Acute hunger spots in the world

Myanmar faces food shortages in many parts of the country, largely because of last year's cyclone Nargis destroyed most of the delta's harvest and a rat infestation wiped out most of the remaining crops.
A total of 2 million acres (800,000 hectares) of rice paddy were submerged saltwater waves and 85 percent of seed stocks were destroyed. A shortage of labor - 130,000 were left dead after Nargis - higher fertilizer prices and lower rice prices have dissuaded delta farmers from planting, causing about 185,000 tons of emergency food aid needed this year. (Full)

There is a general alert going out for an upcoming wave of hunger due to a drought in the Horn of Africa:

In Uganda's Karamoja region 970,000 people are heading towards starvation. The Government declared the whole region as an emergency area and said "food must [quickly] be distributed to this area to avert this problem." Drought conditions will cause conditions unlikely to improve before October when the next harvest is due. (Full)

The same regional drought also hit Kenya hard. In the South-eastern regions, the third consecutive bad crop will force 3.2 million people to resort to food aid. (Full)

Since August last year, WFP, the UN's main food assistance agency, has lost 4 staff in Somalia due to security incidents. Last week they said if the situation does not improve, they will be forced to cut their food aid, which will affect 2.5 million people. (Full)

In Zimbabwe, the hunger figures are even worse. The prolonged political turmoil has turned Africa's former breadbasket into one of the continent's poorest countries. Currently 4.5 million Zimbabweans are fully dependent on food aid, a figure expected to raise to 6 million in the next month.
Due to lack of donor funding, WFP has been forced to cut core monthly maize rations from 10kg -already 2kg below the recommended ration- to 5kg a month for adults. That is just about 600 calories a day. (Full)

News discovered via NewsFeeds and AidNews.

Picture courtesy James Akena (WFP)

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Generalizations, misconceptions or plain ignorance?

One of the comments left on a newsclip I posted on International Aid Workers Today:

notice how well-dressed UN Official always are?? Planes, trains and automobiles to move around in... they eat the best foods tax-payer money can provide for them, and drink the finest wines; while discussing poverty around the world....

just another hypocritical system....

And then I receive pictures like this from one of our guys in Myanmar:



When are the people going to understand that there is UN and then there is UN? The political side, the peace keeping side, the humanitarian sides of the UN are very different.

Check out this post to read where I stand...

Picture courtesy Ozdzan Hadziemin.

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News: Humanitarian airlift to Myanmar

I am back in Brindisi.

I am sure you have seen the news of humanitarian relief goods being flown into Myanmar to assist with the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. I bet all of that footage was on the Myanmar side...
Those first relief flights actually all originated from here, from the UN Humanitarian Response Depot in Brindisi.

Here are some pictures from the first relief flights into Myanmar on May 10th. This particular flight had cargo from OCHA and Irish Aid, containing water purification units, moskito nets, blankets, kitchen sets, tarpaulins and water storage containers.

View the picture slide show of this airlift.



Pictures courtesy Fulvio Pirato (UNHRD/WFP)

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News: From Cyclone Sidr to Cyclone Nargis - an aidworker's perspective

An aidworker from Oxfam explains how the immediate effect of the cyclone devastation is only the beginning of misery for those affected.

Those on the ground (in Myanmar) are estimating that at least 100,000 people were killed by the storm. The numbers are devastating, each one of them painfully reminding me what a difference an investment into disaster preparedness and early warning systems — like those that have been implemented in Bangladesh — could have made for the families in Myanmar.

Surface water that people are used to drinking is likely to be contaminated not only by dead bodies and livestock carcasses, but also human and animal waste spread by floodwaters and overflowing latrines. The weather forecast for this week predicts more heavy rain, and even a new storm approaching the cyclone-affected area. With people’s resistance to disease already weakened after days of living in overcrowded conditions without food and proper roofs over their heads, the children and elderly are likely to be among the worst affected.

Even once the floodwaters recede, they will leave behind a fertile breeding ground for flies and mosquitoes — bringing with them deadly threats like malaria and dengue fever (dengue season in Myanmar runs from May to October, the country had a major outbreak only last year). And I haven’t even begun to think about the psychological and emotional trauma that the storm has left behind. (Full)

Picture courtesy New York Times.

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News: Myanmar - begging to aid or forcing to aid?

From the UN press briefing in Geneva on May 13:

The UN Secretary-General registered his deep concern —and immense frustration— at the unacceptably slow response to the grave humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. They were at a critical point, and unless more aid got into the country —very quickly— the people faced an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dwarf today’s crisis. The Secretary_General called, in the most strenuous terms, on the Government of Myanmar to put its people’s lives first. It must do all that it could to prevent this disaster from becoming even more serious.

From the same briefing:

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, responding to a question on the fact that it was strange that the Human Rights Council would be holding a Special Session on the global food crisis, but not on the current situation in Myanmar, said (..) there had been discussion to some extent on the possibility of talking about Myanmar, but the Council had a very full programme, including the Universal Periodic Review, so it was a pretty packed schedule at the moment and it would be difficult to fit (the issue of Myanmar human rights) in.

What do we read in this? Is the international community "begging to aid"? But not "forcing to aid" by stating more explicitely that a regime denying its citizens the "right to sufficient and effective aid" is a violation of human rights? Up to what level is this morally and ethically acceptable?

Picture courtesy AP (New York Times)

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Picture of the day: Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar

Almost a week after Cyclone Nargis inundated Myanmar’s densely settled coast, wiped out villages and left untold tens of thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless, the first two United Nations flights carrying relief supplies arrived in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, on Thursday. (Full)

More "Pictures of the Day" on the Road.

Picture courtesy Andy Newman (New York Times)

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News: The Most Under-reported Stories of 2007

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF or Doctors without Borders) just published the Top Ten Under-reported humanitarian stories of the year 2007:

• Displaced fleeing war in Somalia face a humanitarian crisis
• Political and economic turmoil sparks health-care crisis in Zimbabwe
• Drug-resistant Tuberculosis spreads as new drugs go untested
• Expanded use of nutrient dense ready-to-use foods crucial for reducing childhood malnutrition
• Civilians increasingly under fire in the Sri Lanka conflict
• Conditions worsen in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
• Living precariously in Colombia’s conflict zones
• Humanitarian aid restricted in Myanmar
• Civilians caught between armed groups in the Central African Republic
• As Chechen conflict ebbs, critical humanitarian needs still remain

The ten stories also come in pictures. Why not check also the 2006 top under-reported stories.

Picture courtesy Claude Mahoudeau/MSF.

For updated humanitarian news, check The Other World News.

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