Weekly Roundup - Bad Times in Gaza, Congo

by Michael Bear

category: Humanitarian Relief

Published January 02, 2009 @ 11:57AM PT

I was thinking of titling this post "seven days of horrible things", but then decided that was a little too cynical.  Especially as there is some good news, even amongst all the rest.  For instance, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund reached its annual funding target - $450 million - for the first time ever.   The fact is that humanitarian response requires funding, and even more it often requires flexible funding that can be quickly disbursed in the event of an emergency.

CERF - a stand-by fund established by the UN to "pre-position funding for humanitarian action" - plays an essential role in ensuring that agencies have the funds they need to respond quickly. It's also significant that CERF met it's funding goal even in the face of the financial crisis, and concerns about overall cuts to humanitarian funding.

In other news:

- All Gaza, all the time - For updates on how the Israeli attacks are affecting the humanitarian situation in Gaza, see here.  The short answer is that the past seven days have made an already brutal humanitarian situation that much more precarious.  Though Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties, at least 63 women and children have been killed so far.

Further, as I wrote earlier this week:

"The recent Israeli bombing attacks are all the more devastating given the frequent and prolonged closures that Israel has imposed on Gaza over the past two months, in response to Hamas mortar and rocket fire.  These closures - described in the previous post - have devastated the ability of Palestinian organizations, the UN and international NGOs to respond to this most recent humanitarian disaster."

- Massacre in Congo - If it's not one thing, it's another.  Even the fighting in North Kivu - which displaced 250,000 people earlier this year - has been somewhat quiet of late, there are now reports of a massacre in a different part of Congo.

The Lord's Resistance Army, a Uganda rebel group, has gone on a rampage in northern Congo, near the Uganda border.  According to the NGO Caritas, over 400 people have been killed around the towns of Faradje, Duru, Bangade, Gurba, and Doruma in the past few days.

UNHCR Emergency Team Leader Margarida Fawke described the situation:

"The villages are getting burnt, the people are getting killed. We are getting reports that all the female bodies found are naked, so we assume they were raped before they were killed. There is a lack of food and there is a danger of a medical and a nutritional emergency in the area."

In addition, as many as 30,000 villagers have fled the area.  According to a recent IRIN article - Deadly LRA attacks prompts exodus in northeastern Congo - aid agencies are struggling to reach those in need: "The military operations and the LRA presence make it very difficult for humanitarian agencies to operate, and some areas are currently totally inaccessible to aid workers."

- Other Posts of Note

Predictions for 2009

Top Five Most Difficult Places To Be An Aid Worker

Challenges Facing Aid Agencies in Zimbabwe

More Thoughts on Attacks Against Aid Workers

[Image of destroyed house in Gaza from www.ingaza.wordpress.com]