“There is no let-up in the number of humanitarian crises that need our attention, or indeed in their severity,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos told a news conference in Geneva.

“Most recently, of course, we have Iraq and the large numbers of displaced people in the last few days and the situation in Ukraine is also worsening.”

Ms. Amos, who is also UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, said the crisis in Syria continues to dominate international response efforts with 9.3 million people in need and 2.8 million people who have become refugees in neighboring countries.

“Violations of humanitarian and human rights law continue unabated by all parties to the conflict in Syria. And 241,000 people remain under siege in areas where almost no aid can go in, and there are few ways for people to get out.”

Resolution 2139, adopted by the Security Council earlier this year with the intention of boosting humanitarian access into Syria, “has had little impact and access remains extremely difficult.”

She also highlighted the crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR), where over half of the population – or 2.5 million women, children and men – urgently need protection and relief to meet their most basic needs.

While the strategic response plan in CAR targets 1.9 million people for humanitarian aid, Ms. Amos said violence and insecurity is cutting off entire communities and aid workers themselves have been attacked.

In South Sudan, some 1.5 million people have been uprooted by violence in the past six months alone and the situation continues to deteriorate. “Despite the ceasefire, we are seeing ongoing violence and conflict. With the onset of the rains, cholera has broken out and malaria is taking its toll on children and on adults alike,” Ms. Amos reported.

Aid agencies have just released a new plan to help 3.8 million people in South Sudan by December with emergency healthcare, food, clean water, sanitation and shelter. “There is no time to waste if we are to avoid a famine later in the year,” said the UN humanitarian chief.

Meanwhile, there are continuing challenges in countries like Yemen, where nearly 15 million are in need of aid; Somalia where one million remain internally displaced and in a state of extreme vulnerability; and Sudan, where UN agencies and non-governmental organizations are targeting five million people as needs grow, especially in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

“This year, we asked for a record $16.9 billion, the highest amount ever requested in a single year. As of today, we have received 30 per cent of that funding, or $5.2 billion. We still have to raise $11.7 billion,” Ms. Amos stated.

“Humanitarian organizations will continue to try to scale up efforts – our capacity is stretched to the limit. We need the continued support of the international community, we need not just the funding, but we also need the access if we are going to do our jobs effectively.”

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Photo: Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos arrives for a news conference in Geneva. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

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“But our goal is to go as quickly as possible and we are grateful to those countries who are helping us to do the transportation because that’s no small feat,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous told reporters after briefing the Security Council on the situation in the world’s youngest country, where well over 1,000 people have been killed and some 300,000 others driven from their home since fighting erupted between Government and opposition forces nearly a month ago.

The time-frame is longer than Mr. Ladsous outlined on 30 December when he said it was hoped all reinforcements for the UN peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) that the Council authorized to protect civilians – almost doubling the force to nearly 14,000, including utility and tactical helicopters – would be on the ground within three weeks.

But although he said today that getting the whole surge there could take between four and eight weeks, he stressed that “we are making very substantial progress,” and it was hoped to have a significant number of formed police units, some of which are already deployed and operational, on the ground over the coming days.

This will allow UNMISS peacekeepers who lack the necessary vehicles and are currently deployed on UN bases and camps to defend 60,000 people seeking shelter there, to take on “more proactive patrolling around the bases and beyond because, of course, the situation in terms of violation of human rights remains terrible critical,” he added.

Mr. Ladsous said “we know” that the death toll will “be very substantially in excess of the 1,000 figures that we know for sure,” while there are probably 250,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs). At least 42,800 others are estimated to have fled to neighbouring countries.

“The priorities now for the UN are very clearly in this situation: to focus on the protection of civilians, on human rights and on helping our humanitarian colleagues to access those populations,” he stressed. “These are the three items on which UNMISS is really concentrating all its efforts right now.”

During the more than three hour briefing, the Council also heard from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative to the African Union, Haile Menkerios, by video link from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where Government and opposition representatives are meeting in talks in talks mediated by the East African regional organization, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), with an immediate ceasefire and the release of political detainees held by the Government at the top of the agenda.

Mr. Ban’s Special Representative in South Sudan, and head of UNMISS, Hilde Johnson also briefed the 15-member body from Juba, South Sudan’s capital.

Asked about denial of access for UN peacekeepers, which the Government guaranteed in the accord setting up UNMISS, specifically flying into Bor in Jonglei state, site of some of the fiercest fighting and displacement of civilians, Mr. Ladsous said “this is being corrected and this has been taken up rather forcefully with the Government.”

Asked why UNMISS forces have so far remained on their bases and not gone further afield when fighting and human rights abuses have been reported, he replied: “In view of the fact that they only have limited equipment, that is a Limitation. So this is why we don’t send them on long-range patrols on the vehicles that they don’t have yet.

“This is why we are concentrating in the first place on the protection of UN bases and camps. But as the strength augments, as the equipment augments, then it will be possible to put them into full blown duties.”

He was also asked about reports that the South Sudanese Government objected to certain nationalities taking part in the UNMISS reinforcement; “The situation has improved in the sense that the messages have been more open, so there’s still work to do, but anyway we are in a position of deploying those troops that we intended to deploy to South Sudan.”

The Council briefings came as UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos announced $15-million allocation from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). “Conditions for the South Sudanese fleeing hostilities in their country are getting worse by the day,” she said. With this CERF funding, UN humanitarian agencies will be better able to meet the needs of people desperately seeking shelter and safety.”

South Sudan, which only gained independence in 2011 after seceding from Sudan, erupted in fighting on 15 December when President Salva Kiir said soldiers loyal to former deputy president Riek Machar, dismissed last July, reportedly launched an attempted coup.

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Photo: Civilians fleeing the fighting and seeking refuge, wait outside a compound of the UN Mission in Bor (December 2013). UN Photo/Hailemichael Gebrekrstos

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According to UNICEF, as of November, more than 2.4 million people have been displaced within the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a result of fighting between the Congolese army and various rebel groups. This includes 1.6 million people in North and South Kivu, more than 60 percent of whom are women and children.

The situation continued to escalate and by Nov. 25, potential talks between the Congolese government and M23 rebels ground to a halt. According to a Reuters report, Congo has said it would not negotiate with M23 rebels in the east until they pulled out of the city of Goma, while a rebel spokesman said Kinshasa was in no position to set conditions on peace talks. The rebels say they plan to march on other cities in the east, and then strike further out across the country.

Since the fighting broke out last week, more than 7,000 people have taken refuge at the Salesian-run Don Bosco Ngangi Educational Center in Goma. The facility is run with the support of International Volunteers for Development (VIS), a Don Bosco Network organization.

Close to 5,000 of these refugees are children and 111 arrived without any visible means of support. Refugees are encamped in various rooms, in makeshift shelters on the basketball fields and in every available space.

“The respite provided will not last,” says Father Piero Gavioli, director of the Salesian Center last week in the early days of the fighting escalation. “If we feed them as we are doing, quite soon we will have nothing left for the 3,300 at-risk children who frequent the center every day. We have had water from the International Red Cross, with some biscuits and a promise of food by the World Food Program.”

Refugees have organized themselves in the classrooms, and cattle have been led out to pastures elsewhere. The Salesian Center is facing various problems of overcrowding and lack of food and medicine. Given the lack of security in the city, trucks were unable to bring the Salesian Center water, food and medicines.

In a recent news release, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos said that the insecurity in the region is preventing the delivery of the most basic humanitarian assistance and acknowledged that many of the communities hosting the thousands of refugees are already overstretched.

According to a UNICEF report, UNICEF driver Mansour Rwagaza saw first-hand how dangerous it was to deliver supplies to the region. He heard gunshots and shelling as he arrived at the Don Bosco Center with 20,000 high-energy biscuits for refugee children there. But he said the risk taken to complete the delivery was worth it to save the lives of children.

In addition to the threat of supplies running low, the threat of water-borne diseases such as cholera is acute. Two cases of cholera have already been identified at the Salesian Center.

As the conflict continues, the Salesians and volunteers remain vigilant coping with the emergency and addressing the needs of the refugees. The volunteers have divided into three groups – the first makes a list of arrivals, the second listens to the refugees to understand their needs and the third looks out for malnourished children who need urgent food aid.

“We counted 2,578 adults and 4,962 children but there are undoubtedly more, because in the morning many young people and adults go into town,” explains Fr. Gavioli. “There were 316 malnourished children who we provided energy supplements to.”

“With regard to the intentions of the refugees, almost everyone wants to go home, seeking help for traveling, food for the first few days and a tarpaulin for shelter from the rain, since they have no idea whether or not their homes or huts still have a roof,” adds Fr. Gavioli.

To make a donation to help the Salesians support refugees around the globe, go to SalesianMissions.org.

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Photos courtesy of of International Volunteers for Development (VIS)

Sources:

ANS – Democratic Republic of Congo – War and cholera. Emergency in Goma

ANS – Democratic Republic of Congo – Goma: like grass trampled by elephants

International Volunteers for Development (VIS)

UNICEF – With children and families on the frontline of conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNICEF and partners respond urgently

Alertnet – Congo says no talks with rebels unless they quit Goma

UN – DR Congo: amid violence, UN officials voice concern over delivery of aid and impact on children

*Any goods, services, or funds provided by Salesian Missions to programs located in this country were administered in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including sanctions administered by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control.

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“Halfway through this year we are seeing people in desperate need in 20 countries, whose lives and livelihoods have been shattered by conflict, hunger and disaster,” said the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos.

“As well as providing effective emergency aid, humanitarian organizations are also working to improve the resilience of communities so that they can better cope with the impact of future natural disasters and conflicts,” she added.

In a news release, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which Amos heads, noted that the number of people needing assistance had risen from 51 million to 62 million – an increase of more than 20 per cent – during the first half of this year.

A large number of these people are in the African continent, with more than 18 million people facing a severe food and nutrition crisis in countries of the Sahel region, which includes Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and parts of Sudan, Cameroon and Nigeria.

Conflict has worsened the situation in Mali, as well as in South Sudan, which is coping with increasing numbers of refugees from Sudan who have fled conflict in border areas.

Food insecurity, malnutrition and insecurity have also worsened the situation in Yemen, where 60 per cent of children under five are chronically malnourished – a rate second only to Afghanistan, where so far this year, more than 200,000 people have been affected by some 300 natural disasters. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people are being affected by the intensifying armed conflict in Syria, which has caused many to flee to neighboring countries.

To respond strategically to major crises and monitor the effectiveness of their work, OCHA said that some 560 humanitarian aid organizations are using the Consolidated Appeal Process, a tool used by aid organizations to plan, implement and monitor their activities together. Collaborating in the world’s crisis regions, they produce appeals, which they present to the international community and donors.

As of today, the agency reported, humanitarian partners have raised their funding requirements, from $7.8 billion, at the beginning of the year, to $8.8 billion. However, while 45 per cent of the funding required has been received, a gap of $4.8 billion for what is left of the year remains.

“We have reached at least 21 million people so far with humanitarian aid, but our partners need further resources to reach everyone in need,” said Amos. “I commend humanitarian donors for maintaining their generosity and commitment to effective, coordinated and timely aid.”

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PHOTO CREDIT: Reuters / Ho New

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