Top Ten Humanitarian Videos

by Michael Bear

category: Humanitarian Relief

Published October 05, 2008 @ 10:06PM PT

It's often difficult to translate humanitarian words into images. The videos below are meant to give a sense of what humanitarian emergencies (both conflicts and natural disasters) actually look like on the ground.

1. Darfur

The humanitarian relief effort in Darfur is today the largest in the world – over 80 NGOs and Red Cross / Red Crescent Movement organizations and 17 UN agencies provide assistance to 4.5 million people, including 2.4 million who are IDPs.

The largest humanitarian effort underway today is in Darfur, where 80 NGOs and Red / Red Crescent Movement agencies and 17 UN agencies to provide assistance to 4.5 million people, including nearly 2.4 million displaced within Darfur itself. These displaced person camps have become for many the face of the conflict. The following video was shot by the UN World Food Program in Gereida IDP camp in 2006:

This video from May 2008 shows conditions in a camp on the Chadian border:

2. Somalia

UN officials have described Somalia as “the most pressing humanitarian emergency in the world today”. Today, the situation is as bad as any time since the early 1990s. Over 60% of Mogadishu’s population has fled, while across the country more than 2.6 million people are in desperate need of food aid. At the same time, attacks on aid workers are increasing, with over twenty killed in the past year.

This July 2008 video from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) highlights both the humanitarian emergency, and the risks faced by aid workers trying to respond:

3. Congo

The war that raged across the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1998 until 2003 was the deadliest since World War II, killing as many as 5.4 million people, the vast majority of whom were civilians. However, violence persisted even after the peace accords were signed in late 2002, especially in Ituri and North Kivu provinces. Today, the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC is the largest in the world.

This video, from UNHCR, provides a glimpse of the situation in North Kivu in October 2007, focusing on those displaced by the conflict:

4. South Sudan

The civil war in South Sudan was Africa’s longest running conflict, lasting from 1983 until 2005. Over two million people died during the war, and an additional four million fled their homes. Yet the end of the war did not bring an end to the humanitarian emergency, as South Sudan remains one of the poorest regions in the world.

This April 2008 video from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) describes the ongoing emergency in South Sudan:

5. Northern Uganda

The war between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan Government has lasted two decades – at its height, over two million civilians in northern Uganda had fled their homes, while the rebels abducted over 20,000 children. Though violence has decreased, hundreds of thousands still remain in IDP camps.

This March 2008 video from the Africa Project looks at IDP camps in northern Uganda:

6. Haiti Storms and Flooding

Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, was devastated by four major storms in August and September 2008 (Tropical Storms Hannah, Gustav and Fay, and Hurricane Ike). These storms have killed hundreds, and left at least 800,000 Haitians in desperate need of assistance.

This September 2008 video from Democracy Now provides a glimpse of the devastation caused by the storms and flooding:

7. Cyclone Nargis (Myanmar)

Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar (Burma) on May 2^nd, 2008 – the storm left 138,000 dead or missing, and caused an estimated $4 billion of damage. The Burmese Government not only hindered aid agencies efforts to reach the devastated Irrawaddy Delta, but also quickly began evicting victims from shelters.

This news video from May 12^th, 2008 shows the devastation in the Irrawaddy Delta. This video includes graphic images:

This second video from Al Jazeera (in English) on May 5^th, 2008 shows the impact of the cyclone on Yangoon :

This third video from Al Jazeera (in English), shot in September 2008, shows how villagers in the Irrawaddy Delta are still struggling to cope four months after the cyclone:

8. Tsunami (Banda Aceh)

The Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2005 was one of the most devastating natural disasters in history, leaving 230,000 dead of missing and 2.1 million displaced.

This news report days after the tsunami includes an interview with an Oxfam aid worker, explaining how humanitarian agencies were responding to the disaster:

9. Food distributions

Food and non-food items (NFIs) like blankets and shelter materials comprise a large percentage of overall humanitarian funding – eventually this translates to food and NFI distributions on the ground, often in IDP or refugee camps. This first video, from CARE Germany, shows refugees lining up to receive NFIs at a camp in eastern Chad in September 2007:

The second, longer video from August 2008 shows a food and NFI distribution at an Eritrean IDP camp:

The third video from February 2007 shows a food drop in South Sudan, set to music no less:

10. Military Hearts and Minds Activities

Through the use of CERP funding and the deployment of Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US military and others (including Germany, the Netherlands and the UK) are increasingly implementing relief projects as part of their counter-insurgency strategy.

Many humanitarian agencies believe this militarization of aid will only further blur the lines between humanitarian and military actors, thereby increasing the threats faced by aid workers in the field. They also criticize these activities as being of poor quality and not sustainable.

These two videos show the US military’s view of hearts and minds activities:

Image: Susannah Friedman, 2006