This work is a qualitative research aimed at reviewing the concept of humanitarian emergency and other key concepts related to it. By analyzing available information and views on the given concept, the study found out that despite the numerous concrete cases of deaths, displacements, diseases, conflicts and other forms of suffering around the world, the concept of humanitarian emergency has not been given an adequate attention or wide publicity by scholars so as to translate its understanding into policies for mitigating these occurrences.  Hence, the study recommended that the threat to, or loss of even one life through man-made or natural disaster should at every point be considered a case of emergency; that short-term and long-term approaches must complement each other for effective prevention of emergencies; that relief services should not be politicized and that the different humanitarian actors especially the military must learn to shun all forms of abuses