Time for immediate action on famine – UN

(IRIN) – The humanitarian crisis in Somalia has degenerated into a famine in two regions and could get worse because respite from drought, a major cause of the crisis, which is compounded by insecurity, lack of aid and food price inflation, is unlikely until December or January 2012, the UN warned.

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Humanitarian situation likely to worsen in 2011 – aid agencies

(IRIN) – The war in Afghanistan shows no sign of abating and conflict-related misery such as internal displacement, lack of access to essential health services and civilian casualties, is set to rise in 2011, aid agencies and analysts warn.

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Not enough progress to do without aid

(IRIN) – An appeal for US$415 million in humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe in 2011 has been made by the government and humanitarian organizations.

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Best and worst funded humanitarian appeals

(IRIN) – UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos launched the biggest Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) ever in its 20-year history in Geneva on 30 November, asking donors for a total of US$7.4 billion in humanitarian funding for 2011 to provide assistance to 50 million people in 28 countries.

The 2011 appeal involved input from a record 425 aid organizations and asked member states to consider the humanitarian needs of a record number of beneficiaries. This appeal underscores the growing number of actors involved at every stage of humanitarian funding – planners, practitioners, donors and recipients.

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Red Cross concerned by crisis in Somalia

By Katie Nguyen

Geneva – Somalia is the world’s most worrying humanitarian crisis because of the scale of the needs there and limited scope for relief due to insecurity, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday.

The ICRC has been present in the Horn of Africa nation since 1982, but has had to work to a large extent “under a remote control mechanism”, ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said.

Anarchy and chaos in Somalia force the ICRC to run its operation there from neighbouring Kenya, with close contacts to its local Red Crescent affiliate and other aid organisations.

“If I had to choose one context which I’m mostly worried about in humanitarian terms but also worried about (in terms of) the limited possibilities for humanitarians to do their job – it’s clearly Somalia,” Kellenberger told a news conference.

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AFGHANISTAN: Top five humanitarian needs

Eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban and billions of dollars spent on aid, Afghanistan remains mired in poverty and deeply insecure.

IRIN asked three experts what they considered were the country’s top five humanitarian needs. The following comments are from Reto Stoker, head of delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross; Laurent Saillard, director of the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief; and Raz Mohammad Dalili, executive director of Sanayee Development Organization, one of the country’s oldest NGOs.

Top five: 1

Reto Stoker: “Human security – to be able to get basic services and to move from A to B. Both sides are trying to win hearts and minds, and you hear it said that 80 percent of Afghans are on the fence: the truth is that 80 percent of people are in the ditch, and are trying to resist both sides pulling and pushing. As a farmer you have to be either pro- international forces or pro-Taliban. You may be forced to feed the Taliban at night, while risking being asked by the international forces why you did that the next morning.”

Laurent Saillard: “Access is the biggest challenge – to the population, to information, to independent funding. We need better routing of financing so humanitarian agencies can be protected from being associated with the parties to the conflict. We need needs-based funding without a political agenda; principled assistance regardless of [which part of the country] the beneficiaries are living [in].”

Raz Mohammad Dalili: “The Afghan government doesn’t have a good strategy to bring changes to the lives of Afghans. There is corruption, slow delivery of development, and a perception that some government ministers are working for their own benefit.”

Top five: 2

Photo: Khaled Nahiz/ IRIN

Malnourishment among children is on the rise

RS: “We’re getting more and more malnourished children. They could be treated at the local health centre, or helped [at home] through a little education provided to the mothers. But they come in a very malnourished state, weeks too late. [Because of the insecurity] taxis will only carry them for a very high fare. So many wait and wait until it’s too late, or nearly too late. The number of people dying from the indirect humanitarian consequences [of the fighting] is much higher than those dying as a direct result of the conflict. Security is not just threatened by a roadside bomb or an air strike, it is a much more integrated concept.”

LS: “Dialogue – we need to talk to all parties to the conflict. Only ICRC and MSF [Médecins sans Frontières] have started this. Maybe we need to agree to a code for humanitarian access accepted by all parties to the conflict. An agreement won’t guarantee safety [of humanitarian agencies in the field], but at least it can provide a moral agreement at the political level.”

RMD: “The capacity of ministers: many come from a political, not a development background, they don’t know how to work to bring change. The international coalition has spent a lot of money; if it had been spent on the people, there would have been big changes in Afghanistan. One of the big reasons that the Taliban has followers is because of poverty; as a follower you receive money from the Taliban and you have the opportunity to loot.”

Top five: 3

RS: “Humanitarian access feeds into the problem of services. When people are displaced you assess the situation, either provide assistance or protection – for example an intervention with the parties to the conflict so that people can go back home. Currently there is very little understanding of the problem of displacement; no one fully understands the mechanisms causing short- long-term or partial displacement. There is very little information coming out [of the conflict areas] to understand what’s going on. There are no sufficiently clear ideas of the conditions in their home areas, and you cannot put accurate figures on the numbers of people that have been forced to move.”

LS: “Strengthen coordination and information gathering mechanisms: programmes are based on assumptions rather than reliable, measurable indicators. The problem is they can give you a flawed picture and you can end up doing more harm than good.”

RMD: “Community peace building – not political peace building – is needed for Afghanistan. We need peace shuras (traditional councils) in the community, solving conflicts within the communities. This kind of project is very necessary for Afghans who have spent 30 years in war.”

Top five: 4

Photo: Ebadi/WFP

Access to vulnerable populations is another big challenge

RS: “Everyone needs to admit that there is an intense and widespread conflict with very significant direct and even more so indirect humanitarian consequences. The role and work of humanitarian actors, particularly those that have stuck to fundamental principles, needs to be respected; all parties to the conflict must be reminded of their obligation under international humanitarian law and human rights law; and ICRC’s specific role as a neutral and independent humanitarian organization acting as a neutral intermediary needs to be respected.”

LS: “We need a major reconciliation process – a nationwide consultation to determine Afghan identity. Do we have common elements, can we try and see what unites people rather than divides them? More and more Afghans are being identified as Taliban, as terrorists. What impact does that have on living together, for building rather than destroying? What does it mean to be an Afghan after 30 years of war?”

RMD: “Invest more money in the basic needs of health and sanitation; we need good programmes for poverty reduction. For the cost of keeping one foreign soldier [out of a deployment of over 100,000] in Afghanistan we could [employ] over 40 Afghans. If $500 came to each family [through a breadwinner] nobody will join the Taliban.”

Top five: 5

RS: “Give young people a job and a salary – something to be proud of.”

LS: “Protection is the other big issue: there is no proper distinction being made between combatants and non-combatants.”

RMD: “We need to bring pressure on the government to change their system, to reduce bureaucracy, to reduce corruption, to select good ministers and the ministers should be responsible to the people.”

Refugee News Briefings

1. Democratic Republic of Congo: protect civilians against rape and injustice

On 10 August, the Congo Advocacy Coalition urged US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, to press the Congolese government and UN peacekeepers for more effective measures to protect civilians and pursue justice for serious crimes. In a statement issued from the eastern Congolese city of Goma, the Coalition, comprising 88 humanitarian and human rights organisations including JRS, highlighted that the number of killings and incidents of brutal sexual violence against women, girls and also men have massively increased since the start of military operations last January.

So far this year, more than 600 civilians have been killed, thousands of women and girls raped by armed rebel groups and government forces, and more than 800,000 people displaced from their homes, including some 56,000 who fled from Uvira territory, South Kivu, between 14 and 24 July. No to blank cheque for UN The Coalition urged Secretary Clinton, who arrived in Congo on 10 August, to make it clear that US support for UN efforts in Congo is not a blank cheque and civilians should be protected. According to Oxfam in the Democratic Republic of Congo, “the UN-backed offensive that was supposed to make life better for the people of eastern Congo is instead becoming a human tragedy”.

UN peacekeepers have been backing Congolese military operations, known as Kimia II, against the Rwanda Hutu rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), since March. This support followed earlier joint operations between the Congolese and Rwandan armies against the rebel group. Since the start of military operations, the FDLR rebels have carried out widespread retaliatory attacks, brutally killing and raping Congolese civilians. In one recent reprisal attack, on July 20, the rebels killed more than 20 civilians in the village of Manje, in Walikale territory, North Kivu province. As in previous similar attacks, the rebels hacked some victims with machetes, shot others, and burned a number to death in their homes.

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World Humanitarian Day

On 19 August and for the first time , the international community will pay tribute to the brave humanitarian workers who devote their time and energy to come to the rescue of innocent victims of war and natural catastrophes across the world.

19 of August, the day six years ago when a bomb attack in Baghdad killed 22 U.N. employees, among them their chief Sergio Vieira de Mello, will become World Humanitarian Day.

The setting up of this special day is in recognition of the importance of their work and is aimed at paying tribute to those dedicated humanitarian workers who lost their lives while helping others. It has been made possible by the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation.

With the help of Brazil, France, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland, the Foundation has succeeded in convincing the U.N. General Assembly last December to declare August 19 World Humanitarian Day.

It was crucial for the Foundation that, at least once a year, the work accomplished by dedicated men and women of good will working in difficult and dangerous places be officially recognized.

Humanitarian workers are active in some of the most hostile areas – Darfur, Somalia and Afghanistan, to name the three places where they are most frequently attacked , facing heat, cold, diseases and danger.

They are killed, wounded, raped and kidnapped. Violent attacks again humanitarian workers are increasing ominously. Last year, 122 were killed. In 1998, the death toll was 36. Over the last ten years, a total of 750 humanitarian workers have been killed on duty.

It is in the spirit of the Foundation that World Humanitarian Day has been created with the aim of perpetuating the humanitarian values of dedicated men and women who, like Sergio Vieira de Mello, made the utmost sacrifice – their life – in pursuing their ideal: helping the most vulnerable.

This memorable day will be celebrated throughout the world. The key ceremony will be held in Geneva, the world humanitarian capital. For more information on the Geneva event, visit the WHD section.

Source: www.sergiovdmfoundation.org

AmeriCares and International Medical Corps Partner to Bring Lifesaving Aid to Darfur Refugees

AmeriCares, a nonprofit international relief organization, is sending an airlift carrying more than $1.4 million worth of lifesaving medicines and medical supplies to its partner, International Medical Corps, to help Darfur refugees in Chad.

The medical aid will help people in the refugee camps who are suffering from serious injuries, infections, diarrhea and chronic diseases, in addition to pre-natal vitamins for pregnant women. The shipment will leave AmeriCares headquarters in Stamford on Thursday, March 26 before continuing on to Chad. The airlift is part of AmeriCares and International Medical Corps’ continued commitment to relieving suffering by improving access to medicines around the world, especially in areas like Darfur and neighboring Chad.

“AmeriCares is steadfast in its resolve to do everything we can to help the innocent victims of the ongoing conflict in Darfur,” said Curt Welling, AmeriCares President & CEO, who has led the delivery of aid to the region since 2004. “I’ve witnessed the tragedy families in Chad and Darfur faced and have seen the impact humanitarian aid has on helping to restore health to the region. Protecting the world’s most vulnerable people is at the very heart of humanitarian aid and the mission of AmeriCares.”

Since 2004, AmeriCares has delivered six shipments containing more than 50 tons of critical medicines and medical supplies to Chad that have been valued at nearly $3 million. AmeriCares has partnered with International Medical Corps over the last two years to provide donated medicines for their health programs serving refugees and other vulnerable populations in Chad, Cameroon, Kenya, Liberia, Lebanon and Iraq. In Chad, International Medical Corps currently serves a population of nearly 225,000, including approximately 75,000 refugees, and provides primary care to the camps, as well as health programs for hospitals.

“We are profoundly appreciative of AmeriCares’ generous contribution to our humanitarian efforts in Chad,” says Nancy Aossey, President & CEO of International Medical Corps. “Their unwavering support allows us to go about our work of saving lives and creating healthy futures for thousands of men, women and children who otherwise would have to go without critical medicines and health care they need to survive and thrive.”

About AmeriCares:

AmeriCares is a nonprofit international disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization which provides immediate response to emergency medical needs and supports long-term humanitarian assistance programs around the world.  Since it was established in 1982, AmeriCares has distributed more than $8 billion in humanitarian aid to 137 countries.  For more information, log onto www.AmeriCares.org.

About International Medical Corps:

Since its inception 25 years ago, International Medical Corps’ mission has been to relieve the suffering of those impacted by war, natural disaster and disease, by delivering vital health care services that focus on training. This approach of helping people help themselves is critical to returning devastated populations to self-reliance. For more information visit our website at www.imcworldwide.org.

Fallout scenarios

(IRIN) – The expulsion or closure of 16 aid groups in Sudan could worsen North-South relations, stall the Darfur peace process and deter future humanitarian action, analysts said.

The decision, and the 16 March announcement that Sudan would “nationalise” all humanitarian work within one year, have attracted condemnation from the highest levels of the UN and the US.

“The ICC [International Criminal Court] row in general, and the expulsion of the aid agencies in particular, certainly have the potential to destabilise North-South relations,” says Wolfram Lacher, a Sudan analyst with the London-based Control Risks Group consultancy.

Though partners in a national unity government since a 2005 peace deal, the North’s National Congress Party (NCP) and the South’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) have been at odds over the border demarcation, distribution of oil revenue and timing of elections.

“The [expulsion] decisions were made by the NCP without consultation and against the will of the SPLM and that certainly puts an additional strain on relations between the two parties,” Lacher said. “The relations between the two are very volatile, very fragile, and on these relations depends the big question whether the North and the South will go back to war in the next few years.”

Border tensions

Relations are especially tense along the border, where the heaviest fighting took place. While the government has argued that the expulsions apply countrywide, the Southern government has encouraged NGOs to continue working there.

But in contested areas along the border, especially three “transitional areas” singled out in the peace agreement – Abyei, the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan state, and Southern Blue Nile state – it is unclear whose rules prevail.

“We are telling [the NGOs that the decision to expel them] is null and void in these areas, and yet they were chased away by security,” says SPLM spokesman Yien Matthew Chol.

Pushing NGOs out of areas desperately needing aid, he said, could provoke a reaction from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

Resources

In addition, communities could turn against each other as resources provided by NGOs disappear. In Darfur, the expulsion of the NGOs has wiped out half the aid effort; in South Kordofan, it meant “there’s almost nobody left”, according to Sara Pantuliano, research fellow at the UK Overseas Development Institute.

According to the UN, in South Kordofan alone, the targeted NGOs provided health and nutritional services for up to 800,000 people; water and sanitation services for 400,000, and assistance in food security for 200,000.

“People are already angered by the lack of peace dividends,” Pantuliano says. “It’s the area of the country least supported by the peace agreement.”

She says the lack of support for these areas had exacerbated tensions. In May and December 2008, fighting broke out in Abyei town, killing civilians, destroying infrastructure and sending thousands fleeing.

Over the past year, the US administration and the UK Department for International Development had finally begun investing in the three areas, Pantuliano says, in an attempt to prevent a war that many analysts warned could restart.

Abyei

In June 2008, the NCP and the SPLM agreed to a road map for Abyei, intended to pull the region back from the brink of war. The presidency promised money for a new administration that was to govern the oil-rich area.

“Up to now there is no budget for the Abyei administration, even for services,” says Kuol Deng, a chief of the Dinka group in Abyei. “I don’t know what will be the situation if these organisations leave the area. It means the area will be evacuated of any services … for the people of the area.”

That, says Foreign Minister Deng Alor, a native of Abyei, could lead to conflict, as people quarrel over limited resources – especially given that competition over land and water has always been a source of conflict between local communities.

“If people are in need and there’s nothing that can support them, you definitely expect some unrest,” Alor said.

Some of the NGOs provided a monitoring role, acted as bridge-builders between warring parties, and were the sole advocates for Sudan’s arguably most sensitive areas.

Stalled peace process?

As water pumps run dry, health centres shut down and food distributions stop, analysts fear unrest will begin to spread in some of the camps housing 2.7 million displaced people in Darfur – and that could play right into the hands of Darfur’s rebel groups.

“The longer these camps are in place and the worse conditions get, the more likely you are to have young women and men – and even old women and men – wanting and willing to take up arms,” says Colin Thomas-Jensen, a policy adviser with the Washington-based Enough Project.

Photo: Heba Aly/IRIN

President Bashir (right) and Vice-president Salva Kiir at an earlier ceremony (file photo

The expulsion of NGOs could be linked to a future attempt to clear out some of the camps – the government says they are breeding grounds for the rebels – and move the displaced to “model villages”. Such forced displacement could further encourage people to take up arms, he adds.

Rebel leaders say the government’s plan to nationalise the aid effort is completely unacceptable, saying Sudanese organisations would always be controlled by the government.

“How can the killers of these people become their feeders?” Justice and Equality Movement leader Khalil Ibrahim was quoted as saying in the Sudan Tribune online on 16 March. “Darfur people will certainly not accept any relief from Bashir’s security apparatus and will reject them.”

Abdolwahid Alnour, founder of the Sudan Liberation Movement, told the paper the move would push Darfuris to take up arms “because with arms they can control territory and invite the aid groups to reach them”.

Peace deal

On 16 February, JEM and the government signed a goodwill agreement in Qatar, committing themselves to the unrestricted flow of relief to Darfur.

Gebreil Ibrahim, JEM’s economic adviser and Khalil’s brother, said the expulsion was a violation of that deal, and his group would now not agree to talks until the NGOs were reinstated.

Analysts say JEM is already under pressure to back away from peace talks to maintain credibility in the face of the arrest warrant against Bashir.

“If the expulsion of aid agencies causes massive population displacement in Darfur, this will also put pressure on JEM to withdraw from the talks and engage in a new offensive against the government,” says Lacher.

By choosing a confrontational response to the arrest warrant, Bashir plays into JEM’s hands, Thomas-Jensen says. “JEM can rightly say, why would we negotiate? … It weakens the prospect of a peace agreement in the near term.”

US reaction

“In general, the deteriorating relations between the government and the West are among the arrest warrant’s most important repercussions,” Lacher says.

“This [the expulsion of agencies] is likely to provoke a more antagonistic, more hawkish stance towards Sudan by the [US President Barack] Obama administration,” he says.

Analysts say the US may take tough retaliatory action to show this type of behaviour will not be tolerated. However, it has limited options. It has already imposed heavy economic sanctions on Sudan and the international community can no longer use a possible arrest warrant as leverage.

“This is clearly an escalation and a challenge from Khartoum,” Thomas-Jensen says.

“The call now is for diplomatic pressure and diplomatic isolation of Khartoum to reverse the decision,” says Jerry Fowler, president of the Save Darfur Coalition.

“We need a big diplomatic effort saying this is unacceptable. There will be a cost for it,” says Enough’s executive director, John Norris.

But a tough reaction by the US, Britain or France could ignite a war, according to Alex de Waal of the New York-based Social Science Research Council.

US officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice-President Joe Biden, have long said the US is considering a no-fly zone over Darfur. New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof and Gen. Merrill A. McPeak, US Air Force chief of staff from 1990 to 1994, have argued that destroying Sudanese aircraft may be the only way to gain leverage over Bashir.

In such talk, Sudan sees the West’s goal as regime change, De Waal says, and will not commit “collective suicide” without a fight. Sudan and the western powers on the Security Council are now at the “brink of an armed confrontation”, De Waal says. “If they carry on escalating, it’s a war.”

Chad-Sudan relations

Sudan and Chad are already engaged in a proxy war – each supporting rebels trying to topple their respective governments. Analysts fear relations could deteriorate, as some of the 2.7 million people living in Darfur’s camps travel over the border.

“There are 250,000 Darfuri refugees in Chad. If you had some of the big camps in Darfur emptying and all deciding to go into Chad, you could quite quickly double the number in Chad,” says one aid worker, who requested anonymity.

Thomas-Jensen says that could be just what Khartoum wants. In an attempt to defeat JEM, the government will try to bring down Chadian President Idriss Déby, and housing refugees who compete with local Chadians for natural resources will make Déby more unpopular.

“The preferred strategy for [Khartoum] would be clearing out the camps and forcing people to go home – a knockout blow in Chad and weakening JEM,” Thomas-Jensen says. “They think they can end this war and demonstrate to the international community that humanitarian assistance wasn’t really necessary anyway and that ultimately it’s not the nightmare scenario everyone thinks.”

But an increased Sudanese presence in Chad could do just the opposite, Lacher and De Waal say, by facilitating Ch adian mobilisation of Sudanese rebels, thus intensifying the fight.

If the absence of services does force Darfuris over the border, “they will likely go soon, before the rainy season makes travel … far more difficult”, CARE, one of the expelled agencies, recently warned.

According to the aid worker, whose agency had informal talks with the Chadian government, Chad may attempt to close its border to pre-empt any such movement, causing relations to further deteriorate.

Harassment

“Everybody is scared,” says the aid worker, who worked for one of the expelled groups. “Staff have been harassed, interrogated; had all their personal cameras, laptops, phones stolen; been threatened with arrest; had their passports taken off them; had Sudanese newspapers print their names and accuse them of being spies. This all happened hours after we were reassured yet again by the government that nothing would happen.”

Remaining NGOs were “scared they will be next” and were therefore less likely to speak out in the future or to engage in sensitive programme work, including counselling and medical support.

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