Places Not To Be - Part 2

Gaza:

Nothing wrong with a little good news - Reuters reports that Israel opened the border crossings with Gaza yesterday, allowing in humanitarian supplies for the second time in three weeks.  A total of 45 trucks entered Gaza, including 10 carrying supplies for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Israel has also resumed the supply of diesel to Gaza's power plant.

Yet though a first step, this alone is not enough - UNRWA needs 15 trucks a day in order to continue operations.

Israel originally sealed the border in early November, in response to Hamas rocket and mortar attacks; the closure has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Northern Kenya:

According to a recent statement by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):

"Multiple factors have affected livelihoods and food security in many parts of the country...An estimated 1.4 million are currently receiving food assistance. A lack of adequate water and pasture in affected parts of the arid and semi arid regions has also contributed to an escalation in conflicts as communities compete for increasingly scarce resources." [Emphasis added.]

Mindanao, Philippines:

As mentioned in an earlier post, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by fighting between the Government and separatist rebels.  According to the National Interfaith Humanitarian Mission which visited the area in late October:

"In the evacuation centers, the displaced persons suffer from inadequate facilities. Most of them have set up tents in whatever public place available. With heavy rains and flooding now common at this time of year, many child evacuees are sick with cough, cold, fever, and diarrhea. A number of evacuees have died of disease. There is also the trauma experienced by the evacuees, particularly the children."

For more information, including photos, see here.

Pakistan:

According to Reuters: "Pakistan has reopened camps originally set up in the 1980s for Afghans who fled the Soviet occupation to provide shelter for those made homeless by offensives against Islamist militants on its northwest border."

A spokesman for UNHCR estimates that by mid-December, there might be as many as 70,000 people in the camps.

Somalia:

At least two dozen people died in recent fighting between the Somali Government - such as it is - and insurgents in Mogadishu over the past few days.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the violence in Somalia has made humanitarian access even more difficult than normal.  Which is saying something, considering that humanitarian access in south-central Somalia was incredibly limited even before the recent surge in fighting.

A recent article in the Guardian echoed this concern, that the current fighting is unlike anything before:

"In the ordinary violence and chaos, Zam Zam [a woman interviewed for the article] and her colleagues could still work, negotiating with the clan warlords. In common with the UN, Zam Zam believes that what is happening now is something else. Something terrible, exceeding perhaps even the bloodsoaked chaotic days of the early 1990s when Somalia was last plunged into anarchy."

The article also provides a glimpse of the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Somalia:

"Forty-three per cent of the country is in dire need of humanitarian assistance, about 3.2 million people at the last count. There are 1.3 million internally displaced, 100,000 of them fleeing the fighting in Mogadishu alone since the beginning of September. Inflation is running at 1,600 per cent. One in six children in southern and central Somalia is acutely malnourished."

[Photo of Gaza from www.populistamerica.org]