Tag: Humanitarian aid

A refuge from terror in Niger, as UN Chief pledges to be voice for the displaced — Global Issues

This is Ouallam district one of the hottest places in Niger, in one of the hottest countries in Africa, where rain falls rarely and sparingly but where shattered communities can find a refuge from the increasing acts of violence and terrorist activity which have struck the region.

Ouallam and two other neighbouring districts in northern Niger currently shelter some 28,000 people who have fled their homes because of violence, including terrorist acts, in the volatile wider Sahel region of Africa. Around 8,000 have left as refugees from neighbouring Mali to the north and another 20,000 have been displaced from 18 nearby villages and towns.

One of them is Zakou Siddo, a teacher who fled from a village called Mogodiougou, some 80 kilometres from Ouallam.

“Twelve people were killed when my village was attacked on 14 November 2020.  Livestock was stolen and our grain stores and some houses set on fire,” adding that “we then decided to flee to Ouallam which is considered safe.”

In Ouallam, Mr Siddou came together with other displaced communities from around the region, who left villages and towns standing empty and schools unattended. Many children had not been to class since 2017.

UN News/Daniel Dickinson

Aminata Walet Issafeitane, who is from Mali, has lived in Ouallam for ten years.

And they met refugees from Mali, including Aminata Walet Issafeitane, who is president of a Women’s Refugee Committee in Ouallam, and who fled the country of her birth ten years ago.

She tells a similar story of theft and violence. “We are a nomadic and pastoral people and our destiny was changed when armed groups stole our livestock.”

Like many refugees and displaced people, her community faced unprecedented changes. “We have had transform ourselves into sedentary people; we are trying to adapt in spite of the severe drought and lack of water which stops us from growing food; the few animals we have now are unable to find pasture. This makes us all suffer from a lack of food.”

Across Niger, some 80 per cent of Niger’s population of 25 million depend on agriculture to survive.

Microcosm of challenges facing Niger

Ouallam and its surrounding districts is a microcosm of the challenges facing Niger, a landlocked West African country where, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), some 264,000 Nigeriens are internally displaced due to a series of factors including deteriorating security and the effects of changing climatic conditions as well as overgrazing and deforestation.

Some 28,000 displaced people live in Ouallam and neighbouring districts.

UNICEF Niger/Phillipe Kropf

Some 28,000 displaced people live in Ouallam and neighbouring districts.

UNHCR says there are also over 250,000 refugees from neighbouring countries in Niger. In March 2022 alone, UN partners reported that more than 17,600 people were displaced into Niger, mostly Nigeriens returning home, but also Malian refugees.

UN agencies and their partners are providing a range of humanitarian and development support across Niger. It’s estimated that 6.8 million people are chronically food insecure and do not get enough to eat, year by year. Low rainfall and attacks in agricultural production areas have once again combined to reduce and limit the amount of food that is grown by farmers.

Despite the combination of crises, the 2022 humanitarian response plan for Niger is only 8.7 per cent funded.

UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

UN Secretary General, António Guterres, speaks to displaced women in Ouallam.

‘Spokesperson’ for the displaced

The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, visited displaced people and refugees from Mali in Ouallam, to demonstrate his and the UN’s solidarity with those who have been driven from their homes.

Speaking directly to them, Mr Guterres said that he would do everything he could to support improvements to their lives. “I will be your spokesperson and will demand that the international community not only provides the humanitarian aid you need but also supports development, because it is with education, health and the creation of jobs, that terrorism can be beaten.”

And he warned that “there are terrorists who say they are acting in the name of God; it is a false claim,” adding that “in all the sacred texts of Islam, there is a condemnation of violence and any war waged by one Muslim against another Muslim.”

He once again appealed for the international community to support Niger calling it “a democratic country with good governance,” but one which “is not sufficiently equipped” to counter terrorism.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Gang clashes in capital force hundreds to flee their homes — Global Issues

Speaking at the regular daily press briefing, Farhan Haq said that according to the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, in Haiti, unrest has been growing between gang members in the neighbourhoods of the commune of Croix-des-Bouquets, Cité Soleil, Bas Delmas and Martissant.

“According to our humanitarian colleagues, violence in the commune of Croix-des-Bouquets has displaced more than 1,200 people…at least 26 civilians have been killed and 22 injured, although these figures are probably higher,” he said.

At the same time, dozens of houses have been burned; schools, medical centres and markets have had to close; and a hospital in Marin was looted.

Violence in the commune of Croix-des-Bouquets has displaced more than 1,200 people – UN spokesperson

Needs increasing

“Displaced people need access to clean water, food, sanitation kits, children’s kits, kitchen kits, mattresses, blankets and clothing,” said Mr. Haq.

“The UN is ready to provide hot meals and additional assistance in coordination with national authorities”.

While working on a plan to relocate families being housed on temporary sites, the UN and its humanitarian partners have been supporting the Mayor’s Office of Tabarre and the Civil Protection Agency, in distributing hot meals and food, as well as essential items.

Since the assassination last July of President Jovenel Moïse, violent crime has been on the rise, according to media reports.

And last month, thousands took to the streets, demanding that the late president’s successor, Ariel Henry, do more to combat Haiti’s powerful criminal gangs, which have taken control of parts of the capital.

Warning system triggered

Haiti’s Civil Protection General Directorate-led national coordination committee, made up of UN agencies and non-governmental organization (NGO) partners, has activated an early warning system known as the Displacement Tracking Matrix, OCHA said.

Local NGOs are providing psychosocial activities for children at temporary sites, including recreational events, child friendly learning spaces, and counselling.

Kidnapping for ransom

Meanwhile, as the Haitian police struggle to contain the gang violence, kidnappings of foreigners and others by criminal gangs, demanding large ransoms, have been on the rise, according to news reports.

A Dominican diplomat was reported to have been kidnapped on Monday, while travelling through  a gang-controlled area, but while abducted foreigners have received most of the media attention, most victims are reportedly Haitian.

According to Haiti’s Centre for Analysis and Research on Human Rights, in 2021 more than 1,200 people were kidnapped – only 81 of whom were foreign nationals.

Ten per cent were so-called “collective abductions,” where gang members abducted a group of people, sometimes by storming church services and kidnapping clergy in the middle of mass.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

UN-Red Cross operation underway to evacuate civilians from stricken Mariupol plant — Global Issues

“A safe passage operation…is ongoing today”, said Saviano Abreu, of OCHA in Ukraine, adding that the efforts are being “coordinated” by the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross, “in coordination with the parties to the conflict.”

According to news reports, more than 100 civilians were allowed to leave in the first phase of the operation.

Mr. Abreu said it had been agreed by Russian and Ukrainian authorities that the civilians who have been in the heavily damaged steel plant for nearly two months, “women, children and the elderly”, will be evacuated to Zaporizka, which is under Ukrainian control to the north of Mariupol.

Support for survivors

There, “they will receive immediate humanitarian support, including psychological services”, he said. The World Health Organization (WHO) in Ukraine, tweeted that they and other partner agencies, were “ready to receive the evacuees”, and hoping that “more evacuations will follow”.

Secretary-General António Guterres travelled to Moscow and met President Vladimir Putin early last week, securing an agreement from the Russian premier “in principle” to allow this weekend’s lifesaving operation to take place, after weeks of failed attempts to provide a safe humanitarian corridor for a mass evacuation.

After meeting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the capital Kyiv on Thursday, the urgent imperative of ending what Mr. Guterres called the “crisis within a crisis” of finally allowing civilians to leave the shattered coastal city after weeks of Russian bombardment, was the subject of “intense discussions” between the two parties.

Civilian safety, paramount

Mr. Abreu said in the statement to correspondents issued on Sunday that, the operation had begun with a UN-Red Cross convoy leaving for Mariupol on Friday, from Zaporizka, a journey of around 230 kilometres.

“As the operations are still ongoing, we will not provide further details at this point”, he said, “to guarantee the safety of the civilians and humanitarians in the convoy.”

He concluded saying that the UN “will continue to push for the safe passage out of Mariupol city for all those civilians who wish to leave. The UN is engaging actively with parties to advance these efforts.”

If the evacuees can reach safety, it would mark the first time that a convoy organised by humanitarian agencies has managed to secure the passage of civilians, who been living under fire from Russian heavy weapons and aerial bombardment, since the first days of the Russia invasion.

The death toll inside Mariupol is unknown, but the city’s mayor has reported that more than 20,000 civilians have been killed. 

The last Ukrainian soldiers left defending the city, have been holed up inside the vast Soviet-era steel works – together with reportedly hundreds of civilians – which has a series of labyrinthine bunkers and tunnels, which has prevented Russian forces from securing the last pockets of resistance.



Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

UN humanitarians say $4.3 billion is needed to halt ‘worsening’ Yemen crisis — Global Issues

The plan targets 17.3 million out of the staggering 23.4 million people in need of lifesaving humanitarian assistance and protection services across the war-ravaged Arab nation, as the first nationwide truce in six years, coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, continues to broadly hold.

The UN-led truce between the Saudi-led coalition forces supporting the internationally recognized Government, and Houthi rebels (formally known as Ansar Allah) who hold much of the country including the capital, Sa’ana, began on 2 April, and is due to continue through May.

‘Urgently address’ realities

“The worsening humanitarian crisis in Yemen is a reality that we need to urgently address,” said David Gressly, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen.

“The numbers this year are staggering. Over 23 million people – or almost three-quarters of Yemen’s population – now need assistance. That is an increase of almost three million people from 2021. Nearly 13 million people are already facing acute levels of need.”

Escalating conflict last year, resulted in untold suffering and further disruption of public services, pushing humanitarian needs higher, said a press release issued by the UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) team in Yemen.

A collapsing economy, another product of the seven-year war, has exacerbated vulnerabilities for the poorest, with a record 19 million people are projected to require food assistance in the second half of 2022.

There are an estimated 161,000 who face “the most extreme hunger”, says OCHA. “Children continue to suffer horribly”, with 2.2 million acutely malnourished, including more than half a million at severe levels. Limited access to critical services continues to worsen the conditions of the most vulnerable groups, including women and children.

‘Moment of hope’

“This is also a moment of hope for Yemen. The UN-led truce is a vital opportunity for aid agencies to scale up life-saving assistance and to reach more people in acute need quickly, including in areas where access was limited due to armed conflict and insecurity,” said Mr. Gressly. “For aid agencies to immediately step up efforts, we count on sufficient donor funding. Otherwise, the aid operation will collapse despite the positive momentum we are seeing in Yemen today.”

At a high-level fund-raising event for Yemen held in March this year, donors pledged $1.3 billion – just 30 per cent of the total requirement for the 2022 HRP.

Another $300 million has been pledged since then, said OCHA. However, the response remains severely underfunded, leaving aid agencies with limited resources at a time when two-thirds of major UN programmes in Yemen were forced to scale back or close due to underfunding. “I urge all donors to fund the appeal fully and commit to disbursing funds quickly,” said Mr. Gressly.

More than 4.3 million people have fled their homes since the current war erupted in 2015, making it the fourth largest internal displacement crisis on Earth.



Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

The UN calls for an immediate halt to fighting in Mariupol, Ukraine — Global Issues

“The lives of tens of thousands including women, children, and older people, are at stake in Mariupol,” said Amin Awad in a statement. “We need a pause in fighting right now to save lives. The longer we wait the more lives will be at risk. They must be allowed to safely evacuate now, today. Tomorrow could be too late”.

Easter in war

Almost a week ago, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres had called for a humanitarian pause in hostilities as Orthodox Christians celebrate Holy Week.

On Easter Day, Awad reiterated the UN chief´s appeal for a halt to fighting to allow life-saving supplies into Mariupol and other areas under attack and enable the departure of those wanting to leave amid reports of the situation in Mariupol deteriorating dramatically.

“At a time of a rare calendar alignment of the religious holidays of Orthodox Easter, Passover and Ramadan, it is the time to focus on our common humanity, setting divisions aside,” he said.

© UNICEF/Evgeniy Maloletka

A woman looks at her damaged house after shelling in Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine.

Humanitarian situation deteriorating

According to UN agencies, the humanitarian situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate, as a result of ongoing hostilities chiefly taking place in eastern and southern oblasts.

Over a quarter of Ukraine’s population is currently displaced internally or in neighbouring countries.

The latest assessment of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) found that around 60 per cent of those displaced are women, and more than half of those displaced have expressed their need for food.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that over one-quarter of internally displaced families with children under the age of five has reported difficulties in feeding their children since the start of the conflict.

As hostilities intensify, the basic needs of people stranded in hard-to-reach areas increase, while also hampering efforts to establish humanitarian corridors to both evacuate civilians and deliver life-saving assistance.

The most urgent and critical needs are in these locations with high levels of insecurity, disrupted food supply and retail capacities, and limited or sporadic humanitarian access, such as Mariupol.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Escaping Bucha — Global Issues

Six weeks ago, life was easy for Yuliia, her husband Valerii, and their small son Artemko.

They had just moved into a new apartment in a quiet, green part of Bucha. She had a job as a hairdresser and loved nothing more than when a client left her salon looking beautiful and confident.

Everything changed one awful morning at the end of February. War – violent, loud and terrifying – roared from the north. With her neighbourhood in flames, Yuliia made the decision to flee.

She and her family, including her mother Zinaida, joined over 7.1 million (as of 1 April 2022) internally displaced persons (IDPs) across Europe’s largest country.

Violence ‘impossible to comprehend’

After four weeks on the road, they arrived in the western province of Zakarpattia, hundreds of kilometres from her shattered hometown.

When Yuliia saw the horrific pictures and videos of the slaughter and destruction in Bucha, she instantly burst into tears and remained speechless for a while. “This level of violence is impossible to comprehend,” she finally said. “That is not something you would wish on the enemy, but this is something that will never be forgiven nor forgotten.”

From her neighbours, Yuliia learned that after her family had left, their flat was taken over, and their belongings were looted. The factory where Yuliia’s mother worked was destroyed by bombs.

Even though Ukrainian authorities have regained control, people are still not allowed to come back home due to risks of mines, and other explosive remnants of war.

‘This is our home now’

Here in Zakarpattia, they can finally catch a break. Together with a hundred other IDPs, they found a temporary shelter in a school in the small town of Bushtyno. Volunteers from Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic have done their best to turn impersonal classrooms into cosy bedrooms. The sports hall has become a central warehouse for all the necessities of daily life.

“So here we are. This is our home now. We have everything we need, and kind people are helping us in every way they can,” says Yuliia. “Even though we are sleeping on mattresses on the floor now, missiles are not flying over our heads and my child is safe. This is the only thing that matters now.”

She hopes that her son will not have any memories of those terrifying weeks of fear and flight. “We do not have many personal belongings but what really breaks my heart is that we were not able to take any toys for Artemko. He loves cars and, at home, he had a lot of car toys, which he misses very much, and asks all the time when he can come back home to play with them again.

I want him just to be a child, play games and spend time with other kids. If he could have some toys or a bike, he would be really happy. And it would make me happy too.”

© IOM/Jana Wyzinska

IOM staff at the school gym in Bushtyno village where the local community stores supplies for internally displaced persons…

This article first appeared on the IOM Website

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Millet seeds, a powerful weapon against hunger — Global Issues

Subasa Mohanta is no stranger to hunger. It has been a constant in the lives of this 50-year-old farmer, her husband, and two children.

Despite 16-hour days of back-breaking work as a farmhand, carting stone to a construction site, she might still come home without enough to eat.

But in 2018, a small bag of seeds helped Subasa to transform her life.

Ms. Mohanta scattered the finger millet seeds — given to her by the Odisha Government as part of a rural programme supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) — in the fallow 0.6 hectares of land that circles her brick-and-mud house in the village of Goili in Mayurbhanj district.

In about two months, she harvested her first crop of mandia (the Odia word for ragi or finger millet). Subasa sold a part of the about 500 kilograms she harvested at 40 rupees a kilo, kept some of it to feed the hungry mouths at home, and distributed the rest among friends and family. And then she sowed the seeds of change once again on her farmland.

Mandia Maa, a symbol of hope

Over the last three years, Subasa’s story of hope, confidence and empowerment has become intertwined with the genesis and growth of the Odisha Millets Mission (OMM), a flagship programme of the regional government’s Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment.

Her days are now divided between farming her own land, plus another 3.2 hectares she has leased, and advising women in Mayurbhanj and other districts of Odisha on the best practices of millet cultivation.

She also attends to local reporters who queue up for a glimpse of Mandia Maa, a moniker she has earned for her hard work and willingness to try a new crop when few others were open to the idea.

Pancakes to health drink

The finger millet didn’t just change the fortune of the Mohantas, who have now diversified into growing other millets such as suan (little millet) and sorghum. It also made a place for itself in their diet. From mandia kakara pitha (a kind of pancake) to mandia malt (a health drink to start the day with), the family’s bowl of nutrition is also part of the OMM’s journey to success.

The millet plant’s high tolerance of heat (up to 64 degrees Celsius), drought and flood makes the crop an obvious choice for farmers in an era of climate change and depleting natural resources.

Millets require less water than rice and wheat, the two staples of the Indian diet. The short-season millets grow easily without fertilisers, making them a healthier and safer option for both the consumer and the soil. The intercropping of millets with other crops is also beneficial for soil quality: It helps keep a check on water run-off and aids soil conservation in erosion-prone areas.

“Apart from being a rich source of nutrients and a climate-resilient crop, millet can diversify the food system, support in resilience building and adaptation and enhance livelihoods for small farmers, including women, nationally and regionally,” says Bishow Parajuli, WFP Representative and Country Director in India.

Women to the fore

In Odisha, what began four years ago with the handing out of leaflets, loudspeaker announcements from vans and seed distribution among villagers by volunteers, community resource persons and officials of the agriculture department has now blossomed into a movement driven by women self-help groups.

Women, who are still seen as mostly post-harvest labour and keepers of seeds, have taken the lead in ragi processing, improving yields of millets with bio-inputs, and also running cafes and centres that serve millet-based dishes.

The humble jau (a porridge made with unpolished grain) — the most common form of millet consumption in Odisha — now enjoys the company of other traditional dishes such as bara, malpua, khaja and chakuli.

No longer ‘the food of the poor’

The seeds of change have taken root, but the way ahead is not free of challenges.

Millets are still perceived as a food of the poor and the underprivileged, an image problem that needs to be tackled through promotions, social media campaigns, and awareness messages from celebrities.

Millets needs the support of the urban consumer to find their rightful place on the shelf.

While that shift may be a few summers away, the women in Odisha’s villages and small towns are going about their millet work in full earnest. And lives are changing, grain by grain.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Exit mobile version