Governments around the world are blocking aid to trapped populations and people with HIV/AIDS are being turned away from health clinics because funding is lagging, Doctors Without Borders said in a bleak report outlining the world's 10 worst humanitarian crises.
The international humanitarian group listed the worst crises as governments preventing aid from getting through in countries such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Sudan, and attacks on civilians in countries such as Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.
Also making the list were the crisis in Sudan, a need for funding for treating HIV/AIDS, and ongoing neglect of other diseases, said the group, also known by its French name Medecins Sans Frontieres.
"There is no question that civilians are increasingly victimised in conflicts and further cut off from lifesaving assistance, often deliberately," Christophe Fournier, the group's International Council president, said in a statement.
"In places like Sri Lanka and Yemen, where armed conflicts raged in 2009, aid groups were either blocked from accessing those in need or forced out because they too came under fire. This unacceptable dynamic is becoming the norm," he said.
Meanwhile, people suffering from a number of diseases were being neglected, and therapies were unavailable for many living with HIV/AIDS, it said.
"Patients will be turned away from clinics because the funding just won't be there," said Fournier. "The timing could not be worse."
Funding for research was stagnant, the group said, citing announcements by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to reduce or limit funding.
The group said it draws the list from its work in almost 70 nations. It produced its first Top Ten list in 1998.
Top 10 disasters
1. Violence against civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo;
2. Violence, civilians cut off from aid in Afghanistan;
3. Violence and lack of access to health care in Somalia;
4. Violence, lack of aid in northern Yemen;
5. Violence, disease, lack of health care in southern Sudan, Darfur;
6. Inadequate funding for treatment of childhood malnutrition;
7. Civilians trapped in war-torn Sri Lanka;
8. Stagnated funding for treatment of AIDS/HIV;
9. Violence, civilian neglect in Pakistan; and
10. Lack of research, treatment of neglected diseases kala azar, and sleeping sickness.