Monday 1 December 2014
More
than 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and
Egypt are facing a disastrous and hungry winter after a funding crisis
forced the UN’s World Food Programme to suspend food vouchers to
hundreds of thousands forced into exile by the conflict.
Since the war began in March 2011, the WFP has brought food to millions
of Syrians inside the country, and has used the voucher scheme – which
allows refugees to buy food in local shops – to inject about $800m
(£500m) into the economies of those countries hosting them.
But after finding itself unable to secure the $64m it needs to support
Syrian refugees in December, the WFP announced on Monday that it was
halting the scheme. Severe funding shortfalls have already led the UN
body to reduce rations within Syria, where it is trying to help 4.25
million people.
Its executive director, Ertharin Cousin, issued a blunt and urgent
appeal to donors, asking them to honour their commitments and warning
that the suspension would have a devastating effect on the lives of more
than one-and-a-half million people. She said: “[It] will endanger the
health and safety of these refugees and will potentially cause further
tensions, instability and insecurity in the neighbouring host countries.
The suspension of WFP food assistance will be disastrous for many
already suffering families.”
She added that Syrian refugees in camps and informal settlements
throughout the region were ill-prepared for another difficult winter,
especially in Lebanon and Jordan where tents are drenched in mud,
hygiene conditions are poor and many children lack shoes and warm
clothes.
Muhannad Hadi, WFP regional emergency coordinator for the Syria crisis,
echoed the warnings, saying the consequences for both Syrian refugees
and host nations could be devastating.
“We are very concerned about the negative impact these cuts will have on
the refugees as well as the countries which host them,” he said. “These
countries have shouldered a heavy burden throughout this crisis.”
Greg Barrow, spokesman for the WFP’s London office, said the precise
effects of the suspension would be hard to gauge because refugees’
circumstances varied from country to country.
As many of the refugees were living outside camps, he said, there would
be opportunities for them to look for informal work that would enable
them to earn money for food. Others, in big camps such as Zaatari and
Azraq in Jordan, are still receiving rations.
He added: “Often members of local communities and, in some cases, local
authorities, provide some assistance – but the WFP is by far and away
the biggest provider of food assistance and there are no other
organisations that have the scale and reach to cover the food needs of
the more than 1.7 million who have been affected by this suspension.”
Like many other international agencies, the organisation is having to
contend with five simultaneous level-3 emergencies – the UN’s most
serious crisis designation – in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Central
African Republic and those west African countries caught up in the Ebola
outbreak.
Despite the competing demands, said Barrow, the WFP could not simply divert money from one crisis to another at will.
“Because many donations are allocated to specific programmes and cannot
be used elsewhere, there is a lack of flexibility in the system,” he
said. “This has been exacerbated by the high number of complex
emergencies we are facing and some programmes such as those for refugees
are underfunded.”
“For the next six months, the WFP requires $412.6m to support almost
3 million Syrian refugees in the neighbouring countries,” the
organisation said in an operational resourcing update in November.
“Any reductions or halt in WFP assistance are likely to cause widespread
food insecurity and further population movement and increased
protection concerns.”
In the same bulletin, it warned that the first “critical pipeline break”
in its Syrian operations was expected in January 2015, adding:
“Considering commodity lead times, additional resources must be secured
by early November to ensure procurement and arrival of supplies in time
for January distributions.”
Despite Monday’s announcement, the WFP said it would be able to resume
the electronic voucher scheme immediately – if December’s funding were
to come through in time.
Syria’s three-and-a-half year civil war has killed more than 200,000
people, displaced 6.5 million within the country and forced more than 3
million to seek refuge beyond its borders.
Speaking
at an event held in Matara last afternoon, President Rajapaksa has
heavily criticised the ongoing UN HRC inquiry against Sri Lanka on
allegations of war crimesand
had stated that a certain group within the country is attempting to
take him before the International Criminal Courts in Hague.
The
four main Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden (the
Vikings) – lead the world in social indicators on factors such as global
ranking in happiness, competitiveness, the best place to be a woman and
even the best place to be born. These achievements are admired the
world over, especially the Vikings’ ability to remain competitive on a
global scale and sustain a generous social welfare system.
Portuguese
Air Force fighter F-16 (R) and Canadian Air Force fighter CF-18 Hornet
patrol over Baltics air space, from the Zokniai air base near Siauliai
November 20, 2014.
(Reuters)
- Russia accused NATO on Monday of destabilising northern Europe and
the Baltics by carrying out drills there and announced new military
exercises of its own, increasing tension over the Ukraine crisis.
Powerful
and well-connected people in Thailand are almost never publicly held
accountable for acts of deceit, manipulation and corruption. For this
reason, the ongoing anomaly of the ‘Police Purge’ has been a recent
source of major intrigue.
By Joseph Thomas-October 30, 2014
More
than 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and
Egypt are facing a disastrous and hungry winter after a funding crisis
forced the UN’s World Food Programme to suspend food vouchers to
hundreds of thousands forced into exile by the conflict.
Children's
doctor Myles Bradbury is jailed for 22 years after admitting to the
abuse of 18 boys in his care and taking thousands of pictures of gravely
ill children on his spy pen.
