Places Not To Be

Published July 17, 2009 @ 12:41PM PT

Your semi-regular Friday edition of places not to be - but first, haiku:

What could be harder
Than selling packaged tours for
Congo, Sri Lanka?

I know, I know, not my best verse. Having recently discussed Congo, Somalia and Sri Lanka in depressing detail, below is a look at other humanitarian crises and catastrophes. Good times, good times.

Darfur

Bec Hamilton has a fascinating post on her blog The Promise of Engagement about Aid expulsions: Are we missing the real story? According to Hamilton:

"In all the concern about aid deliveries, I fear we are missing the real motive behind the expulsions - getting rid of those who view protection programs and assistance to rape survivors as integral to any aid program. Whatever deals have been negotiated to cover the humanitarian gap - whether through the domestic NGOs (the most protection-oriented of which were shut down along with the international expulsions) or “new” foreign NGOs, I’d bet my money that protection programs don’t make the list of activities that they are permitted to cover the gap on."

My genocide co-blogger Michelle also has an interesting piece on the question of peace versus justice in Darfur.

For the most recent UN OCHA humanitarian bulletin on Darfur (through July 16th), see here.

More on Pakistan, South Sudan, the West Bank and Gaza and Zimbabwe after the jump.

Pakistan

Bad news - according to the most recent UN OCHA situation report, at least 2.024 million are still displaced, following heavy fighting between the Taliban and the Pakistani military in northwestern Pakistan earlier this year.

Good news - a few hundred people have begun to return home. (And yes, at this point, we'll take whatever good news we can get.)

For a map showing which humanitarian agencies are operational in which displaced person camps, see here. IRIN has also released a useful timeline on displacement within Pakistan over the past few years.

South Sudan

Right - not much good news here. According to UN OCHA:

"The humanitarian situation in Southern Sudan during the second quarter of 2009 deteriorated sharply as a result of inter-tribal fighting and violence associated with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Clashes with the LRA in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have caused further refugee influxes into Western and Central Equatoria States. Epidemic diseases and the challenge of reintegrating internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees returning home to Southern Sudan have also been major humanitarian priorities."

West Bank and Gaza

UN OCHA has just released a study of the humanitarian impact of the Barrier on east Jerusalem and the West Bank - in short, not good.

Also, for a map of movement restrictions in Gaza, see here; for a map of movement restrictions in the West Bank, see here.

Zimbabawe

Things still suck.

[Photo of a woman in Otash camp from the New York Times]

Share this Post

Add a Comment

For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

Comment

Check Spelling

Email me when there are new posts to this thread
Comment Policy

Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.

Author

Michael has worked for NGOs in Afghanistan, across east and central Africa, and Iraq. Prior to going overseas, he worked on a project providing assistance to the United Nations on the application of International Humanitarian Law to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.