestinians is not the same as fighting Hamas, or taking military action against terrorism. These actions, though connected, are two different issues.

The international community has reached a tipping point and several countries are now willing to hold Netanyahu and the Israeli government accountable. Out of this humanitarian disaster of we see emerging a movement towards the long-awaited recognition of a Palestinian State. Though significant, it is no panacea to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. One trusted sage had noted my optimism some months ago for a two-state outcome from this crisis and offered a more realist view. He cautioned that a Palestinian state would not happen during our lifetime.

Not for the first time, we see a geopolitical shift emerging from a humanitarian crisis. But why should such changes depend on a humanitarian crisis – images of women and children who survive bombs and bullets dying from starvation. Especially, when such deprivation is avoidable and is deliberately imposed. Media images of Palestinians, including starving children struggling for food as famine hits Gaza are gradually evoking an international response against Israel. Unlike Gaza, media attention to humanitarian crises elsewhere is sporadic if reported on at all.

FAILURE TO PROTECT

While the humanitarian crisis in Gaza receives lots of attention and reaction globally, deservedly so, there are millions more suffering similar fates around the world.

Perhaps in terms of notoriety, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the humanitarian collateral effects are among the most reported after Gaza. Russia is directly aided and abetted, in its aggression against Ukraine, by China, India, Iran, North Korea, and a host of other countries and governments who do business as usual with Putin’s Russia despite that country’s egregious behaviour and violations of international law. Those who ignore the humanitarian violations and war crimes committed against Ukraine by Russian aggression are aiding and abetting egregious behaviour and violations of international law.

These governments are also deserving of international opprobrium. They are parties to international crimes by directly or indirectly – some by their silence – providing support to Putin despite his egregious behaviour. Their complicity is beyond the logic of human morality and decency.

AFRICA’S HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

The African continent continues to struggle with humanitarian crises in all regions – in Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Southern Africa and elsewhere, and the spread of terrorism in Western and Eastern regions of Africa creates massive population displacements and humanitarian crises. Yet Africa’s humanitarian crises are mostly ignored. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in its 2024 report, said there were more than 300 million people globally who need humanitarian assistance and protection. More than 282 million people in Africa are undernourished.

President Trump’s drastic cuts in America’s humanitarian assistance globally and the shuttering of the USAID exacerbated a global crisis situation which called for more nor less assistance. It suggests a major foreign policy faux pas by the Trump administration to discard its major tool of diplomatic statecraft turning from soft power diplomacy and winning permanent friends to the use of hard power which is more likely to win permanent enemies in many regions of the world.

ROADMAP TO RESOLVE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

Right here in the Caribbean a humanitarian crisis on our doorstep goes largely unnoticed by international and Caribbean media. There are reports of starvation in Haiti due to the violence-driven protracted crisis in that Caribbean country. Evidence of a humanitarian crisis is presented in international organizations’ data – proof of acute food insecurity and imminent starvation, though available to the media are largely ignored. With 1.3 million Haitians displaced due primarily to gang violence, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) reports some 4.7 million Haitians face acute food insecurity.

In response to OAS General Assembly resolution adopted in June 2025 calling for concrete solutions to resolve the grave security and institutional crisis in Haiti, OAS Secretary General Albert Ramdin rolled out a bold and comprehensive plan to deal with all aspects of the Haiti crisis. The plan – towards a Haitian-led roadmap for stability and peace – rests on five pillars: security stabilization and peace restoration; political consensus and governance support; electoral process and institutional legitimacy; humanitarian response; and sustainable development and economic progress.

The plan provides details as to how each part will become actionable and includes the participation of international and regional organisations in support of “multidimensional security, humanitarian assistance, political consensus-building, and the holding of free and fair elections.” More details of the SG’s roadmap will be discussed in greater details as the plan evolves. But as it now stands, the plan provides a roadmap for support and participation by major regional and international players, including the important role for CARICOM engagement.

Curtis Ward is former ambassador of Jamaica to the United Nations, with special responsibility for Security Council affairs. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com