UN raises less than a third of $US4.27 billion sought for Yemen to avoid starvation
Reuters The United Nations on Wednesday received only $US1.3 billion in pledges towards a $US4.27 billion aid plan for war-torn Yemen where the humanitarian drive had seen funding dry up even before global attention turned to the conflict in Ukraine. “We hoped for more and it is a disappointment that we weren’t able as yet […]
Displaced by war, Yemenis converge on Marib’s camps as frontline closes in
Marib, YemenReuters In his eighties, Mohammed Hadi al-Harmali has been uprooted four times by shifting frontlines during the seven years of Yemen’s brutal civil war. Out of money and bedridden with a spinal problem, he is now confined to a tent in a makeshift camp outside Marib city, the last northern stronghold of pro-government forces and where […]
After fleeing fighting in Marib, displaced Yemenis await help
Marib, YemenReuters Iman Saleh Ali and her family left al-Jubah in the dead of night with only the clothes on their back to escape fighting between government forces and their Houthi foes, the second time they have been forced to do so in the battle for Yemen’s Marib. With no means to afford accommodation, they […]
Millions in Syria face disaster if aid crossing is shut – UN
Reyhanli, TurkeyReuters Millions of people in north-west Syria face disaster if the United Nations fails to approve an extension of cross-border humanitarian operations next month, a senior UN aid official said on Thursday. Some three million people, many of them displaced by fighting elsewhere in Syria during the decade-long conflict, have sought shelter near the […]
Record 79.5 million displaced at year-end despite COVID slowing exodus – UN
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Nearly 80 million people worldwide, or one per cent of humanity, were uprooted at the end of 2019 after fleeing wars or persecution, a record figure capping a “tumultuous” decade of displacement, the United Nations said on Thursday. The figure rose by some nine million from a year earlier and is close to […]
Red Cross fears coronavirus spreading silently in Somalia’s displaced camps
Nairobi, Kenya/Garowe, SomaliaThomson Reuters Foundation The new coronavirus could be spreading undetected through camps across Somalia hosting some 2.6 million displaced people, the Red Cross warned on Tuesday, as floods and conflict swelled the numbers fleeing into overcrowded settlements. Almost 500,000 people have been forced from their homes by recent floods in central Somalia, the […]
First war, now COVID-19 threatens South Sudanese in crowded camp
Nairobi, KenyaThomson Reuters Foundation Thousands of war-hit people sheltering in an overcrowded camp in South Sudan now risk contracting COVID-19, charities said on Thursday after the first two cases surfaced. Add to that the challenge of enforcing social distancing in such cramped quarters, and aid workers fear many more deaths are inevitable after years of […]
Pope Francis and the Vatican commit to aiding internally displaced people
RNS A record-breaking 50 million people in 2019 were internally displaced, or refugees within their own country, according to a recent study. Pope Francis and the Vatican championed their cause on Tuesday, with new guidelines for Catholic dioceses and parishes. “In this time of pandemic, the virus does not seem to distinguish between those who are […]
Conflicts uproot a record 41 million in their own countries
LondonThomson Reuters Foundation A record 41.3 million people were uprooted within their own countries last year due to conflicts and violence, data showed on Friday, with two-thirds displaced in just 10 countries including Syria, Colombia and Somalia. The increase in internally displaced people – which was one million higher than in 2017 – suggested that […]
AFRICA: VIOLENCE SPARKS FIRST MAJOR HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN BURKINA FASO
NELLIE PEYTON, reports for Thomson Reuters Foundation on the impact Islamist-driven violence is having on the West African nation with more than 100,000 people now forced to flee their homes…