Edited News | UNHCR
Torrential rains in Syria damage tents, devastate lives of people in camps
More than 120,000 people living in some 300 displacement sites across northwest Syria are now facing a catastrophe caused by torrential rain and strong winds, according to the United Nations. At least 21,700 tents are estimated to have been damaged in the floods.
“Heavy rainfall and floods in north-west Syria in recent weeks have had a devastating impact on displaced people living in self-made camps, and the situation is going from bad to worse”, said Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) at a news briefing today at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
OCHA reports that there are 2,7 million displaced people in Idlib and other parts of northwest Syria, including 1,6 million people spread out in over 1,300 camps and informal sites. There are not nearly enough health facilities, schools and other essential services for all these people.
“Many people who were already struggling to survive had their food stocks and household items and other possessions washed away, and water sources were contaminated” Laerke said.
“In some cases small children, the elderly, pregnant mothers and other vulnerable people were left stranded in remote areas in the mud, as temperatures dropped below zero,” he added.
Thousands of people have found themselves cut off from all services and support for days, as rescue workers and humanitarian struggled to reach them to provide support.
Although artillery shelling and bombardments have continued to impact communities and cause casualties across the northwest in January, including the Idleb area, open hostilities remain significantly lower compared to last year at the same time before the ceasefire started.
“Humanitarian staff are now struggling to reopen access roads to reach the displaced in the north-west with emergency shelter, food, clean water and other supplies. It is a massive undertaking and the work will continue for months”, OCHA’s Jens Laerke said.“So far, the international response has not matched the scale of the crisis”.
In November 2020, OCHA issued a call for US$49 million for priority winterisation activities, including to deal with flooding, but less than half of this has been received to date. People will continue to suffer in sites that lack adequate access roads, gravel, drainage systems and other essential services.
As the 10th anniversary of the Syrian conflict is approaching, the numbers are staggering: twelve million people having been forced from their homes – more than half the pre-conflict population – making it the biggest displacement crisis of this century. Over 80 per cent of the conflict-affected civilian population are women, children and the elderly.
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Edited News , B-roll | OCHA
Gaza: ‘Worst-case scenario’ unfolds as two-month aid blockade deepens suffering - OCHA
Two months into a devastating aid blockade of Gaza food has run out and people are fighting over water amid relentless bombing, the UN’s humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) said on Friday.
/Includes OCHA footage from Gaza City/
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Edited News | UNRWA
Children in Gaza are going to bed starving, says aid agency
The biggest UN aid agency in Gaza on Tuesday condemned the two-month Israeli blockade on Gaza that has left families sharing a single tin of food at mealtime and the sick and injured without lifesaving medical help, amid daily bombardment.
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Edited News | UNHCR
Ongoing Russian attacks in Ukraine force frontline areas to empty: UNHCR
With Ukrainian cities still reeling from this week’s deadly Russian missile and drone attacks, communities on the front line continue to be targeted too, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday. “We also see attacks on frontline regions increasing and it's, as always, civilians that are bearing the highest cost of the war,” said Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine.
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Edited News | WFP
Funding and supply shortfalls for the UN World Food Programme (WFP)'s work in Ethiopia will halt lifesaving treatment for 650,000 malnourished women and children at the end of the month. “We are at the breaking point,” it said on Tuesday.
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Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
Israeli military operations in Lebanon continue to kill and injure civilians, and destroy civilian infrastructure, raising concerns regarding the protection of civilians, the UN Human Rights Office warned today.
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Edited News | IOM , UNWOMEN , UNDP
Sudan: Aid teams report massive displacement after latest Darfur atrocity; women’s bodies ‘turned into battlegrounds’
In Sudan’s North Darfur, tens of thousands of people have fled a displacement camp following the massacre of civilians and aid workers as the country enters the third year of a conflict marked by horrific levels of sexual violence, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
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Edited News | ITC
Global trade could shrink by three per cent as a result of the United States’ new tariff measures which in the longer term could reshape and boost as-yet untapped regional commercial links, a top UN economist confirmed on Friday.
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Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
Warring parties in Sudan are overseeing a wholesale assault on human rights amid global inaction, the UN Human Rights Office said on Friday, as the conflict is about to enter its third year.
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Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office on Friday said Israel’s increasing issuance of so-called “evacuation orders” for Palestinians in Gaza have resulted in their forcible transfer.
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Edited News | OCHA , OHCHR , UNHCR , UNWOMEN , WFP , WHO
Two years of war in Sudan have created epic suffering, aid agencies say
Two years since Sudan’s brutal conflict began, UN agencies warned that famine is spreading and civilians of all ages continue to suffer shocking abuse, including rape and gang rape.
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Edited News | UNMAS
In Gaza, ongoing Israeli military operations and the aid blockade have continued to add to daily fears and hardships confronting those in the devastated enclave, the UN Mine Action Service, UNMAS, said on Wednesday.
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Edited News | UNDP
Dangers grow for Myanmar earthquake survivors, health system 'overwhelmed' - UNDP
In earthquake-shattered central Myanmar people are sleeping in the streets in fear of buildings collapsing, facing early monsoon rains and the risk of waterborne diseases, the UN Development Programme warned on Tuesday.