Preview Newsletter
Humanitarian Issues Media Monitoring 4/4/19
-
Idai Joins Yemen As One Of The World's Toughest Humanitarian Crises
Apr 3, 2019 | Forbes
By Marion Hart
The World Food Program has classified Cyclone Idai an emergency on a par with Yemen. Since Cyclone Idai made landfall in Mozambique's port city of Beira on March 14, children impacted by the storm have been living a nightmare. In Mozambique alone, approximately 1.85 million people, including 1 million children, need urgent humanitarian assistance to recover from the worst natural disaster to hit southern Africa in two decades. -
Cholera vaccinations launched in post-cyclone Mozambique
Apr 3, 2019 | Reuters
Health officials launched a vaccination campaign in Mozambique's cyclone-hit port city of Beira on Wednesday in an effort to contain an outbreak of cholera that has already infected more than 1,400 people, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. -
Britain could stop the war in Yemen in days. But it won’t
Apr 3, 2019 | The Guardian
By David Wearing
Monday night’s Channel 4 documentary, Britain’s Hidden War, exposed the depths of the UK’s complicity in Saudi Arabia’s bombing of Yemen. The testimony of various interviewees confirmed what I and other expert observers have been saying for some time: that Washington and London could have pulled the plug on the Saudi campaign at any point over the past four years. -
Venezuela crisis: UN urged to declare humanitarian emergency as health system collapses
Apr 4, 2019 | The Telegraph
By Anne Gulland
The United Nations is being urged to declare a full-scale humanitarian emergency in Venezuela in the light of the “utter collapse” of its health system and widespread food shortages. -
Venezuela’s Humanitarian Emergency: Large-Scale UN Response Needed to Address Health and Food Crises
Apr 4, 2019 | Reliefweb
The combination of severe medicine and food shortages within Venezuela, together with the spread of disease across the country’s borders, amounts to a complex humanitarian emergency that requires a full-scale response by the United Nations secretary-general, researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Venezuelan authorities during the presidency of Nicolás Maduro have proven unable to stem the crisis, and have in fact exacerbated it through their efforts to suppress information about the scale and urgency of the problems. -
Maduro says Venezuela will ration electricity for 30 days
Apr 1, 2019 | Vox
By Alex Ward
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that his country will ration electricity, a major blow to millions of his citizens who are already struggling with a month-long, nationwide blackout that has made it much harder to live. -
One of Africa’s Most Fertile Lands Is Struggling to Feed Its Own People
Apr 2, 2019 | Bloomberg
By Peter Schwartzstein
Sudan could be one of the world’s great breadbaskets. Instead, land disputes and steep food prices have pushed it to the brink. -
Vatican to host ‘spiritual retreat’ for South Sudan’s president and rival
Apr 3, 2019 | The Independent
South Sudan’s president and opposition leader are expected to travel to the Vatican next week for what has been described as a “spiritual retreat”. South Sudanese opposition officials have said is an effort to help implement the country’s peace deal. -
Dozens Die in Burkina as Sahel Conflict Spirals
Apr 3, 2019 | Voice of America
Dozens of civilians have been killed in tit-for-tat clashes between communities in northern Burkina Faso last week, the ruling party said Wednesday, the latest in a bout of intercommunal violence afflicting West Africa's Sahel region. -
Red Cross: Health, Aid Workers Face Unabated Attacks
Apr 1, 2019 | Voice of America
Health and humanitarian workers in war zones are facing unabated and increasing attacks "and the impact on civilians is nothing but catastrophic," the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday. -
Red Cross says health and aid workers face unabated attacks
Apr 1, 2019 | Washington Post
By Edith M. Lederer
Health and humanitarian workers in war zones are facing unabated and increasing attacks “and the impact on civilians is nothing but catastrophic,” the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday.
Cyclone Idai
Yemen
Venezuela
Sudan
South Sudan
Sahel Conflict
Health and aid workers
-
Idai Joins Yemen As One Of The World's Toughest Humanitarian Crises
Apr 3, 2019 | Forbes
By Marion Hart
Since Cyclone Idai made landfall in Mozambique's port city of Beira on March 14, children impacted by the storm have been living a nightmare. In Mozambique alone, approximately 1.85 million people, including 1 million children, need urgent humanitarian assistance to recover from the worst natural disaster to hit southern Africa in two decades.
“The situation will get worse before it gets better,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said during a recent visit to Beira. “Aid agencies are barely beginning to see the scale of the damage. While the search and rescue operations continue, it is critical that we take all necessary measures to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases, which can turn this disaster into a major catastrophe.”
In Beira, there is critical infrastructural damage and heavy flooding in urban areas. Floodwaters, which cover an area the size of New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Boston combined, have damaged up to 50 percent of Mozambique's annual crops just before the harvest.
UNICEF’s partner organization, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), underscored the severity of the crisis by declaring the floods in Mozambique a Level-3 emergency, on a par with Yemen and Syria.
That context is sobering; last month, the world marked the fourth anniversary of the war in Yemen, a conflict the UN has called "the world's worst humanitarian crisis.” Of the more than 22 million people who need humanitarian assistance there, more than 11 million are children.
Though the scope of the Yemen crisis is far greater than that of Cyclone Idai, the number of people impacted in Mozambique grows by the day, with children facing some of the same threats that have loomed large for Yemen’s most vulnerable victims: food shortages, a damaged health care system, waterborne diseases, damaged schools and displacement.
UNICEF is ramping up its response for affected children and families in Mozambique. Here's how: PROVIDING HEALTH
CARE AND FIGHTING DISEASE
Cyclone Idai has crippled Mozambique's health care system. The storm damaged 57 health care facilities, even blowing the roofs off some, like the Ponta Gea health center in Beira, where mothers and their newborns were forced to weather the storm in the open air.
UNICEF is scaling up to help reestablish primary health care services and provide counseling and support to 100,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. Outreach teams have also been dispatched to prevent a rise in malnutrition and help people protect themselves from communicable diseases. At medical tents like the one above, UNICEF health workers are caring for families and children who are sheltering at evacuation centers and working to contain the spread of waterborne diseases.
"We are in a race against time," says Leila Pakkala, UNICEF Regional Director, Eastern and Southern Africa. "As search and rescue operations continue, this is of utmost importance."
Stagnant waters, decomposing bodies and overcrowding create breeding grounds for cholera as well as diarrhea, malaria and measles, all of which prey on children. On March 27, the first cases of cholera were confirmed in one of Beira's poorest neighborhoods, raising the stakes in an already desperate fight to help hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in increasingly squalid conditions.
At the Macurungo Health Center in Beira, UNICEF has donated treatment tents where people suffering from diarrhea can get help and be tested for cholera.
"Lately we have had tens and tens of cases of diarrhea — of which a few were diagnosed as cholera," says Alexander Boon, a UNICEF Mozambique maternal and child health specialist. "An information campaign is going to happen in the coming days to inform the population about the risks of diarrhea and cholera and the measures they can take to try and reduce the risk of transmission."
UNICEF, WHO and partners will soon begin vaccinating 900,000 people. A shipment of oral cholera vaccines is now en route to affected areas.
HELPING DISPLACED CHILDREN
Cyclone Idai has displaced at least 135,000 people in Mozambique. Many — like the woman and children above, seen here resting at a school in Buzi — are now living in 161 transit centers in Sofala, Manica, Zambezia and Tete provinces. At overcrowded shelters, families have limited access to water and sanitation.
"We are seeing thousands of people congregating in informal, improvised camps. Many are in desperate conditions, having had little food or water for days," says Pakkala. "Conditions in the shelters are very precarious: Men, women and children are crammed together, which can put many at risk of abuse."
Children who are now without parents are a major source of concern. Though it's still too early to tell how many there are, UNICEF has deployed trained staff to the evacuation centers and affected communities to provide counseling to children who have been orphaned or become separated from their parents. UNICEF is setting up safe spaces where children can receive support and is working to see that children who are on their own are placed in foster care or alternative safe housing.
CREATING OPPORTUNITIES TO LEARN
Over 3,200 classrooms have been damaged in Mozambique's Sofala, Manica, Zambezia and Tete provinces. With schools serving as evacuation centers for the displaced, Mozambique's children are sure to fall behind.
"We are setting up Child-Friendly Spaces and emergency schools," says Pakkala. "Making sure that education does not stop at this time is particularly important since it gives children a sense of routine and normality."
UNICEF has launched a fundraising appeal to provide 380,000 children between the ages of 6 and 15 with the learning materials and instruction they need to continue learning. For preschool-age children, recreational equipment and supplies that aid early childhood development are being deployed so they can learn through play.
FIGHTING MALNUTRITION
With some 12,355 acres of crops destroyed just as farmers were about to bring in their corn harvests, residents who depend on farming for their food or livelihood will have to wait until the end of this year to plant again. A severe loss of livestock is also expected, exacerbating the pre-cyclone poverty that plagued the country's central region.
To help feed families now, WFP is rushing supplies to the area and has so far reached more than 115,000 people with emergency food assistance.
UNICEF is supporting WFP and other partners spearheading food and agricultural assistance. As the leader in the screening and treatment of children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM), UNICEF is doing its part by scaling up procurement of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) along with in- and outpatient screening and treatment capabilities.
PROVIDING EMERGENCY WATER SUPPLIES
With no electricity to power the pumps that supply water to Beira, children like the little boy above could only use dirty water to try to stay clean. But now, clean water is flowing again in 60 percent of the city, thanks to a collaboration between UNICEF, UK Aid and the Mozambique government.
“Without safe water, children are especially vulnerable to waterborne diseases like diarrhea, which can easily become life-threatening,” said Chris Cormency, UNICEF’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) specialist. “Restoring access to safe drinking water for Beira’s 500,000 inhabitants was a top priority.”
Many areas, such as parts of Sofala, are still waiting for both the power and water to come back on. Until service is restored, government teams are trucking water to families who are still doing without. To help, UNICEF is providing water purification products and other emergency water supplies so that families can make sure that they have clean, safe drinking water.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/unicefusa/2019/04/03/idai-joins-yemen-as-one-of-the-worlds-toughest-humanitarian-crises/#23c1caaf681a
-
Cholera vaccinations launched in post-cyclone Mozambique
Apr 3, 2019 | Reuters
GENEVA, April 3 (Reuters) - Health officials launched a vaccination campaign in Mozambique's cyclone-hit port city of Beira on Wednesday in an effort to contain an outbreak of cholera that has already infected more than 1,400 people, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
Some 900,000 doses of oral cholera vaccine arrived on Tuesday in Mozambique, where Cyclone Idai last month flattened homes and unleashed widespread flooding.
The vaccination campaign is currently planned to last six days and aims to immunise 900,000 people across four districts including 500,000 in Beira.
"We are pretty confident that we will reach the target," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said in Geneva.
Some 843 people were killed by the storm and subsequent flooding in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Humanitarian efforts are turning to preventing further loss of life due to disease.
As of Tuesday, Mozambique's health ministry had reported 1,428 cases of cholera including one death since the outbreak was declared on 27 March.
"We shouldn't focus too much on the numbers as there are still a lot of people who are not getting tested for cholera," Lindmeier said. "The important thing is to get sick people into treatment as soon as possible."
Cholera is endemic to Mozambique, which has had regular outbreaks over the past five years. About 2,000 people were infected in the last outbreak, which ended in February 2018, according to the WHO.
The scale of the damage to Beira's water and sanitation infrastructure, coupled with its dense population, have raised fears that another epidemic would be difficult to control.
The United Nations has appealed for $392 million to fund the humanitarian response to the disaster in southern Africa for the next three months. Just $46 million in funding has been received so far.
http://news.trust.org//item/20190403142317-qcbng/
-
Britain could stop the war in Yemen in days. But it won’t
Apr 3, 2019 | The Guardian
By David Wearing
Monday night’s Channel 4 documentary, Britain’s Hidden War, exposed the depths of the UK’s complicity in Saudi Arabia’s bombing of Yemen. The testimony of various interviewees confirmed what I and other expert observers have been saying for some time: that Washington and London could have pulled the plug on the Saudi campaign at any point over the past four years.
Under an arms deal signed by the New Labour government, Britain has provided the Saudis with a fleet of Typhoon military jets as well as the constant supply of ammunition, components, training and technical support required to keep those jets operational. This creates a high degree of Saudi dependence on continued British support.
A British former technician, stationed in Saudi Arabia until recently, told Channel 4 that if this support was withdrawn then “in seven to 14 days there wouldn’t be a jet in the sky” over Yemen. A former Saudi Air Force officer stated flatly that his compatriots “can’t keep the Typhoon in the air without the British”, and that, although US-supplied jets also play an indispensable role, the British Typhoon is so crucial that “without the Typhoon they will stop the war”.
Let us recall the extent of the carnage that Britain has helped to make possible: 60,000 Yemenis are conservatively estimated to have been killed since 2016, the majority from Saudi-UAE coalition bombing. In addition, the man-made humanitarian crisis caused primarily by the blockade imposed by the coalition has led to an estimated 85,000 infant children dying from starvation or preventable disease. The UN warns that 14 million lives are at risk in what could become the world’s worst famine in 100 years.
The UK government claims that it is not a party to the war, but this is blatantly disingenuous. Britain is a crucial enabler of a Saudi bombing campaign characterised by “widespread and systematic attacks” on civilian targets, in the words of UN investigators, with a series of atrocities including instances of possible war crimes. Britain may not be an official combatant (although there are now reports of UK special forces operating on the ground) but it is an indispensable participant and accessory. If British support makes Saudi violence possible, that violence is British violence as well, making the UK significantly culpable for its human cost.
This goes for the domestic, structured violence of the Gulf Arab monarchies as well. The Guardian reports exclusively this week on leaked internal Saudi investigations into the torture of political prisoners, demonstrating once again that talk of “reform” under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is mere propaganda, masking a severe intensification of repression. In light of these latest revelations, it is tempting for us to talk of the “barbaric” practices of a “medieval” kingdom, perhaps drawing a contrast with “western values”. But Saudi Arabia is in no small part a product of our own modernity, a state less than 100 years old, established in its current form with critical support from the US and UK.
The UK government claims that it is not a party to the war, but this is blatantly disingenuous. Britain is a crucial enabler of a Saudi bombing campaign characterised by “widespread and systematic attacks” on civilian targets, in the words of UN investigators, with a series of atrocities including instances of possible war crimes. Britain may not be an official combatant (although there are now reports of UK special forces operating on the ground) but it is an indispensable participant and accessory. If British support makes Saudi violence possible, that violence is British violence as well, making the UK significantly culpable for its human cost.
This goes for the domestic, structured violence of the Gulf Arab monarchies as well. The Guardian reports exclusively this week on leaked internal Saudi investigations into the torture of political prisoners, demonstrating once again that talk of “reform” under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is mere propaganda, masking a severe intensification of repression. In light of these latest revelations, it is tempting for us to talk of the “barbaric” practices of a “medieval” kingdom, perhaps drawing a contrast with “western values”. But Saudi Arabia is in no small part a product of our own modernity, a state less than 100 years old, established in its current form with critical support from the US and UK.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/03/britain-war-in-yemen
-
Venezuela crisis: UN urged to declare humanitarian emergency as health system collapses
Apr 4, 2019 | The Telegraph
By Anne Gulland
The United Nations is being urged to declare a full-scale humanitarian emergency in Venezuela in the light of the “utter collapse” of its health system and widespread food shortages.
A major report by Human Rights Watch and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health details the scale of the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Venezuela, once one of the richest countries in South America but now in the grip of a severe economic and social crisis.
It says that health services have been in decline since 2012 – a year before current president Nicolas Maduro took office – but the crisis has accelerated since 2017.
As the emergency has deepened – with supermarket shelves empty and hospitals unable to get hold of basic medical supplies – the president has refused offers of help from outside and protest within the country has grown.
The report, based on interviews with more than 150 health workers, Venezuelans who have fled their country and UN and civil society officials, describes a health care system in “utter collapse”.
The report highlights increased levels of infant mortality, with a study in the Lancet Global Health showing that in 2016 the infant mortality rate was 21.1 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to 15 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2008 - these high rates show the "degradation" of the health system over a period of time, said Professor Paul Spiegel, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health.
Vaccine-preventable diseases have also re-emerged in the country: there was a single case of measles recorded in Venezuela between 2008 and 2015 but by February 2019 there were 9,399 reported cases and 76 deaths. Diphtheria and polio have also re-emerged.
Malaria is also on the rise with the number of cases increasing from nearly 36,000 in 2009 to more than 414,000 in 2017, according to figures from the World Health Organization. The increase in malaria is also a worry to neighbouring countries such as Brazil and Colombia which have made progress in the fight against the disease.
Food shortages and empty shelves have been a hallmark of the crisis and a report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization showed that between 2015 and 2017 11.7 per cent of Venezuela’s population - around 3.7 million people - was undernourished, an increase from less than five per cent between 2008 and 2013.
Rates of severe and acute malnutrition have also increased with one hospital in the interior of the country recording 600 admissions of children under the age of five with acute malnutrition in 2016, compared to less than 200 in 2012.
One survey showed that 89 per cent of households did not have enough money to buy food and 61 per cent of those interviewed went hungry.
The report also highlighted shortages in hospitals: a poll of 104 public hospitals and 33 private hospitals showed that 88 per cent had reported shortages of drugs and 79 per cent reported a lack of surgical supplies
The government has been in denial about the crisis and "has hidden health statistics and data, harassed health professionals who speak out about the reality on the ground, and made it harder for sufficient humanitarian assistance to reach the Venezuelan people", warns the report.
The authors urge the UN to declare the situation a humanitarian emergency, which would trigger a full-scale response and the provision of food, medicines and medical supplies.
Prof Spiegel said that the crisis should be declared a level three humanitarian emergency - that is, a system-wide emergency and one similar in scale to that of a war-torn country such as Syria or Yemen.
"The return of diseases such as diphtheria, measles and malaria shows how far in terms of public health a middle income country like Venezuela has degraded. You wouldn't expect these diseases unless it's been a long time without vaccinations and basic access to public health," he said.
"This situation is so severe and affecting not just Venezuela but also the surrounding countries such as Brazil and Colombia, whose health services are extremely taxed, that it's time to make very clear that this is a large-scale emergency.
"We would ask the secretary general and the emergency response co-ordinator to speak out and say it's time to allow us to move in and help," he said.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/venezuela-crisis-un-urged-declare-humanitarian-emergency-health/
-
Venezuela’s Humanitarian Emergency: Large-Scale UN Response Needed to Address Health and Food Crises
Apr 4, 2019 | Reliefweb
Venezuela: UN Should Lead Full-Scale Emergency Response
Health System Has Collapsed, Widespread Food Shortages
(Washington, D.C.) – The combination of severe medicine and food shortages within Venezuela, together with the spread of disease across the country’s borders, amounts to a complex humanitarian emergency that requires a full-scale response by the United Nations secretary-general, researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Venezuelan authorities during the presidency of Nicolás Maduro have proven unable to stem the crisis, and have in fact exacerbated it through their efforts to suppress information about the scale and urgency of the problems.
The 71-page report, “Venezuela’s Humanitarian Emergency: Large-Scale UN Response Needed to Address Health and Food Crises,” documents increased numbers of maternal and infant deaths; the unchecked spread of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and diphtheria; and sharp increases in the transmission of infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis in Venezuela. Available data shows high levels of food insecurity and child malnutrition, as well as of hospital admissions of malnourished children.
“No matter how hard they try, Venezuelan authorities cannot hide the reality on the ground,” said Shannon Doocy, Ph.D., associate professor of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who conducted research at Venezuela’s border. “Venezuela’s health system is in utter collapse, which, combined with widespread food shortages, is piling suffering upon suffering and putting even more Venezuelans at risk. We need UN leadership to help end this severe crisis and save lives.”
In late March 2019, the International Federation of the Red Cross announced that it was scaling-up its operations in Venezuela to provide aid to around 650,000 people. A UN report leaked to the media around the same time estimated that the population in need of support was 7 million.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres should lead efforts to develop a comprehensive humanitarian response plan for the situation inside and outside of the country, the groups said. Specifically, Guterres should:
Officially declare that Venezuela is facing a complex humanitarian emergency, a UN term of art, which would help unlock the mobilization of sufficient resources to address the urgent needs of the Venezuelan people;
Task the UN emergency relief coordinator, who is also head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), to address Venezuela’s crisis as a top priority requiring full-scale mobilization of humanitarian relief efforts and resources; and
Request Venezuelan authorities to grant UN staff full access to official disease, epidemiological, food security, and nutrition data so they can carry out an independent and comprehensive humanitarian needs assessment of the full scope of the crisis nationwide.
Experts from Human Rights Watch and from the Center for Humanitarian Health and the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health interviewed more than 150 people for the report. They included health care professionals, Venezuelans seeking or in need of medical care or food who had recently arrived in Colombia and Brazil, representatives from international and nongovernmental humanitarian organizations, UN officials, and Brazilian and Colombian government officials. Researchers also analyzed data on the situation inside Venezuela from official sources, hospitals, international and national organizations, and nongovernmental organizations. This was a one-year research project.
International health agencies such as the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization have reported that:
Between 2008 and 2015, only a single case of measles was recorded (in 2012). Since June 2017, more than 9,300 cases of measles have been reported, with more than 6,200 confirmed.
Venezuela did not experience a single case of diphtheria between 2006 and 2015, but more than 2,500 suspected cases have been reported since July 2016, more than 1,500 of them confirmed. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that confirmed malaria cases in Venezuela have consistently increased in recent years – from fewer than 36,000 in 2009 to more than 414,000 in 2017.
The number of reported tuberculosis cases in Venezuela increased from 6,000 in 2014 to 7,800 in 2016, and – preliminary reports indicate – more than 13,000 in 2017. The TB incidence rate has consistently increased since 2014, reaching 42 per 100,000 in 2017 – the highest in Venezuela in 40 years.
In 2018, nearly nine of ten Venezuelans living with HIV registered by the government were not receiving ARV treatment, though the actual number of people who need ARVs is unknown.
The latest official statistics available from the Venezuelan Health Ministry indicate that in 2016, maternal mortality rose 65 percent and infant mortality rose 30 percent from 2015. While infant mortality has risen throughout the region, Venezuela is the only South American country where infant mortality has returned to levels last seen in the 1990s.
Hunger, malnutrition, and severe food shortages are widespread in all Venezuela. In 2018, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) indicated that between 2015 and 2017, nearly 12 percent of Venezuelans — 3.7 million people — were undernourished, up from fewer than 5 percent between 2008 and 2013. Unofficial surveys revealed that most Venezuelan households are food insecure and that moderate and severe acute malnutrition among children under 5 years is alarmingly high.
A massive exodus of Venezuelans – more than 3.4 million in recent years – is straining health systems in receiving countries. Data gathered in Colombia and Brazil shows a sharp rise in the number of Venezuelans seeking treatment abroad, and doctors reported that Venezuelans generally arrived after receiving limited or no treatment at home.
“The United Nations’ leadership needs to ring the alarm bell and oversee a full-scale assistance plan for Venezuela that is neutral, independent, and impartial,” said Paul Spiegel, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health and a professor in the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School. “From a technical perspective, Venezuela is facing a complex humanitarian emergency; if the UN secretary-general does not officially recognize it, the full-scale UN involvement that is needed to address it will most likely not occur.”
While more international aid started to enter the country in 2018, humanitarian workers from international and nongovernmental organizations operating in Venezuela asserted that it does not meet the population’s urgent needs. Authorities have, in many cases, imposed obstacles to the activities of these organizations.
Venezuelan authorities are within their rights to reject particular offers of assistance, but that only heightens their responsibility to work toward alternatives that can fully address the country’s urgent needs. Efforts by Venezuelan authorities during Maduro’s presidency have failed to do so, Human Rights Watch and experts from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said.
“Venezuelan authorities publicly minimize and suppress information about the crisis, and harass and retaliate against those who collect data or speak out about it, while also doing far too little to alleviate it,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “These authorities are accountable for the needless loss of life that their denial and obstruction have inflicted on the Venezuelan people.”
https://reliefweb.int/report/venezuela-bolivarian-republic/venezuela-s-humanitarian-emergency-large-scale-un-response
-
Maduro says Venezuela will ration electricity for 30 days
Apr 1, 2019 | Vox
By Alex Ward
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that his country will ration electricity, a major blow to millions of his citizens who are already struggling with a month-long, nationwide blackout that has made it much harder to live.
During a televised address on Sunday, Maduro said that the rationing — where power will be shut off deliberately — would last for 30 days. Because of this, the government added that the workday will end now at 2 pm, and that schools will remain closed.
It’s a major admission by Maduro that he has no answers for ending the blackout that started on March 7 and has potentially killed upward of 20 people. That’s very uncharacteristic for the dictator, although he still blames the problem on the United States, his political opposition, and unspecified “terrorists.”
“We’re confronting monsters who want to destroy Venezuela,” Maduro said, saying the problem is one of “sabotage.”
It doesn’t look like he’ll be able to solve the problem soon.
Venezuela is currently under heavy American sanctions, mainly in an effort to remove Maduro from power so that Juan Guaidó, the US-backed opposition leader whom more than 50 countries recognize as the country’s legitimate interim president, can take over. Those penalties have reduced Venezuela’s oil exports by 43 percent between January and March, greatly impacting the resources Maduro can use to fix the electricity crisis.
But the main issue is that Maduro’s mismanagement led to an immense economic and humanitarian crisis that has devastated Venezuela and made it harder to fix the grid. In fact, to escape Maduro’s rule, millions of people — including about 25,000 employees in the electricity sector — have already fled the country.
The real worry, then, is that the blackout will only make this terrible situation even worse.Why Maduro is at fault for the blackout
Maduro’s announcement this weekend was years in the making.
“Since 2013 the grid has been in crisis, but the billons of dollars Maduro dedicated to it were largely pilfered,” David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at the Washington Office on Latin America human rights organization, told me. That partly explains why during a 2016 drought, for example, Maduro asked shopping malls and others to ration their power usage.
But a situation like this is unprecedented. “The only thing that prevented this from happening before is the economic contraction of the past several years,” Smilde continued. “Declining industry, declining consumption, and a declining population have reduced demand. But now the deterioration of the grid has caught up with that decline.”
And the deterioration is massive. “The whole power grid is barely generating between 5,500 and 6,000 megawatts, when it has the capacity to generate 34,000 megawatts,” Winton Cabas, the president of the Venezuelan association of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, told AFP on April 1.
Those problems have exacerbated humanitarian suffering in Venezuela.
About 70 percent of the country, including the capital, Caracas, is experiencing blackouts. It’s made hospitals struggle to treat patients or allow patients to give birth safely, and made it harder for Venezuelans to get food or water.
The water problem is particularly harrowing, Smilde notes, with water tanks already running dry in Caracas, forcing citizens to rely on the city’s polluted river.
“If the government does not prioritize getting water to the population, we could be confronting a humanitarian crisis that eclipses everything else that has happened,” he said.
Which means, horrifyingly, the worst may be yet to come.
https://www.vox.com/2019/4/1/18290468/venezuela-maduro-blackout-electricity-guaido
-
One of Africa’s Most Fertile Lands Is Struggling to Feed Its Own People
Apr 2, 2019 | Bloomberg
By Peter Schwartzstein
When the Jordanian army went shopping for land in northern Sudan in late 1999, its scouts came across what appeared to be a food-growing paradise. The terrain was vast, flat, and fat with nutrients. The water it could draw from the nearby Nile was almost embarrassingly bountiful. And local officials were bending over backward to offer favorable financial terms. It all seemed like a can’t-miss opportunity to supplement Jordan’s national food supply while turning a tidy profit. The military pension fund snapped up 9,000 acres of backcountry scrub three hours’ drive north of Khartoum, and the farmhands got to work.
Soon afterward, as news of potential riches spread, the surrounding land began filling up. A Pakistani company leased a large plot to the south. Syrians began farming to the north. Emiratis, Lebanese, Yemenis, and others acquired 100,000-plus acres apiece. The main north-south highway that runs alongside Al-Bashaer, the Jordanian farm, grew clogged with tractor-trailers carrying hay bales that would become fodder across the Red Sea. “There’s good soil, enough water, sunshine, everything you need to grow a lot of crops,” says Abdelazim al-Jak, a Khartoum native who now manages the farm. “It shouldn’t be a surprise that everyone wants it.”
The mad dash has only accelerated in recent years, as Sudanese authorities, desperate for revenue, have resurrected the country’s long-standing dream of becoming an agricultural superpower. Since losing access to most of the country’s oil revenue with the secession of South Sudan in 2011, they’ve been trying to parcel out land to cash-rich, food-poor investors. In 2016 the Saudi government leased 1 million arable acres in the east of the country. Not long after, Bahrain leased 100,000 acres, a plot almost as large as Bahrain itself.
By the time villages across Sudan’s River Nile and Northern states had awoken to the full scale of foreign land acquisitions, even nonfood producers such as Jordan’s Sayegh Group, the Middle East’s biggest paint producer, were muscling in. “You could walk hundreds of kilometers without stepping on Sudanese-owned land,” says Khaled Khairallah, a livestock herder in Wad al-Habashi, a village to the south and across the river from Al-Bashaer. “What is left for us?”
Arab policymakers have been touting Sudan’s ability to feed the populous and water-scarce Middle East since the 1970s. The country features as much as 200 million acres of arable land, a strategic location less than a day’s sail across the Red Sea to the Saudi port of Jeddah, and a roughly 25 percent share of the Nile’s waters under regional agreements, much of it unused. In the Middle East and North Africa, by contrast, World Bank and United Nations statistics show that the number of chronically undernourished people has doubled, to 33 million, since 1990, and that water availability has tumbled on average to a sixth of the global mean. “We have vast resources, and they have vast need,” said Mubarak al-Fadil, Sudan’s former minister of investment and deputy prime minister, when we spoke in August. (He resigned in January.) “We just need their finance and expertise.”
The benefits for both parties would seem obvious. And yet little of the 5 million acres the agriculture ministry estimates are in foreign hands—perhaps less than 1 in 20 acres—has been cultivated. “Nothing’s happened! Really almost nothing’s happened,” says Osama Daoud Abdellatif, chairman of the Dal Group, the country’s largest conglomerate. “Someone got this land, and someone got that land. But few have done much.
Many of the problems here resemble those of other developing markets: corruption, inconsistent policies, political instability. Others are particular to Sudan. Bouts of chaos during the 1980s, including a debilitating drought and two regime changes, torpedoed many big early ventures. Then, as oil revenue rose in the 1990s, the government’s attention wavered and crucial infrastructure, such as the 2.2 million-acre Gezira Scheme, Africa’s largest irrigation project, was left to crumble.
Since then, the erratic rule of Omar al-Bashir, who’s held power since 1989 and is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, has slowly killed off other investment. Harboring Osama bin Laden for much of the early 1990s didn’t help. Sudan was slapped with U.S. sanctions in 1997, thrusting it into an isolation so complete that Khartoum made do with the likes of Starbox coffee and Kafory Fried Chicken. A spike in global food prices in 2007 and 2008 brought renewed flurries of Gulf Arab interest, but inquiries rarely went beyond the planning stage.
U.S. sanctions were lifted in 2017, but the African country’s precarious finances nevertheless plumbed new depths, with inflation topping 70 percent the following year. The resulting desperation, coupled with the Middle East’s still-growing population and still-diminishing agricultural capacity, had Sudanese officials feeling confident they could finally make their breadbasket dreams a reality.
The effort may yet pay off, but early signs augur ill. Many Sudanese describe the plan as little more than a naked land grab that’s depriving them of their ancestral fields while enriching the government and a foreign corporate elite. The anger has spread from villages to cities, becoming part of a larger uprising—the so-called Revolution of the Hungry—that constitutes the gravest threat to Bashir since he seized power. Protests triggered in part by soaring bread prices have taken place in more than 30 cities and towns since mid-December, and at least 50 people have been killed. The unrest shows no signs of abating. As one farmer from Gezira state, not far south of Khartoum, told me, “We’ll protest until we’re dead or we get our way.”
At 2 p.m. on a blazingly hot July afternoon, the agriculture ministry in downtown Khartoum was eerily silent. Gun-toting guards sipped tea in the shade. A tabby cat slunk across the neat colonial-era courtyard. Only outside the agricultural investment office, a shuttered suite of ground-floor rooms, could much activity be found. A half-dozen people from as many businesses were pacing back and forth. “They’re meant to be here,” said a man who gave his name as Hassan and his job as a secretary at Amtaar Investment, an Emirati agribusiness. “We all need papers signed.”
Operating in Sudan has never been easy. Coordination between local and federal officials is often negligible. Rules and regulations are subject to sudden change—recently, one state government doubled tolls on its section of the road to Port Sudan overnight, throwing corporate budgets into disarray. Key portfolios such as pastureland, desertification, and forestry are frequently tossed from one ministry to another and back again. “There is no stability in agricultural policy. Experts come and go. Not even the minister knows what budget he’s getting,” said Abdellatif Ujeimi, the third of at least six agriculture ministers since 2014. (His tenure lasted about a year, until May 2018.)
Decision-making has been shaped by decades of corrupt or limited governance. Sudan ranked 170th out of 176 countries in Transparency International’s 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index, and bribes are still often the only way to obtain timely approval of paperwork such as applications to import fertilizer, according to several agribusiness executives. (Like others interviewed for this piece, they wouldn’t agree to be named for fear of imperiling important relationships.) “Put it this way: Gulf investors don’t take out political-risk insurance with us, because they’re already protected at the highest level,” an official at a regional development bank said.
Ongoing conflict in several pockets of the country, along with Sudan’s continued listing by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terrorism despite the lifting of sanctions, means working there carries reputational risk, too. And with next to no official oversight, there’s little to save a business—or the people living near it—from its own foolhardy behavior. Alrawabi for Development, a Saudi-Yemeni company with more than 200,000 acres in River Nile state, pumped water from the aquifer under its property so aggressively that it ran every well in the area dry, including those servicing neighboring villages. Instead of being punished, the business entered into talks with the government to extract water directly from the Nile. In the meantime, the desert has reclaimed much of its land and that of some newly water-deprived neighbors. (Alrawabi didn’t respond to requests for comment.)
Then there are the state’s broken promises to upgrade flimsy infrastructure. The country’s rutted roads and single-track railways are so slow that Abdellatif said his Dal Group spends “much less—much, much less” to ship wheat from Australia to Sudan, over 6,000 miles, than to transport it the 500 miles from Port Sudan to its mills in Khartoum. In 2018, Sudan’s principal refinery, just north of Khartoum, failed, forcing many agribusinesses to spend a small fortune on black-market fuel.
The pressure on companies to make things work is intense—Saudi businesses such as Almarai, Al Safi Danone, and Nadec, for example, are contending with a ban at home on animal-fodder cultivation, forced on them in November in response to depleted groundwater reserves. They need to get their alfalfa, an extremely water-intensive crop, somewhere. But despite the success certain foreign farms have had growing it in Sudan, they’ve been slow to expand their smallish existing operations. “We absolutely look at Sudan as the answer to our problems. It’s 350 kilometers away. It should make economic sense,” said a senior Saudi dairy executive. “But that infrastructure, that government ... a lot still needs to change.”
Head to the fields, and you can still find a case for optimism, or at least for doggedness. The GLB Invest farm, 100 miles north of Khartoum, is the kind of place brochure photographers drool over. Its lush alfalfa fields rise from the desert like great green mirages, their gleaming new irrigation pivots—vast sprinkler systems on wheels—extending for miles along the Nile’s west bank. The farm’s monster pumps inhale enough river water every half-hour to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool, propelling it inland through a subterranean pipe network. When, roughly every 30 days, crops are ready for harvest, they’re packed into neat rectangular bales to be stacked with top-of-the-range equipment, then loaded onto trucks for the seven-hour drive to Port Sudan, midway along the country’s 530-mile-long Red Sea coast between Egypt and Eritrea. Within days, the alfalfa is feeding cows in Dubai. “It’s really quite an operation,” says Khalid Kahin, GLB’s general manager.
Lebanon’s agribusinesses haven’t been shy about chancing tricky markets, compelled to adventure by their country’s small size and sometimes oppressive bureaucracy. GLB Invest has gone all-in on Sudan, with 226,000 acres and ambitions of assembling as many as 1,000 quarter-mile-long pivots. Kahin, a jovial Sudanese businessman who speaks in carefully considered, British-accented clips, has been working in agriculture for more than 20 years, mostly in Saudi Arabia. He sounds almost giddy about Sudan’s potential. The company’s acreage is as fertile as any he’s overseen. The water allocation, too, is stunningly generous: 900 million cubic meters of Nile water a year, roughly half the amount Lebanon and its more than 5 million inhabitants use annually. “We’re testing groundnuts now, we’ll test potatoes in the winter, but we can grow pretty much anything,” Kahin says, his voice rising. “You see why we’re all excited, right?”
Then there are the ever-sweeter financial incentives. Land leases are cheap (often less than 50¢ per acre) and long (generally 99 years), and they come with few strings attached. Water is free. A former manager of a now-defunct Egyptian operation in southern White Nile state says his company was granted about 750 million cubic meters a little more than a decade ago, 4 percent of Sudan’s entire annual Nile share under regional agreements; he calculates that this volume of water would cost more than $1 billion elsewhere. And agribusinesses pay little to no tax—an essential concession, they insist, given the difficulty of doing business. There’s no longer even a requirement that investors employ Sudanese workers, much to local communities’ fury. And GLB and most of its peers are guarded by soldiers seconded from Sudan’s security forces.
The removal of U.S. sanctions has also somewhat eased access to banking and foreign exchange. “It helps the mood, and of course a lot of the tech is coming from America,” Kahin says. Geopolitics, too—notably the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar—have shifted in Sudan’s favor, seemingly reinforcing some countries’ desire for direct control over their food supply, or at least boosting Bashir’s bargaining position as he grapples for regional support. In July the Qatari government signed off on a $500 million agricultural deal in northern Sudan, a supplement to its existing 260,000-acre plot. The questions now dividing Sudan concern who benefits if and when the foreign companies figure out how to make all this work.
From the moment the Emirati company Anhar broke ground on its farm, the elders of Mahas village had a feeling they were losing out. For months in early 2005, they’d watched nervously as the 40,000-acre Zayed Al Khair project took shape along the northern fringe of their village in Gezira. And for months, as infrastructure started going up, they’d sought and received assurances they wouldn’t lose access to any of their land. But one mild spring morning, when they escorted their camels to the usual grazing ground and found the way blocked by coils of razor wire, they knew their worst fears had been realized.
“Everything that we own was taken from us,” says Osman Abbas Mohammed, chairman of the local agricultural association, as his neighbors nod in assent. “Our fathers and our fathers’ fathers used this land. Now we have been left with empty hands.” (Anhar didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.)
Bashir’s government consistently claimed that foreign agricultural investment would be a boon for all Sudanese after their years in the economic wilderness. The view from the countryside is that it’s been anything but. Villagers point out that the expanses the state sells or leases to foreigners aren’t empty, and that it’s appropriating land without offering much or any compensation. (Under a 1970 law, all undocumented land belongs to the state, a convenient provision for the government, since communities often don’t have paperwork to establish traditional claims.) The injustice has had measurable consequences, locals say, describing soaring fodder and vegetable prices in places such as eastern Gezira after megafarms began producing export crops on key agricultural plots.
The authorities argue that villagers haven’t been using the land to its potential. “It’s not being fully utilized, certainly not in the way that it should be,” Fadil, the deputy prime minister, said when we spoke last August. And for companies, the furor is simply one more hurdle. “The minute that land is assigned, you get visits in your office in Khartoum from people who say that’s the land of my ancestors,” says an executive at a Saudi company. “The government says, ‘Hey, that’s your problem,’ so you just end up getting extorted.” Businesses also point out that they often construct infrastructure, from highways to power lines, that benefits villagers.
But few villages are giving in, and with climate change also shrinking their grazing land, anger at the government and its corporate partners has spilled over into—and in a number of instances fueled—the recent countrywide unrest. Dozens of locals burned down the Nile pump station at Zayed Al Khair, in 2016. That was the first of many demonstrations during which participants honed slogans such as “Freedom, peace, and justice! Revolution is the choice of the people!”—it rhymes in Arabic—that are being chanted across the country.
In East Jerif, just over the Blue Nile from Khartoum, at least five men who were demonstrating against land appropriations were killed by security forces in 2016 and 2017. In North Kordofan, where Nadec operates a 50-pivot plantation, a guard shot a young woman twice in the leg in early 2018 after she pursued her runaway camels into the fields, prompting outrage that spread into neighboring villages and finally into Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city. (Nadec didn’t respond to requests for comment on the incident.)
“We have martyrs now,” says Abdelmajid Mohammed Ahmed, a farmer and protest organizer. “This has become about more than just the land they’re trying to take.”
Sitting in his office on the top floor of the glass-paneled ministry of investment prior to his resignation, Fadil acknowledged that getting foreign farming on its feet was proving more challenging than expected. “The finance, the infrastructure, this takes time,” he said. “Sudan is a unique economy. It defies all norms.”
Left unsaid was that the fate of its grand food-producing plan wasn’t entirely in the country’s hands. Ultimately, it could rest on the ambitions and fears of neighboring states. Egypt is deeply concerned about the prospect of large-scale agricultural expansion upstream along what’s practically its lone water source; according to Fadil and other Sudanese officials, the country has conspired to kill off projects in the past. They also complain that Egypt has spent decades neutering the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, a branch of the Arab League, headquartered in Khartoum, that was established to support agriculture in Sudan. “The management of this fund was Egyptian, and they didn’t want it to succeed,” Fadil said. Farm laborers in the Nile valley echo these concerns, muttering darkly, if without evidence, about Egyptian agents sabotaging irrigation and electricity networks.
The implication is that, for as long as Sudan’s breadbasket aspirations last, its northern neighbor will be keeping a watchful eye on any developments—and perhaps doing more than observing. “If I have this room, and it comes to me with fresh air through the door, and then my neighbor next to me says he will close the door because he wants all the air, this will be a big problem,” says Ayman Abou Hadid, a professor of agriculture at Ain Shams University in Cairo and a former Egyptian minister of agriculture. “If this is the situation, I will force open the door and fight you.”
More significant still will be the posture of the Qataris, Saudis, and Emiratis, Sudan’s largest financial benefactors. Although all depend heavily on food imports, some of their agricultural investment to date has seemingly been as influenced by political considerations—such as Sudan’s dispatching of several thousand troops to fight with the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen—as by food security or commerce. “There was a renewed wave of agricultural investment a few years ago, and why do you think that was?” asks the regional development bank official who’d also spoken to me about Sudanese corruption. “Because of Sudan’s involvement in the war in Yemen. That was a carrot. These businessmen, they’re told, ‘Invest in Sudan.’ That’s just how it works.”
Saudi Arabia made a large deposit in the Sudanese central bank in 2015 as a reward for breaking ties with Iran, Riyadh’s great rival. Some experts see Qatar’s recent land investments as bids to keep Sudan on its side in its tussle with the Saudis and Emiratis for influence. Thus far, however, none of the Gulf Arab powers has moved to prop up Bashir—a possible kiss of death for a regime that’s often fallen back on outside help in times of crisis.
Such games are only adding to the public’s anger. Rage over the land appropriations has spread into the cities, where the loss of land has struck a chord among people who are mostly only a generation or two removed from rural living and who are wrestling with catastrophic food prices. Tomato prices have quadrupled, to about $4 per kilogram, since the beginning of 2018, as have prices for many other fruits and vegetables. Sorghum, a staple crop, costs double what it did a year ago. “I think the problem is: Why are these people investing here? Are they coming just to take the land and water? That’s not investment, that’s rape,” says Dal Group’s Abdellatif. “We’ve got to get the formula right.”
In economic terms, the price hikes don’t trace to land-grabbing—they’re more the product of a collapsing currency, fuel shortages, and poorly orchestrated subsidy reforms—but the optics have been dire. “It’s just what the government does. They take people’s possessions, they steal money, and they ruin everything,” says an accountant in Khartoum who declined to be identified for fear of police reprisal. “Now they’ve made us hungry. It can’t last.” —With Mohammed Alamin
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2019-sudan-nile-land-farming/
-
Vatican to host ‘spiritual retreat’ for South Sudan’s president and rival
Apr 3, 2019 | The Independent
South Sudan’s president and opposition leader are expected to travel to the Vatican next week for what has been described as a “spiritual retreat”.
South Sudanese opposition officials have said is an effort to help implement the country’s peace deal.
Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti confirmed the visit on Wednesday.
He said the spiritual retreat was scheduled next week at the Vatican for “the leaders of South Sudan”, but he did not identify them.
The meeting comes a month after President Salva Kiir met with Pope Francis to discuss the peace process.
News > World > AfricaVatican to host ‘spiritual retreat’ for South Sudan’s president and rivalOpposition leader’s spokesman says the meeting will focus on bringing the two togetherAssociated Press reporters16 hours ago Click to follow
The IndependentPope Francis exchanging gifts with President Salva Kiir Mayardit during a private audience at the Vatican in March 2019 ( Alessandra Tarantino/AFP/Getty Images )South Sudan’s president and opposition leader are expected to travel to the Vatican next week for what has been described as a “spiritual retreat”.
South Sudanese opposition officials have said is an effort to help implement the country’s peace deal.
Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti confirmed the visit on Wednesday.
He said the spiritual retreat was scheduled next week at the Vatican for “the leaders of South Sudan”, but he did not identify them.
The meeting comes a month after President Salva Kiir met with Pope Francis to discuss the peace process.
A deputy spokesman for opposition leader Riek Machar, Manawa Peter, said the April 10 Vatican meeting between Mr Machar and Mr Kiir would focus on confidence-building and helping to bring the two together.
A peace deal calls for a functional government by May.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/vatican-south-sudan-pope-president-salva-kiir-riek-machar-a8853026.html
-
Dozens Die in Burkina as Sahel Conflict Spirals
Apr 3, 2019 | Voice of America
OUAGADOUGOU —
Dozens of civilians have been killed in tit-for-tat clashes between communities in northern Burkina Faso last week, the ruling party said Wednesday, the latest in a bout of intercommunal violence afflicting West Africa's Sahel region.
Burkina and neighboring Mali have seen a spike in ethnic clashes fueled by Islamist militants as they seek to extend their influence over the Sahel, an arid region between Africa's northern Sahara desert and its southern savannas.
Islamist attacks have risen in recent months, and the violence has reignited long-standing tensions between communities as certain groups are blamed for collaborating with the jihadists.
Fresh violence arose near the town of Arbinda in Burkina's Soum province during the night of March 31, when a religious leader and six of his family members were killed by unidentified armed men, the ruling Movement of People for Progress (MPP) party said in a statement Wednesday.
"On the morning of April 1st, reprisal acts were reported in the Arbinda Department. They were directed against a community following the assassination of a religious leader," said MPP spokesman Bindi Ouoba.
"The provisional, non-official death toll is of around 20 dead."
The MPP statement said a royal family was also attacked in the neighboring Boulgou province on the night of March 31, leaving at least nine dead.
Burkinabe government spokesman Remis Fulgance Dandjinou said there would be no official declaration or death toll for the time being.
Deteriorating security prompted the government to declare a state of emergency in several northern provinces bordering Mali in December, which was extended by six months after jihadists attacked civilians in Soum.
Burkina Faso, which had previously been known for its stability in a troubled region, has suffered 499 fatalities from attacks on civilians between November 2018 and March 23 of this year — a more than 7,000 percent jump from the same period a year earlier.
https://www.voanews.com/a/dozens-die-in-burkina-as-sahel-conflict-spirals/4860719.html
-
Red Cross: Health, Aid Workers Face Unabated Attacks
Apr 1, 2019 | Voice of America
UNITED NATIONS —
Health and humanitarian workers in war zones are facing unabated and increasing attacks "and the impact on civilians is nothing but catastrophic," the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday.
Peter Maurer told an informal Security Council meeting that three years after the council adopted a landmark resolution urging all countries to take action to prevent violence and threats against medical and aid workers, "the evidence of meaningful change on the ground is scarce."
"The taboo that warring parties would not attack aid workers has been trashed," he said. "We need strong leadership, political will and determined action to restore this taboo."
Maurer said health services in conflict "must be protected in a neutral humanitarian space and not be part of military strategies to defeat the adversary." And he said "rhetoric and practices which exclude adversaries — for example those labeled 'terrorists' — from basic health services must stop," and "public health regulations must not be tainted by political and military considerations."
U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the council that when he started working on these issues over 30 years ago "there was a broadly shared assumption that in most circumstances warring parties would not attack aid workers."
In the last years, however, he said, "humanitarian and medical workers have systematically become targets of attack."
Last year, Lowcock said, 317 attacks against aid workers resulted in 113 deaths, according to the aid worker security database. And 388 attacks against health personnel or facilities resulted in more than 300 deaths, according to the World Health Organization, he said.
The undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs called for better equipment and vehicles to improve security especially for local staff, saying about "94 percent of aid workers who were wounded, killed or abducted in 2018 were nationals of the country in which they were working."
Lowcock said cooperation between civilian and military authorities is also important, explaining that this has enabled U.N. humanitarian staff to run the world's biggest relief operation for between 8 million and 10 million people in Yemen in the last 12 months.
Trust is essential, he added, but it can only be sustained if governments don't politicize assistance or criminalize engagement or aid to particular groups.
Time for action
David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, told the council that with increasing attacks on aid and health workers, it's time for action.
He called for an immediate and independent investigation of every aid worker's death and urged governments to bring perpetrators to justice.
Miliband asked the council a series of questions including: "Will you block attempts to criminalize our ability to engage with armed actors in the name of counterterror restrictions? ... Will you seek and speak the truth no matter how powerful the state, how sensitive the topic, or how uncomfortable the question?"
Miliband said IRC staff are waiting for action in Syria where they face increasing attacks, in Congo "where we are working to control an Ebola outbreak amid relentless arson attacks against treatment centers," and in Yemen, "where Houthi [rebels'] land mines and [Saudi-led] coalition airstrikes mean humanitarians risk their lives with every movement."
https://www.voanews.com/a/red-cross-health-aid-workers-face-unabated-attacks/4857595.html
-
Red Cross says health and aid workers face unabated attacks
Apr 1, 2019 | Washington Post
By Edith M. Lederer
UNITED NATIONS — Health and humanitarian workers in war zones are facing unabated and increasing attacks “and the impact on civilians is nothing but catastrophic,” the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday.
Peter Maurer told an informal Security Council meeting that three years after the council adopted a landmark resolution urging all countries to take action to prevent violence and threats against medical and aid workers, “the evidence of meaningful change on the ground is scarce.”
“The taboo that warring parties would not attack aid workers has been trashed,” he said. “We need strong leadership, political will and determined action to restore this taboo.”
Maurer said health services in conflict “must be protected in a neutral humanitarian space and not be part of military strategies to defeat the adversary.” And he said “rhetoric and practices which exclude adversaries — for example those labeled ‘terrorists’ — from basic health services must stop,” and “public health regulations must not be tainted by political and military considerations.”
U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the council that when he started working on these issues over 30 years ago “there was a broadly shared assumption that in most circumstances warring parties would not attack aid workers.”
In the last years, however, he said, “humanitarian and medical workers have systematically become targets of attack.”
Last year, Lowcock said, 317 attacks against aid workers resulted in 113 deaths, according to the aid worker security database. And 388 attacks against health personnel or facilities resulted in more than 300 deaths, according to the World Health Organization, he said.
The undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs called for better equipment and vehicles to improve security especially for local staff, saying about “94 percent of aid workers who were wounded, killed or abducted in 2018 were nationals of the country in which they were working.”
Lowcock said cooperation between civilian and military authorities is also important, explaining that this has enabled U.N. humanitarian staff to run the world’s biggest relief operation for between 8 million and 10 million people in Yemen in the last 12 months.
Trust is essential, he added, but it can only be sustained if governments don’t politicize assistance or criminalize engagement or aid to particular groups.
David Milliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, told the council that with increasing attacks on aid and health workers, it’s time for action.
He called for an immediate and independent investigation of every aid worker’s death and urged governments to bring perpetrators to justice.
Milliband asked the council a series of questions including: “Will you block attempts to criminalize our ability to engage with armed actors in the name of counter-terror restrictions? ... Will you seek and speak the truth no matter how powerful the state, how sensitive the topic, or how uncomfortable the question?”
Milliband said IRC staff are waiting for action in Syria where they face increasing attacks, in Congo “where we are working to control an Ebola outbreak amid relentless arson attacks against treatment centers,” and in Yemen, “where Houthi (rebels’) land-mines and (Saudi-led) coalition airstrikes mean humanitarians risk their lives with every movement.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/red-cross-says-health-and-aid-workers-face-unabated-attacks/2019/04/01/1e61fb08-54c9-11e9-aa83-504f086bf5d6_story.html?utm_term=.203f000e14e6
Cyclone Idai
Yemen
Venezuela
Sudan
South Sudan
Sahel Conflict
Health and aid workers
Add recipients
Suggested