D.I.CA.F

IOM and COOPI, one of its local partners, this week began a 600-kilometre journey to the remote northern department of Petén to deliver humanitarian assistance to 685 families (3,165 persons) who were forced to flee their homes following heavy rains that affected Central America recently.

"This distribution is a real challenge. To reach these families, who lost many of their meager belongings to the heavy downpours, it means driving 520 kilometres to the capital of the Department of Petén and from there another 100 kilometres to reach the families," explains Sebastián Berkovich of IOM Guatemala.

As part of this post disaster initiative, funded by the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), IOM and its local partners (COOPI, CRS, ESFRA and SHARE) are distributing kitchen, hygiene and agricultural tool kits and winter essentials such as clothing, sheets, pillows and blankets to 2,000 families in the departments of Champerico, Retalhuleu, Santa Rosa, Izabal, Guatemala, Escuintla, Jutiapa and Petén, who were affected by the heavy rains that swept across Central America in October.

It Central America, it is estimated that 123 persons were killed and tens of thousands were forced to flee their homes. In Guatemala, 51 persons lost their lives and 254,000 others were directly impacted.

Several days of non-stop rains caused rivers to overflow and landslides which destroyed hundreds of homes and washed away millions of dollars in crops, mainly maize and beans which are the main staples for the population. Many schools and clinics were also damaged, severely affecting many persons living in rural areas.

For more information, please contact, Sebastián Berkovich, IOM Guatemala; Tel: +502 2314.0086; Email: sberkovich@iom.int

(Kinshasa / New York, 26 January 2012): The humanitarian community in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) received today a new financial boost of USD 9.1 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund to fight off cholera, a water-borne disease that has affected over 22,000 people and killed over 500 over the past year.

Since January 2011, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations and the Congolese government have teamed up to stop the spread of a disease that has hit eight of the country’s 11 provinces. Over 22,000 cases have been recorded over the past 12 months. The majority of cases, more than 14,000, have occurred in the eastern provinces where cholera is endemic. In recent weeks however, there has been a spike in cases and close to 18 percent of the total caseload has been recorded since mid-December. Beyond the actual caseload, thousands more are collateral victims of the disease and its impact can be felt in agricultural and commercial activities, school attendance, family well-being and the livelihood of households that are already among the world’s poorest.

With over 5,500 cases reported, the eastern province of South Kivu has taken the heaviest toll, accounting for 25 per cent of all cases. The capital Kinshasa, Province Orientale, Bandundu and Equateur located along the Congo River have also been struggling through their worst outbreak in the past 10 years. The Congo River is a major commercial route and vector of the disease. With a population of some 10 million and a dysfunctional water and sanitation system, Kinshasa recorded 248 cases during a four-week span in December, amounting to close to 25 percent of the caseload the city had known up till then. In Ituri, Province Orientale, some 500 people were affected by the disease between mid-December 2011 and mid-January 2012. The disease risks becoming endemic in the provinces along the river if the response fails, aid workers fear.

Across the country, aid organizations have put together a multi-pronged response strategy, but they have not yet succeeded in curtailing the disease. The response has included establishing cholera treatment centres; providing water chlorination points and refurbishing water points; conducting awareness campaigns using the media; training of medical staff; disinfecting boats. The UN and NGOs expect the CERF funding to boost the response to the disease that is compounding an already grave humanitarian situation for millions of Congolese.

“Despite all our previous efforts, we have been one step behind the disease. This new funding will allow us to reinforce the entire response chain”, Humanitarian Coordinator Fidele Sarassoro said today.

The United Nations Children Fund and the World Health Organization will receive $4.4 million and $4.7 million respectively. But agencies will work with a number of international and national NGOs who are instrumental in the frontline response.

Aid organizations say they are confident that they will beat this emergency, but added that durable solutions are required and that the Congolese authorities will need to prioritise investments in clean water, sanitation and hygiene.

Aid organizations estimate that at its worst, the disease could affect some 21 million people.

The CERF was created by the United Nations in 2005 to pre-position funding to respond in a timely fashion to humanitarian crises. Last year, it allocated $4 million to fight cholera in the provinces along the Congo River.

Executive Summary

A flood of data is created every day by the interactions of billions of people using computers, GPS devices, cell phones, and medical devices. Many of these interactions occur through the use of mobile devices being used by people in the developing world, people whose needs and habits have been poorly understood until now. Researchers and policymakers are beginning to realise the potential for channelling these torrents of data into actionable information that can be used to identify needs, provide services, and predict and prevent crises for the benefit of low-income populations. Concerted action is needed by governments, development organisations, and companies to ensure that this data helps the individuals and communities who create it.

SC/10533

Security Council
6709th Meeting (PM)

Under-Secretary-General Briefs Members on Findings Of United Nations Inter-agency Assessment Mission to Sub-Saharan Region

A spike in weapons proliferation, organized crime and terrorism — compounded by a massive influx of migrants returning from Libya — was exerting pressure on already-struggling countries across the Sahel region, the Security Council heard today as the senior United Nations political official briefed members on peace and security in Africa.

Greater efforts were needed to identify the criminal and militia elements that were “reigniting embers of past rebellions”, said B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, adding that terrorists across the Sahel were using weapons smuggled from Muammar al-Qadhafi’s arsenal during the recent conflict in Libya. Moreover, a United Nations inter-agency assessment mission to the region between 7 and 23 December 2011 had found that those new security risks were compounded long-standing challenges, including unemployment, drought, food insecurity and malnutrition.

Despite those myriad challenges, he said, feeding and reintegrating vulnerable returnees arriving from Libya, and helping affected communities cope with the loss of remittances, had now become the top priority for many Sahelian countries. Their leaders were demonstrating “a remarkable openness to engage on the nature and enormity of the challenges”, but the assessment mission’s report made it clear that they could not go it alone, Mr. Pascoe said. Appeals for assistance from the United Nations, the African Union and other international entities were increasingly emanating from the region as countries continued to struggle, he added.

Many representatives speaking during the ensuing discussion supported the report’s recommendations, including, in particular, the urgent need to support ongoing national and regional initiatives to address the Sahel’s looming humanitarian, socio-economic and security challenges. Delegates also called for enhanced coordination agreements on border control and the mobilization of international support for the region, which many stressed should be jointly led by the United Nations and the African Union.

Colombia’s representative said the mission’s report was proof of the need for strong cooperation on the Sahel between the United Nations and regional organizations. There was a need for prompt action to support the initiatives of the Sahelian nations as they attempted to cope with their problems, he said, stressing that the principles of national ownership, effective cooperation and coordination must be respected. While the current problems called for immediate action, he added, a long-term approach was also needed. Capacity should be built to enable the nations concerned to deal with the reintegration of returnees and the proliferation of weapons.

Portugal’s representative said the Libyan crisis had not created the problems of the Sahel, but it had clearly exacerbated them. The integrated concept that had guided the assessment mission should also guide all subsequent efforts to address the problems under discussion. In that context, it was necessary to help the Libyan authorities in dealing with their problems, including border management and arms proliferation, he said.

France’s representative agreed, emphasizing that greater coordination was required to address the region’s complex problems. It was clear that the problems were transnational and therefore relevant to the Security Council, but solutions must nonetheless come first from the Sahelian States themselves, and the international community must support their efforts.

Other delegates underscored the importance of national ownership, including the Russian Federation’s representative, who said that the mission’s report confirmed that the real scope of the Libyan crisis was just beginning to come to light. Its negative impact spanned national and even continental borders, greatly increasing the risk of global terrorism. Meanwhile, the new Libyan authorities had no way to control the situation inside their country, he said, adding that they were allowing weapons to fall into the hands of terrorists and to appear on the black market. There must be a greater effort to reintegrate the migrants, who were “easy prey” for terrorists, he warned.

Delegates from a number of Sahelian nations also addressed the Council, with Mali’s representative saying that his country had indeed experienced serious fallout from the Libyan crisis, as described in the report. In particular, it had witnessed the mass return of migrant workers and heavily-armed former combatants, which had aggravated arms trafficking and threatened peace and stability in the entire region. Mali’s response involved not merely strengthening military security, but also protecting people and their goods and improving basic infrastructure and services, he said, and increasing work on development. Recognizing the responsibility of other Sahelian countries, he nonetheless requested increased international support for their efforts.

Also speaking today were representatives of Pakistan, United Kingdom, India, Germany, China, United States, Guatemala, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Togo, South Africa, Niger and Chad.

The meeting began at 3:16 p.m. and ended at 5 p.m.

WASHINGTON — The 2010 earthquake that devastated southern Haiti may have opened a new era of seismic activity and residents should brace for more massive temblors, said a US study on Thursday.

The 7.0 quake that killed 250,000 people and leveled much of the capital Port-au-Prince, was of a magnitude unseen on the island since the 18th century, said the study in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

A equivalent 6.6 level quake in 1701, centered in the same region and described in similar ways to the 2010 temblor according to historical accounts, was followed by three big quakes -- two in 1751 and one in 1770, said the study.

Those quakes would be equal to about 7.5, 6.6 and 7.5 today, and were all located on or near the same crack in the Earth's crust known as the Enriquillo fault that extends along southern Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The fault system has accumulated "considerable potential slip" since the 18th century, and regional stress levels in the Earth may be sufficient to unleash more massive temblors in the coming years, said the research.

"The 2010 Haiti earthquake may mark the beginning of a new cycle of large earthquakes on the Enriquillo fault system after 240 years of seismic quiescence," said the study, led by William Bakun of the US Geological Survey.

"The entire Enriquillo fault system appears to be seismically active; Haiti and the Dominican Republic should prepare for future devastating earthquakes."

Bakun's study reviews the history of earthquakes and hurricanes on the Caribbean island known as Hispaniola since it was first discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 and was swiftly colonized by Europeans.

"There are ample Spanish, French, and British accounts describing the social and physical conditions of Hispaniola in the past 500 years," said the study.

"The five centuries of seismic history of the island of Hispaniola is arguably the longest in the western hemisphere."

With that historical perspective, the island's seismic record is comparable to that of the San Andreas fault in California, where 56 years of "significant earthquake activity" beginning in 1850 culminated in San Francisco's 7.8 quake on the moment magnitude scale in 1906, Bakun wrote.

USGS analysts have predicted that there is a 62 percent probability of another major, damaging earthquake in the San Francisco area by 2031.

And while the science of predicting earthquakes is imprecise, seismologists are gaining better knowledge of risk rates using more advanced technologies and an examination of the historical record for clues.

There are no reports of earthquakes in the area before 1700, and no comparable ones until 2010, though there was a quake in 1860 that was centered further north on the island and is considered unrelated to the fault system.

An analysis of past patterns suggests that the 2010 quake was a re-rupture of the same zone as in 1701, indicating that the Enriquillo fault system may be on a 310 year cycle, said the study.

Bakun and colleagues noted that much of the devastation around the capital in 2010 was due to "inadequate building practices," and urged more seismic hazard mitigation efforts in future construction across southern Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Overview

In 2011, a total of 278 LRA attacks were reported as compared to 306 in 2010. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continued to report a higher number of attacks (229) than in 2010, while CAR reported a reduction in the number of attacks and South Sudan remained the same.

The last quarter of 2011 saw fewer incidents, except for DRC, which reported 32 attacks and CAR 26 abductions. During that period, the number of abductions also decreased by 56% to 302 from 680 in 2010, including 93 children.

The number of LRA-induced displacements in 2011 is estimated at more than 465,000 civilians living either as IDPs or refugees in the LRA-affected areas.

This article is part of an AlertNet special report on humanitarian aid: futureofaid.trust.org

By George Fominyen

DAKAR (AlertNet) - With Niger facing another year of food shortages that threaten 7 million people, a former aid official has warned U.N. and foreign aid agencies to heed the lessons from the West African country's devastating 2005 food crisis.

Read the full article on AlertNet

MSF suspends work in Misrata detention centres

TRIPOLI/LONDON, 26 JANUARY 2012 – Detainees in the Libyan city of Misrata are being tortured and denied urgent medical care, leading the international medical humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres MSF (Doctors Without Borders) to suspend its operations in detention centres in Misrata, MSF announced today.

MSF teams began working in Misrata’s detention centres in August 2011 to treat war-wounded detainees. Since then, MSF doctors have been increasingly confronted with patients who have suffered injuries caused by torture during interrogation sessions. The interrogations were held outside the detention centres. In total, MSF has treated 115 people with torture-related wounds and reported all the cases to the relevant authorities in Misrata. Since January, several of the patients who were returned to interrogation centres have been tortured again.

“Some officials have sought to exploit and obstruct MSF’s medical work,” says MSF General Director Christopher Stokes. “Patients were brought to us for medical care between interrogation sessions, so that they would be fit for further interrogation. This is unacceptable. Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between torture sessions.”

MSF medical teams were also asked to treat patients inside the interrogation centres, which was categorically refused by the organisation.

The most alarming case occurred on 3 January 2012 when MSF doctors treated a group of 14 detainees returning from an interrogation centre located outside the detention facilities. Despite previous MSF demands for an immediate end to torture, nine of the 14 detainees suffered numerous injuries and displayed obvious signs of having been tortured.

The MSF team informed the National Army Security Service – the agency responsible for interrogations – that a number of patients needed to be transferred to hospitals for urgent and specialised care. All but one of the detainees were again deprived of essential medical care and were subjected to renewed interrogations and torture outside the detention centres.

After meeting with various authorities, MSF sent an official letter on 9 January 2012 to the Misrata Military Council, the Misrata Security Committee, the National Army Security Service and the Misrata Local Civil Council, again demanding an immediate stop to any form of ill treatment of detainees.

“No concrete action has been taken,” says Stokes. “Instead, our team received four new torture cases. We have therefore come to the decision to suspend our medical activities in the detention centres.”

MSF has been working in Misrata since April 2011, in the midst of the Libyan conflict. Since August 2011, MSF has worked in Misrata’s detention centres, treating war-wounded, performing surgeries, and providing orthopaedic follow-up care to people who had suffered bone fractures. MSF medical teams have carried out 2,600 consultations, including 311 for violent trauma.

MSF will continue its mental health support activities in schools and health facilities in Misrata, in addition to its assistance to 3,000 African migrants, refugees and internally displaced people in and around Tripoli.

MSF is an international humanitarian medical organisation which has worked in Libya since 25 February 2011. To ensure the independence of its medical work, MSF relies solely on private donations to finance its activities in Libya and does not accept any funding from governments, donor agencies, or military or political groups.

Geneva (Jan. 26, 2012) – CARE International is calling on the international community to act now to help nearly 10 million people facing hunger in the Sahel region of West Africa. The alarm was raised early: the governments of Niger, Mali and Chad have all declared a disaster and have appealed for international help. If action is taken now, there is still time to prevent more families from plunging into a humanitarian disaster, and to provide urgently-needed assistance to those already in crisis.

The worst-affected countries are Niger, Chad and Mali, where erratic rains and an attack of pests and locusts destroyed entire harvests, leaving families with nothing to eat through this year’s hungry season. In Niger alone, 5.4 million people in Niger are at risk of hunger; at least 1.3 million of those are in critical need of food and assistance now.

“Some families are already down to just one meal a day of watered-down millet porridge,” said Johannes Schoors, CARE’s Country Director in Niger. “In a normal year, the hunger season doesn’t start until April or May, but this year, it has already started. Adding to the problem, the worst-hit regions are scattered on the map. There are pockets of severely affected people, which makes it difficult and costly to reach them.”

Last week, the European Union made a critical contribution by doubling its humanitarian aid to Africa's Sahel area, but much more is needed.

“The world needs to accept that many parts of Niger and the Sahel are now in a state of chronic crisis,” said Schoors. “Many families have still not yet recovered from the food crisis of 2010. While families in critical need today need emergency assistance, we also need to find long-term solutions to help people survive in an environment that is becoming more difficult to live in because of a changing climate. Rains are shorter and less frequent; pasture land is turning into desert. This is changing the way of life for the people in this region, and we need to support them to adapt and increase their resilience.”

While the peak of the crisis is expected to hit in March, in some areas families have already exhausted their food supplies and are selling their animals and household items to buy food. Without animals like goats and cows to provide milk and cheese, families lose a vital source of nutrition, putting children at risk of malnutrition and stunting, and leaving families without a source of income.

To make things worse, many families have lost a crucial survival option: finding work in neighbouring countries. Many Nigeriens who went to Côte d’Ivoire, Libya and Nigeria to find work have come home early because of instability or conflict. Many workers came home with nothing; some even had to borrow money in order to return home, plunging their families further into debt or crisis.

CARE has already started an emergency response, and we are adapting our ongoing programs to help people cope with the crisis:

• providing cash-for-work to help families buy food and protect their assets

• training government nurses on prevention and management of malnutrition at the community level

• strengthening community cereal banks so families can buy food at reasonable prices, stocking animal feed banks and reinforcing community-based early warning systems

• working with women’s savings and loans groups to develop alternative sources of food such as community vegetable gardens and to increase community resilience

“We know what works, but it must be done on a larger scale, and it must be done now,” said Amadou Sayo, CARE’s Regional Emergency Coordinator for West Africa. “We see every day that the situation is grave and getting worse. The longer we wait, the more lives will be at risk, and the costlier the response will be.”

CARE urges donors to support the following actions now:

• Provide cash transfers and cash-for-work to help families purchase food. Despite many regions suffering poor harvests, food is available on the market. Donors must support families to purchase food, supporting the local economy and giving people choice. Large scale distributions of food are costly, disrupt the local market, and will not arrive in time to prevent a crisis.

• Support malnourished children now. Providing food supplements to slightly malnourished children now will help prevent children from sliding into severe malnutrition, which can result in hospitalization and long-term effects on a child’s mental and physical growth.

• Support government and community disaster risk reduction activities such as by selling grain at affordable prices for the most vulnerable families and to replenish the stocks of community cereal banks, providing fodder for animals for small pastoralist families so their herds don’t die, or strategic de-stocking activities.

-- End –

Report appeals for $1.28 billion to respond to the needs of the world’s most vulnerable

By Chris Niles

NEW YORK, 26 January 2012 – The ongoing crisis in the Horn of Africa will remain a significant part of UNICEF’s global humanitarian response in the coming year, according to the ‘Humanitarian Action for Children 2012’ report, which launches tomorrow.

In the report, UNICEF asks for US$1.28 billion to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children and their families in 25 countries and territories. This figure represents a 9 per cent decrease from last year’s appeal.

Continuing crisis in the Horn of Africa

The crisis in Somalia and other Horn of Africa countries accounts for one third of the total amount.

UNICEF’s funding request reflects serious concern that the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in the region remain threatened because they don’t have enough to eat – nearly half of all the funds requested for Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia will go to purchasing food and nutrition supplies.

“The focus of 2012 will continue to be on the Horn of Africa, but with much more focus this year on Somalia and the refugee situation in Dadaab in Eastern Kenya,” said UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes Louis-Georges Arsenault.

Meeting urgent and long-term needs

The report also highlights the needs of children and families displaced by the violence in Cote d’Ivoire and South Sudan, the second year of flooding in Pakistan, and the ongoing operation to rebuild Haiti following the January 2010 earthquake.

“We have achieved many positive results in emergency settings in 2011, but the urgent and long-term needs of millions of children and their families will continue in 2012. UNICEF requires adequate funding in order to fulfil its commitments towards children. They not only represent the future but are the most vulnerable, and deserve generous and consistent support from the donor community,” said UNICEF OIC Deputy Executive Director Rima Salah.

The funding appeal also addresses so-called ‘silent’ emergencies such as that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where, as of June 2011, more than 1.5 million people – half of them children – were displaced by ethnic violence. Millions more were affected by sexual assault and lack of schooling.

“In the Sahel, we are facing a nutrition crisis of a larger magnitude than usual; the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad and the Central African Republic, to name just a few, are all emergencies requiring funding if the most vulnerable people, children and women, are to survive,” said Ms. Salah.

The report stresses the critical need for predictable, flexible funding to respond to both major and ‘silent’ emergencies.

“One of the main reasons is to be able to respond to where there is no attention, and to have the flexibility to move in very quickly where there is a sudden onset of an emergency, so we don’t have to wait for funding,” said Mr. Arsenault.

This responsiveness will enable UNICEF to fulfil its commitment to, as the report states, “the fullest realization of the rights of all children’s in all emergency situations.”