A humanitarian crisis (or "humanitarian disaster") is an event or series of events which represents a critical threat to the health, safety, security or wellbeing of a community or other large group of people, usually over a wide area. Armed conflicts, epidemics, famine, natural disasters and other major emergencies may all involve or lead to a humanitarian crisis.

An ongoing or lingering pandemic may also amount to a humanitarian crisis, especially where there are increasing levels of virulence, or rates of infection as in the case of AIDS or bird flu. Major health-related problems such as cancer, global warming typically require an accentuated or punctuated mass-event to justify a label of "crisis" or "disaster."

Recent humanitarian crises include the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, and the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

See also

• Aid agency
• Central Emergency Response Fund
• Emergency management

External links

• Reuters listing of current humanitarian crises
• The 10 Most Underreported Humanitarian Crises of 2005 by Doctors Without Borders
• ReliefWeb - serving the information needs of the humanitarian community.

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