NAIROBI, Kenya – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has issued a dire warning about a mounting humanitarian crisis, predicting that 12.8 million displaced individuals, including 6.3 million children, could lose access to life-saving health services by 2025 unless immediate funding is secured.
A combination of an 87% reduction in UNHCR’s health budget and declining health spending in refugee-hosting nations is straining public health and nutrition services.
Refugees face the possibility of paying for healthcare they cannot afford, further burdening already overstretched local clinics and hospitals.
The reduction in water, sanitation, and waste management services has heightened risks of infectious diseases, including cholera, dysentery, hepatitis, and malaria.
Setbacks in HIV response efforts in humanitarian settings are also expected, potentially reversing years of progress.
Regional Impacts
- Burundi: Thousands of refugee children under five are left without malnutrition treatment due to suspended nutritional aid.
- Democratic Republic of the Congo: The health sector is nearing collapse, with cholera outbreaks already reported.
- Egypt: Refugees now have access only to emergency life-saving procedures, leaving at least 20,000 patients without treatment for chronic illnesses.
- Ethiopia: Budget cuts have closed four out of seven nutrition centers in Gambella, forcing the premature discharge of severely malnourished children.
- Jordan: Over 43,000 refugees face the loss of primary healthcare access, and 335,000 women may lose essential maternal care services.
- Mozambique: Aid cuts have halved support at the Maratane refugee settlement, affecting mental health services, nutritional programs, and medical care for survivors of gender-based violence.
The crisis is particularly severe for women and children. In Burundi, 10,000 pregnant refugee women risk losing antenatal care, raising maternal and infant mortality rates.
Across multiple regions, an estimated 80,000 children under five face severe malnutrition.
UNHCR’s survey of global health programs reveals that funding shortfalls will leave critical medical facilities unable to provide specialized care or maintain water and sanitation services, putting more than 520,000 refugees at high risk of disease and death.
“Every day of financial uncertainty increases the suffering of millions of men, women, and children who have already lost their homes,” the agency warned, urging the global community to take immediate action to prevent catastrophic outcomes.
