Top 5 Most Difficult Places To Be An Aid Worker

by Michael Bear

category: Humanitarian Relief

Published December 31, 2008 @ 01:58PM PT

I'm not yet decided about New Year's resolutions, but do find that making lists is a deeply, deeply satisfying experience.  Anyhows, reviewing the posts so far this year, main two themes have emerged.

First, and most obvious - there are any number of places it's rather best not to be.  (Paging Zimbabwe.)

Second, and only slightly less obvious - it's incredibly difficult to deliver aid in some of the worst places in the world.

So, having spent the last five minutes coming up with a suitably complicated algorithm - including scope of need, danger, level of government obstruction, probable lack of hot showers / flush toilets, and likelihood of contracting cholera / malaria / ebola - below are the five most difficult places to have been an aid worker in 2008:

5. Eastern Congo

Let's see. Congo is the "rape capital of the world".  There's an ebola outbreak in central Congo.  The Lord's Resistance Army, a Uganda rebel group, has reportedly massacred as many as 400 people in northeastern Congo since Christmas.

And then there's North Kivu province, in eastern Congo, where rebels under Laurent Nkunda swept through both the Congolese army and UN peacekeepers earlier this fall, advancing to the edge of Goma.  The fighting caused over 250,000 civilians to flee their homes - the lucky ones sought refuge in makeshift camps; the rest wandered, looking for safety.

(A situation which, at the least, makes one sympathize with the Congolese board of tourism.)

And then there are the difficulties of actually delivering assistance - including attacks against aid workers, and rampant insecurity.  Not to mention that miles - kilometers - in Congo bear no relation to miles anywhere else on earth.  Distance should be measured by difficulty.  Bad roads, horrific roads, no roads at all.  By which measurement Congo might be the largest country on earth.  Trying to get aid from one place in Congo to another beggars imagination.

Finally, and, to top it off, perhaps the worst airline safety record in the world.

4. Afghanistan

Kabul gets cold over the winter.  Actually, that's an understatement.  The Arctic gets cold; Kabul is freezing.  Especially if you're living in a concrete guesthouse, with only a small stove for heat.  There were times during the Kabul winter that I would have rather been with Shakleton on the Endurance.  At least they got to see seals.

Of course, it's far worse in the provinces, where snowfall has made roads impassable, cutting access to several districts where people are in desperate need of food.  Overall, millions of Afghans risk going hungry this winter.

Not to mention that Afghanistan is the second most dangerous place in the world for aid workers - 33 aid workers were killed in Afghanistan in 2008, the vast majority of them local staff.  Overall, there were 141 security incidents against NGOs this year, including armed robberies, abductions, armed attacks, IEDs, arson, mortar attacks and beatings.  Kabul, where most NGOs are based, had more security incidents than any other province.

Oh, and there's a war.  And the fact that the Taliban have started referring to NGOs as part of the "foreign invader forces".

3. Darfur

Plenty of countries can boast rampant insecurity, but only a relative few can claim a Government actively dedicated to threatening, harassing and obstructing humanitarian agencies.  Then again, Sudan is a special place.  For instance, earlier this year, Presidential Advisor Abdallah Masar accused humanitarian organizations of being "intelligence arms for international forces taking the humanitarian aspect as cover for its [sic] activities."  Which is nice.

On the ground, this translates into constant harassment.  According to a Reuters article from late November:

"'There has been really severe intimidation...NGOs are in a state of shock in South Darfur,' said a senior U.N. officer. 'They have been able to intimidate international and national staff into going into computers, open their private emails -- Gmail, Hotmail. (The officials are saying) if you don't give me your password, you won't get out of this country.' Most aid workers have to apply for exit visas every time they want to leave Sudan."

Then there's the fact that large swathes of Darfur are - not to put too fine a point on it - a lawless wasteland.  Darfur ranked third in terms of NGO fatalities this past year, with 11 aid workers killed.  Not to mention the 144 humanitarian premises assaulted and 225 humanitarian vehicles hijacked through October.

2. Zimbabwe

Widespread hunger.  Check.  Raging cholera epidemic.   Check.   Brutally repressive government.  Check.  But really, it's the details that matter.  Any number of countries can't (or won't) feed their own citizens, but it takes true skill to malnourish fully half your population.  Similarly, the normal fatality rate for a cholera outbreak is around 1% - as opposed to 50% in some areas of Zimbabwe.

And then we get to Robert Mugabe. My co-blogger Michelle has chronicled the regime's numerous human rights abuses.  What really sets Mugabe apart, though, is his flair. For instance, his election posters earlier this year proclaimed "This is the final battle for total control".  (For a picture, see here.)  Which at the least has the advantage of cutting to the chase.

Then there's Zimbabwe's Information Minister, who recently said:

"The cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe is a serious biological, chemical war force, a genocidal onslaught, on the people of Zimbabwe by the British."

A position that leaves something to be desired in terms of actually formulating a strategy to fight the disease.

All of which makes it rather difficult for aid agencies.  Communications are a mess, astronomical inflation makes it almost impossible to find cash to pay staff; staff who sometimes themselves don't have enough to eat.

As the Emergency Manager for Save the Children UK in Zimbabwe recently summed up:

"There is no food, we have malnutrition, there is cholera, now we are expecting a malaria outbreak...In terms of access, Zimbabwe, comparatively, is one of the worst areas I have worked in. At least in Darfur, when we ran out of stock we could fly in supplies to the areas we worked in - here we cannot."

And, finally, the winner is:

1. Somalia

Which is about as close to hell on earth as we're likely to see.  Somalia has the highest malnutrition rates in the world.  It's not that the government is ineffective, as there isn't much government at all.  (According to the New York Times, the recognized Somali government controls only "a few city blocks".)  Instead, there's just a never-ending, almost Hobbsian conflict, including some of the most brutal insurgent groups in the world.

To give a sense of the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the country - half of Somalia's population (3.25 million) is now in need of humanitarian aid, a 77% increase since the start of 2008, while 180,000 childen under the age of five in South and Central Somalia are acutely malnourished.

Over 100,000 people fled Mogadishu alone between August and November.  All together, 1.3 million Somalis are now homeless - 400,000 of whom are huddled in the Afgooye camps alone.

Over a year ago, John Holmes, the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs / Emergency Relief Coordinator, declared that "in terms of numbers and access to them, Somalia is a worse displacement crisis than Darfur".  And it's only gotten worse.

Somalia is also the most dangerous country in the world for aid workers - 36 of whom were killed in 2008.  In order to operate, aid agencies resort to tactics they would never use anywhere else, including hiring local militias to provide protection.

According to Philippe Lazzarini, the former head of OCHA Somalia, "were we to insist on adhering strictly to our own humanitarian principles, aid operations in Somalia would grind to a halt."  As Lazzarini described:

"This compromise has included contacts with militias for protection, conceding to historical clan influences and, without a significant presence on the ground, doing without the usual monitoring and evaluation of assistance. ‘Do no harm’ has been amended to ‘Do less harm’."

Honorable mention - and, finally, those countries that only just missed the cut: Chad, Chechnya, Iraq, Sri Lanka, and the West Bank / Gaza.  Better luck next year.

Finally, and in homage to Brooks, working at headquarters can also pose some challenges.  Cheers, everyone.

[Image of aid worker in Darfur from Time Magazine]