http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbThu, 19 Nov 2009 13:14:01 GMTHODEIDAH Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Nearly half of children in rural areas of the western Yemeni governorate of Hodeidah, have no access to basic education, according to a new report by the Seyaj Organization for Childhood Protection (SOCP) and the Yemen News Agency.HODEIDAH Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Nearly half of children in rural areas of the western Yemeni governorate of Hodeidah, have no access to basic education, according to a new report by the Seyaj Organization for Childhood Protection (SOCP) and the Yemen News Agency.

A survey was conducted on a random sample of 3,249 boys and girls from 1,542 families in the districts of Lihyah, Zahrah and Beit al-Faqih, said Fahd al-Sabri, lead author of the report.

The survey results, announced on 18 November, indicate that 45 percent of boys and 52 percent of girls in the 6-15 age group have no access to basic education - for several reasons, including vulnerability of their families, lack of schools and teachers, or schools being far away from their homes, al-Sabri told IRIN.

In two villages (each having an average of 110 children), the enrolment rate was zero, he said, adding: "96 percent of mothers and 65 percent of fathers in surveyed families [there] cannot read and write.”

According to the government's Central Statistical Organization, 1.5 million of Hodeida's 2.4 million people live in rural areas.

There is no doubt that school enrolment rates for some governorates, including Hodeida, remain a huge concern for Yemen, Naseem Ur-Rehman, a spokesman for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Yemen, told IRIN.

Enrolment rates for primary, secondary and tertiary schools in Yemen, where nearly 42 percent of its 22 million population lives below the poverty line, is 55.2 percent, according to the UN Development Fund (UNDP) [http://www.undp.org.ye/y-profile.php].

Poverty

Rampant poverty is forcing thousands of rural families to send their children to the city to beg or work in the streets, cleaning cars or toiling in restaurants or `qat’ (mildly narcotic leaf frequently chewed by Yemenis) markets at the expense of their education, according to Talal al-Dubai, supervisor of a Hodeida orphanage.

“In 2008, we gathered up to 240 street children, rehabilitated them and sent them back to their families,” al-Dubai told IRIN. “We enrolled 180 of them (under age 10) in schools, gave them bags, uniforms, and reached agreements with school administrations to exempt them from tuition fees, while those aged 10-17 had access to vocational training in order to help them support their vulnerable families.”

The report recommended that children from vulnerable families be exempted from tuition fees and given transport and grants to boost enrolment in schools.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87112DUBAI Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (IRIN) - More people have died from H1N1 influenza in Iran than in any of the 22 countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region, according to WHO’s 14 November update.DUBAI Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (IRIN) - More people have died from H1N1 influenza in Iran than in any of the 22 countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region, according to WHO’s 14 November update.

With 33 deaths to date, Iran made up about 17 percent of the 188 total deaths in the region since May 2009. Saudi Arabia has had 28 deaths, Oman 25 and Syria 22.

Syria had by far the highest rate of deaths to cases with 9.5 percent of all cases being fatalities. This was followed by Yemen with a 2.5 percent rate, Afghanistan 1.7 percent and Iran 1.5 percent.

Kuwait had the highest number of cases with 6,640 (23 percent of all 28,751 cases in the region), followed by Saudi Arabia with 4,119; Oman 3,829; and Egypt 2,494.

Kuwait also had the highest number of cases per capita (populations taken from CIA Factbook) with 2.46 cases per 1,000 in the population, followed by Oman with 1.12 cases per 1,000 and Bahrain with 1.10 cases per 1,000.

Since WHO’s last regional H1N1 update on 7 November, Egypt has had the highest number of new cases, with 850, followed by Iraq with 561, Iran with 515 and Oman with 500.

Somalia reported its first two cases at the start of November.

As of 8 November, WHO reported that there were over 503,536 global cases of H1N1 with at least 6,260 deaths. However, it noted that because countries are “no longer required to test and report individual cases, the number of cases reported actually understates the real number of cases”.

WHO segments the world into six regions: Africa, the least affected region, had 2.9 percent of the global total of H1N1 cases; the Eastern Mediterranean Region 5.1 percent; Southeast Asia 8.8 percent; Europe 15.5 percent; the Western Pacific 29.8 percent and the Americas 37.9 percent.

BOX
Country Total laboratory-confirmed cases reported by the state parties Total deaths reported by the state parties
Afghanistan 779 14
Bahrain 793 6
Djibouti 9 0
Egypt 2,494 7
Iraq 1,835 9
Iran 2,153 33
Jordan 2,380 4
Kuwait 6,640 17
Lebanon 761 2
Libya 21 0
Morocco 824 0
Oman 3,829 25
Pakistan 6 1
Palestine 901 1
Qatar 23 1
Saudi Arabia 4,119 28
Somalia 2 0
Sudan 21 0
Syrian Arab Republic 230 22
Tunisia 141 0
United Arab Emirates 79 0
Yemen 711 18
Total 28,751 188

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87092HARADH Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (IRIN) - Nasser Ridhwan, 78, is a recent arrival in the al-Mazraq camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Haradh District, Hajjah Governorate, some 130km southwest of his home village of Mashnaq, near Dukhan Mountain, which has become a battleground in fighting between the Saudi army and Houthi-led Shia rebels.HARADH Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (IRIN) - Nasser Ridhwan, 78, is a recent arrival in the al-Mazraq Camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Haradh District, Hajjah Governorate, some 130km southwest of his home village of Mashnaq, near Dukhan Mountain, which has become a battleground in fighting between the Saudi army and Houthi-led Shia rebels.

Ridwhan, who for the past 30 years has worked as a day labourer in the Saudi town of Jaizan, 20km away from his home, has lost contact with his 80-year-old wife since 12 September, when fighting between the Yemeni army and Houthis cut off access to his home. From al-Mazraq camp, Ridhwan told IRIN his story:

"On 13 September, I left home early in the morning for work in Jaizan hoping to come back before sunset, as usual, but couldn't after heavy fighting cut access to our home where my old wife was waiting for me.

"I then took shelter with many other displaced Yemenis who had fled their villages for uninhabited homes in the southern part of Saudi Arabia. I kept going to work in the Saudi town where I used to carry goods on my back from trucks to stores, making about 20-30 Saudi riyals [US$5-10] a day.

"I was waiting for the security situation to improve in order to get back to my wife with the 820 riyals [$220] that I saved over the past 50 days, but it didn’t happen. Saudi policemen forced me and the other displaced families out of the homes we were in at 6am on 6 November, saying that Houthi gunmen were using us as human shields in their clashes with Saudi border guards.

"I then began a five-day trip on foot with these families, taking shelter under trees overnight and begging any villagers we passed for food and water until we reached al-Mazrak camp on 11 November. The situation made it impossible for me to think about returning home and seeing my wife.

"I don't know where she is now; missing, dead, gone with other people. She was alone when I left her. We had been married for more than 65 years, but had no children - this was our destiny.

"I had nothing in life but my wife, who I’ve now lost. I don't know how she will survive because it is the first time in 50 years for me to disappear from her.

"I don't know when the security situation will improve so that I can get back home and see what happened to her. My hope that she is still alive is vanishing."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87070HARADH Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid workers at al-Mazraq camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Haradh District, Hajjah Governorate, northernYemen, say more and more children are arriving at the camp in a state of moderate or severe malnourishment.HARADH Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid workers at al-Mazraq camp [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87005] for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Haradh District, Hajjah Governorate, northernYemen, say more and more children are arriving at the camp in a state of moderate or severe malnourishment.

"During our tent visits, we found that an average family has a severely or moderately malnourished child," said Sarah Yahya, a volunteer working with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on identifying malnourished children.

Khalid Shaibani from the UNICEF-run therapeutic feeding centre (TFC) at the camp told IRIN the number of malnourished children was increasing by the day as new IDP families arrived.

"Two babies died from malnutrition complications just a few days after their families secured shelter in the camp. Another 10 were referred to a hospital in Haradh town, 40km west of the camp," he said.

Of the 3,000 under fives targeted by a recent screening in the camp, 667 cases (22 percent) were severely malnourished and 200 (6.67 percent) moderately malnourished, according to Shaibani.

In September UNICEF screened about 1,200 under-five IDP children in the camp and found 7 percent severely malnourished. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86423]

Ali Mahdi is one of the parents who brought his two young children to the TFC.

"Faris's arms and legs are getting thinner and thinner by the day. No food remains in his stomach for more than 10 minutes due to very bad diarrhoea and vomiting. He hardly stands up or sits down and spends most of the time lying on his back," said the father of the four-year-old boy.

Mahdi, his wife and their six children fled their home in the Dhafir District, Saada Governorate, to the Saudi border in mid-August because of fighting between government troops and Houthi-led insurgents. Whilst taking refuge there, they had very limited access to food, Mahdi’s wife, Khudhra, told IRIN.

After a Saudi army operation against Houthi insurgents in the border area in early November, the family was forced, along with hundreds of others, to flee again. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86977]

Chronic malnourishment

Rajia Ahmed Sharhan, a nutrition officer with UNICEF in Sanaa, said moderate malnourishment is not very visible.

“Probably malnourishment was there among some children before the displacement occurred, but was not very visible. When the families had to flee and had problems with accessing proper and nutritious food for weeks, those moderate cases became severe,” she said.

"We cannot say that the war situation is the only source of the problem because mothers neglect their babies and don't know how to feed them. Several cases had shown chronic malnutrition," said UNICEF volunteer Yahya.

Tent visits to increase mothers' awareness on how to care for their babies, as well as to promote breastfeeding, revealed that many mothers often gave their babies tea with bread in the morning and at night, which can lead to anaemia and malnutrition, Yahya said, adding: "If water is given in lieu of tea, symptoms will be milder.”

"Even worse, mothers with newborns come to us and ask for milk powder, preferring it to breastfeeding. They aren't aware of the benefits of breastfeeding for their babies," Yahya said.

According to the World Health Organization, only 11.5 percent of mothers in Yemen exclusively breastfeed their babies until they are six months old. [http://www.who.int/nutrition/databases/infantfeeding/countries/yem.pdf]

Plumpy’Nut treatment

TFC provides different types of therapeutic formula to affected children, depending on how serious the case is, TFC's Shaibani said. "Acute moderate cases get two sacks of Plumpy’Nut [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=72897] a day while severe cases with serious complications are given concentrated proteins and vitamins through nasogastric tubes in the camp's clinic."

He said 75-percent fat milk is given to infants with oedema (an abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin or in one or more cavities of the body), usually caused by malnourishment complications. "If no improvement is noticed, the centre refers critical cases to the Haradh-based hospital or to Sabin Hospital in Sanaa."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87062HARADH-SANAA Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Reports from various UN agencies operating in northern Yemen indicate that many people displaced by fighting between Houthi-led insurgents and government forces would rather live with host families or in informal camps then in official camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs). HARADH-SANAA Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Reports from various UN agencies operating in northern Yemen indicate that many people displaced by fighting between Houthi-led insurgents and government forces would rather live with host families or in informal camps then in official camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs).

“A major reason why some IDPs prefer to stay outside is cultural,” Mai Barazi, a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) team leader in Haradh, told IRIN. “They [IDPs] are conservative people and their cultural values don’t allow for their women to be seen by strangers.”

“The camp [al-Mazraq in Haddadh District, Hajjah Governorate] which is now full, was established in a spontaneous way; the local council was supposed to run it. However, they did not have the expertise and experience to do so, and therefore in many cases tents were pitched very close to each other with little privacy for females,” Barazi said.

Also, many IDPs come with their animals and they want to keep them close to where they live, which is very difficult to accommodate given that the camp is full and there is little space available, Barazi explained.

Naseem Ur-Rehman, a spokesman for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN they wanted IDPs living around the camp [al-Mazraq] in informal sites to be in the camp so they could be provided with better services.

“Some of them [IDPs] refuse to go to the camps because they come from a Bedouin [nomadic] lifestyle; they are goat herders, or subsistence farmers. They have come with their animals to the camp, but you have to adjust to the regulations of the camp. You have to submit your weapons before you go into the camp and you can’t take all your animals in,” Ur-Rehman said.

According to the UNHCR northern Yemen situation report of 2 November, the same pattern of more IDPs staying outside camps is true in Amran Governorate, where only 475 IDPs were staying at the sole camp there - Khaiwan camp - compared to 9,078 registered IDPs outside the camp.

Five camps in Saada Governorate - Al-Talh A, Al-Talh B, Al-Sam and Al-Ihsa camps, run by the Yemeni Red Crescent (YRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and Al-Mandaba - were as of 4 November hosting 10,810 IDPs, while as many as 51,121 IDPs were registered by aid workers as staying with relatives or friends in Saada city, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Too much focus on camps?

In a special report on IDPs dated 12 November, ICRC drew attention to the fact that most IDPs do not end up in camps but are taken in by host communities and families.

"When people think of IDPs they automatically think of tents and camps," said ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger.

"The focus on camps means that what happens to the majority of displaced people - those who seek refuge with host communities - is often ignored," he said. "The report argues that these people are often the most vulnerable as they rely on the support of host communities that may already be extremely poor. The challenge, therefore, is to help not only the displaced but also the people who take them in."

Rabab Al-Rifai, a spokesperson for ICRC in Sanaa, told IRIN ICRC was providing IDPs with humanitarian assistance wherever they felt safe. “If they feel safe in host communities we would be assisting them and their hosts there. If they want to come to a camp, we will be ready to provide them with humanitarian aid in the camp,” al-Rifai said.

Andrej Mahecic, a UNHCR spokesperson in Geneva, said on 10 November that some 175,000 people in Yemen had been displaced by intermittent fighting since 2004.

at/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87005DUSHANBE Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Even as world food production grows, hunger is on the rise in many poor countries, according to the Global Crop Prospects and Food Situation report for November, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 12 November.DUSHANBE Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Even as world food production grows, hunger is on the rise in many poor countries, according to the Global Crop Prospects and Food Situation report for November [http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/ak340e/ak340e00.htm], published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 12 November.

The report highlights a contradiction: world cereal production is at its second-highest level ever, yet food prices remain very high. It identifies 77 countries that are both low-income and food deficit.

In East Africa, cereal prices range from 68 percent to 177 percent over the 2007 numbers. In southern Africa, prices are 58-200 percent higher than in 2007, and in most of Asia prices are up 40-70 percent. Since most low-income food deficit countries are food importers, they lose far more from high prices than they gain from steady crop production.

Hunger, in most cases, is caused by lack of money rather than a shortage of food production, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). [http://www.wfp.org/hunger/causes] In 2008 the number of undernourished people in the world increased by 40 million, despite record harvests. [http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/8836/icode/]

The new FAO report suggests that 2009 is likely to see a similar increase in hunger.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87006SANAA Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - Yemen’s Agriculture Ministry is boosting efforts to combat the livestock disease screw worm, which is threatening the livelihoods of rural inhabitants, particularly in coastal and central regions, according to ministry officials.SANAA Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - Yemen’s Agriculture Ministry is boosting efforts to combat the livestock disease screw worm, which is threatening the livelihoods of rural inhabitants, particularly in coastal and central regions, according to ministry officials.

"Since 1 November, we have dispatched dozens of vets to rural areas in the governorates of Hodeida, Hajjah, Mahwit, Taiz, Ibb, Dhamar and Raima to treat thousands of infected animals and increase awareness among pastoralists on how to protect livestock," Mansoor al-Qadasi, the government's chief vet, told IRIN on 7 November.

"Falling temperatures during winter in coastal and central-southern areas, coupled with unhealthy animal shelters, encourage the rapid spread of screw worm, putting animal lives at risk," he said.

According to Agriculture Ministry vet Hani Merai, some 7,666 cows, sheep, goats and camels have been treated and over 50,000 vaccinated against the disease in the seven governorates over the past month. "Four hundred and sixty-nine villages were covered by the programme and 4,053 animal shelters were sprayed or cleaned in the same period," he said.

Merai said the ministry had distributed over 3,600 leaflets in the most affected areas in Taiz and Ibb governorates, and more would be distributed in other governorates in the next couple of months.

Taiz-based epidemic surveillance and control official Nizar Faisal said increasing the awareness of pastoralists was the best way to reduce the risk of another screw worm outbreak.

"It is difficult to eliminate the epidemic but early interventions can keep deaths to a minimum… Since the epidemic first broke out in 2007, more than 22,000 animals have been infected," Faisal said.

The screw worm fly lays its eggs in a cut or open wound on a warm-blooded animal. Maggots then feast off the living flesh, and can kill the animal if the wound is not cleaned and treated with insecticide in time.

FAO, IAEA involvement

The Agriculture Ministry initiative is supported by international organizations such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

"Earlier this year, FAO provided us with pesticides while IAEA offered the necessary equipment and trained staff at the Central Veterinarian Laboratory on how to deal with infected animals," chief vet al-Qadasi said. "But the programme's budget is limited… We still need more funds from international and local donors to increase the drive against screw worm."

Al-Qadasi said livestock was the main source of income for 75 percent of Yemen's rural population (estimated to be 16 million).

According to Anwar Abdullah, a Taiz local council member, a shepherd earns YR 400 (US$2) a day for grazing 50-100 sheep or goats from 8am until 5pm, but with fewer animals to graze, their incomes were being hit.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86973HARADH Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - Hundreds of civilians have been fleeing their villages along the border with Saudi Arabia following clashes between Yemen’s Houthi-led Shia insurgents and the Saudi armed forces, according to a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) official.HARADH Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - Hundreds of civilians have been fleeing their villages along the border with Saudi Arabia following clashes between Yemen’s Houthi-led Shia insurgents and the Saudi armed forces, according to a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) official.

“Over the past three days we had over 100 families arriving in the [al-Mazraq] camp every day - more than 300 families [2,100 people],” UNHCR team leader Mai Barazi told IRIN on 10 November.

The camp, which is about 40 minutes drive from Haradh, in the northwestern province of Hajjah, currently has an estimated 8,700 internally displaced persons (IDPs). “Another 11,000 IDPs are sheltered by host families and communities in this part of Yemen,” Marie Marullaz, UNHCR associate external relations officer in Sanaa, told IRIN on 11 November.

“Some came from Saudi Arabia, to where they had fled before escaping fighting in the Malahaid area [west of Saada],” Barazi said.

“The elderly, single mothers and children represent a significant proportion of the new arrivals. Most are coming from Khuba area where they had taken refuge after having fled the fighting in Saada Governorate [between the government and Houthi rebels]. It is thus their second or third displacement,” Marullaz said.

Cousins Ahmed Makhdari and Ahmed Jabar, who arrived in the camp last week, said they fled fighting in the Malahaid area a month ago. “We ran away to Saudi Arabia, but they sent us back to Yemen and we came here,” Mahkdari said.

“Many of these IDPs report continued deportations by Saudi authorities during the last few days… They claim to have been deported without any of their personal belongings, including their ID cards, which might in turn delay their registration. At the same time, UNHCR is working with local authorities to ensure that legitimate new IDP arrivals are all allowed to register,” Marullaz said.

“The camp is full”

The most recent UNHCR figures on arrivals show a marked increase on last week when on average 10-20 families (70-140 people) were arriving in al-Mazraq each day.

“The camp is full, but we are doing all we can to accommodate the new arrivals. We’ve put up at least 100 new tents for the newcomers and at least nobody is out in the open - they have some shelter. More than 100 families have been accommodated at the camp’s transition centre, where newcomers stay initially before moving to a tent within the camp,” Barazi said.

As more IDPs arrive, aid workers say congestion at the camp is becoming a serious problem. “We are 15 people in one tent and it is very crowded,” Makhdari said.

Barazi said it was very important to set up a second IDP camp in the area as soon as possible.

“Al-Mazraq 2 is under construction and will allow the accommodation of IDPs in about one month. The government has accepted the offer of the UAE [United Arab Emirates] Red Crescent to take over complete responsibility for the construction and management of Al Mazraq 2 Camp,” Marullaz said.

Saudi aid route

UNHCR launched a cross-border aid operation [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86536] in October through Saudi Arabia to meet the needs of IDPs trapped in and around Saada city. Whether the Saudi aid route remains open following the reported incursions by Houthi rebels into Saudi territory is unclear, though on 6 November Andrej Mahecic told a news briefing [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/FBUO-7XJHAS?OpenDocument&cc=yem] in Geneva that UNHCR hoped an aid convoy carrying shelter supplies would be able to enter northern Yemen from Saudi Arabia “in the next few days”.

On 10 November the UNHCR office in Riyadh was informed by the Saudi authorities that the situation at the Alp border crossing with Yemen was stable, allowing UNHCR to continue its cross-border activities, said Marullaz.

“We are hopeful that we will receive the security clearances from the Saudi authorities for the next aid convoy in the coming days,” she added.

Sporadic clashes since 2004 between Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government, which escalated in August 2009, have forced some 175,000 IDPs to flee their homes, according to UNHCR. In response to a border skirmish that killed at least one Saudi soldier, Saudi air strikes on 5 November reportedly hit strongholds of the Shia rebel group.

The Houthis complain that they have been politically, economically and religiously marginalized by the government, and want a return to the autonomous rule they enjoyed before 1962.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86977JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - A move by donor countries to provide aid agencies with cash, allowing them the flexibility to source cheaper or more appropriate food in the region or beneficiary country and save on transport and warehousing costs, is not addressing nutritional needs, according to a new report.JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - A move by donor countries to provide aid agencies with cash, allowing them the flexibility to source cheaper or more appropriate food in the region or beneficiary country and save on transport and warehousing costs, is also not addressing nutritional needs, according to a new report.

Food aid should include foodstuffs fortified with micronutrients and animal protein. "The emphasis is more on quantity rather than quality, and rarely does the food aid target the most vulnerable groups: children under five, pregnant women and lactating mothers," said Stéphane Doyon, of the international medical charity, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a co-author of the organization's report, Malnutrition: how much is being spent?

"Barely 1.7 percent of interventions reported as 'development food aid/food security' and 'emergency food aid' between 2004 and 2007 actually address nutrition needs," he said.

The MSF report was published ahead of a new UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) report, which points out that the level of child and maternal undernutrition "remains unacceptable" throughout the world; 90 percent of the developing world's chronically undernourished or stunted children live in Asia and Africa.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86993SANAA Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Nearly 100,000 people displaced over five years of fighting between government troops and Houthi-led Shia rebels have been receiving food aid in the governorates of Saada, Hajja, Amran and Al-Jawf since mid-August, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).SANAA Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Nearly 100,000 people displaced over five years of fighting between government troops and Houthi-led Shia rebels have been receiving food aid in the governorates of Saada, Hajja, Amran and Al-Jawf since mid-August, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).

Since the outbreak of renewed clashes on 12 August, WFP and its implementing partners have provided regular food assistance to 53,956 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Saada Governorate, 25,543 in Hajjah, 5,831 in Amran and 3,346 in al-Jawf, according to Maria Santamarina, a WFP reports and advocacy official in Yemen.

The overall figure includes those assisted by a cross-border operation from Saudi Arabia. "WFP began a cross-border operation from Sanaa to Saudi Arabia and back down into the Mandaba area near the Saudi border where more than 9,450 IDPs trapped by the conflict have received food assistance since 1 November," Santamarina said.

She told IRIN that only 13,447 (less than 14 percent) of the total 98,126 IDPs assisted by WFP were living in camps. “We coordinate with our partner NGOs, local councils and the UN Refugee Agency [UNHCR] to register and verify displaced families in and outside camps.”

Yassir Khairi, an emergency officer at UK-based NGO Islamic Relief, one of WFP’s implementing partners, said that in October they distributed 4,318 metric tons of food to some 7,303 families living in schools, empty poultry farms, scattered tents, in the open, or with host families.

“All members of these families receiving food assistance in October are new IDPs registered by a joint committee made up of NGOs and local authorities,” he told IRIN.

Khairi said each family (with an average of seven members) receives two 50kg sacks of wheat, six cans of beans, 2kg of dates, three litres of vegetable oil, 10kg of sugar and 1kg of salt per month.

Access still problematic

Access to war-afflicted civilians, particularly those inside Saada town, still remains a challenge for aid workers.

"Sometimes, it takes weeks to coordinate safe corridors for passing food aid to the affected families because communication networks in the war-ridden areas are down," said Abdullah Dhahban, a Saada local councillor engaged in the aid distribution effort.

WFP representative in Yemen Giancarlo Cirri said that while the agency had seen some improvements in access “WFP and partners continue to struggle to reach families who have been trapped by the conflict for three months".

He added that WFP is seeing increasing IDP movement towards areas where assistance is being provided. “This suggests that the humanitarian situation of families out of reach of agencies is deteriorating and earlier coping mechanisms of families are exhausted.”

Cirri told IRIN that WFP was continuing to use a planning figure of 150,000 IDPs for assistance, but that this could be increased quickly and easily. He also said WFP was short of US$2.7 million for its Saada operations until the end of 2009, and short of US$14.4 million until June 2010.

A recent report by UNHCR estimates the total number of IDPs in northern Yemen to have increased to 175,000 due to ongoing clashes.

ay/ed/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86943SANAA Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of people in Milhan District, Mahwit Governorate, around 100km northwest of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, are facing acute water shortages due to lack of rainfall, according to local officials.SANAA Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of people in Milhan District, Mahwit Governorate, around 100km northwest of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, are facing acute water shortages due to lack of rainfall, according to local officials.

Most of the district's residents depend on rainwater so are vulnerable in the dry season, and many springs have dried up, according to Mohammed al-Nuzail, head of the General Rural Water Authority (GRWA) in the governorate.

Up to 40,000 women and children are obliged to walk - or rather clamber - 10-15km to reach the nearest water sources, said Ali Saeed, a local environmental activist.

"People must climb 1,500-1,800m-high mountains to reach springs… Steep mountains put the lives of women and children at risk; some of them fall," he said, adding that the springs were in such remote places that not even donkeys could reach them.

Thousands of girls were dropping out of school in the district as a result of the water shortage, said Mohammed Abdurrazaq, head of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project at the World Bank office in Sanaa.

According to the government's Central Statistics Bureau, 92 percent of Mahwit's 555,000 people in 2008 lived in rural areas where farming and herding were the main sources of income. Many districts lacked roads.

Poverty

"I have two cows," said local farmer Mohammed al-Maghraba, aged 50. "They produce two calves per year which I sell for YR80,000 [US$400]. This money is not enough… How is it possible for me to construct a cistern that costs hundreds of thousands of [Yemeni] riyals?"

But limited help may be on its way for Mahwit: "We will provide rural residents in Mahwit with construction materials [cement, steel and pipes] to build rainwater catchment tanks themselves next year," the World Bank’s Abdurrazaq said.

Only 10 percent of the district’s 90,000 people have underground cisterns for harvesting rainwater, which they can use for up to two months in the dry season, said the head of the district's local council, Mohammed Abdu al-Nusairi, adding: "Some of them agree to share the stored water with relatives, while others refuse.”

An artesian well costs $50,000 to build while average monthly income per household (of about six members) is about $100. There is only one artesian well per 6,000 people in the district, al-Nusairi said. “Over the past three years, we dug five wells but found water in just one."

"We have thought about digging wells in other areas and running pipes to the district, but our limited budget makes this impossible,” said al-Nusairi.

Abdullah Al-Numan, an environment expert at Sanaa University, said decreased rainfall in Yemen over the past seven years may be the result of changing climate in the region. "In many parts of Yemen, including the northwest region, rainfall decreased from 300mm more than 20 years ago to 180mm over the past five years," he said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86847SANAA Sunday, November 01, 2009 (IRIN) - The past 10 months saw the highest number of Africans reaching Yemeni shores over figures for the same period in 2008 and 2007, when large numbers began travelling to Yemen by boat, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).SANAA Sunday, November 01, 2009 (IRIN) - The past 10 months saw the highest number of Africans reaching Yemeni shores over figures for the same period in 2008 and 2007, when large numbers began travelling to Yemen by boat, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

More than 56,600 people arrived on 1,100 boats to Yemen from the Horn of Africa so far this year, already exceeding the total for all 2008, when 50,091 people crossed, Rocco Nuri, an external relations officer at UNHCR, told IRIN on 31 October.

“This is a stunning 40 percent increase in comparison with the same 10-month period last year when 40,540 boat-carried people arrived… [This year], 281 people drowned and another 152 have been missing and presumed dead after their boats capsized in the Gulf of Aden," Nuri said.

Santiago Perez, country representative for NGO the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), said there were several factors causing this growing influx of Africans to Yemen. "We’re detecting an increasing number of displaced people who say they are coming to Yemen fleeing climate disasters like drought, untimely and torrential rains, as well as conflict and poverty," he said.

He added that rapid population growth in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, was also "responsible for the phenomenon”.

Because of this greater demand for the trip across the Gulf of Aden, smugglers have doubled their fees. "The money paid for smuggling by boat has jumped from US$50 to $100 per person these days," Ahmad Akam, a Yemeni coast guard official, said.

The total number of new arrivals by the end of this year is likely to hit 70,000 as sea conditions are becoming milder, according to Akam.

Response

UN agencies in Yemen and their implementing partners have developed contingency plans to provide assistance to 20,000 extra arrivals – on top of the 50,000 already planned for in 2009.

"UNHCR has improved the capacity and conditions of its reception centres in Mayfaa and Ahwar, on Yemen's southern coastline, and established a presence through its implementing partners in Bab al-Mandab on the Red Sea," Nuri said.

He added that in order to provide a dignified burial for those who do not survive the boat journey - due to rough sea conditions, drowning and mistreatment by smugglers – UNHCR had secured three cemetery plots in Hadhramout, Shabwa and Abyan governorates to bury bodies washed ashore.

A September report by UNHCR said there were 162,362 registered refugees in Yemen, 153,080 of whom were Somalis.

ay/edhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86830SANAA Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Poor security, lack of basic infrastructure, the increasing numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and how to accommodate livestock are among the challenges facing the government and aid agencies trying to run IDP camps in northern Yemen, according to Nasim Ur-Rehman, a spokesman for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).SANAA Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Poor security, lack of basic infrastructure, the increasing numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and how to accommodate livestock are among the challenges facing the government and aid agencies trying to run IDP camps in northern Yemen, according to Nasim Ur-Rehman, a spokesman for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

"We face increasing numbers of people arriving… From the end of Ramadan [20 September] until now, the al-Mazraq camp [in Harad District, Hajjah Governorate] population has doubled," Andrew Knight, an external relations officer at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Yemen, told IRIN.

On average, 10-15 new families arrive at al-Mazraq camp every day, UNHCR spokesperson in Geneva Andrej Mahecic said on 20 October, adding that they estimated the camp hosted some 8,000 IDPs. [http://www.unhcr.org/4ae199809.html]

Knight said another challenge was how to deal with livestock being brought to the camp. "Following a meeting… UNHCR set about redesigning the layout and organization of the camp to accommodate these needs.”

“We are working with UNICEF, FAO [UN Food and Agriculture Organization], the local authorities and other partners to assess the extent to which the livestock may present a health issue,” Knight said.

According to Knight, the livestock graze locally, and IDPs themselves buy some fodder in; UNICEF helps with watering the animals, which do not cause any damage to IDP tents.

Access

"Obtaining access to IDP camps, particularly those in Saada Governorate, remains a tough challenge," said Rabab al-Rifai, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"Even worse, thousands of civilians remain unable to flee and are stranded in areas where fighting continues."

ICRC and the Yemeni Red Crescent are running all three camps in Saada Governorate, which are hosting more than 6,500 IDPs, according to al-Rifai. "We have regular bilateral and confidential contacts with the parties to the conflict and have reminded them on several occasions of the need to take every possible measure to ensure that safe access of humanitarian aid is facilitated,” she said.

Identification of IDPs

Laure Chedrawi, a spokeswoman for UNHCR, said another challenge was distinguishing the genuinely displaced from local people seeking help: "Some IDPs arrive in al-Mazraq camp without documentation and people from the surrounding areas who haven't been displaced by the fighting also come to the camp to try to seek food and other essential relief supplies."

A new procedure has now been introduced at the camp whereby two non-related witnesses must testify that the person seeking assistance has indeed been displaced by the fighting; aid agencies were also cooperating with the Saada local authorities to establish identities, Chedrawi said.

“We also coordinate with NGOs and other aid agencies on the ground to avoid duplication of humanitarian assistance," she told IRIN, adding that training courses on camp coordination and management had been held.

UNHCR field staff have registered 36,216 IDPs in three governorates (Saada, Hajjah and Amran), while the total number of uprooted civilians since June 2004 is estimated at 150,000, including those living with host families or those still inaccessible.

New camps

The increasing number of IDPs has forced the government to think about establishing new camps, especially as some families holed up in schools in Amran and Hajjah governorates may be forced to leave them as the new school year begins.

However, the development of a second site close to al-Mazraq camp has been suspended at the request of the government, according to UNHCR’s Mahecic.

“Despite completion of the mapping and the site planning for the second camp, local authorities have now indicated that they want al-Mazrak II to be situated in a different location, closer to the first camp. We are worried that the delay in reaching a final decision on the second camp is having an impact on the improvement of the first camp which is becoming increasingly overcrowded with needs for health, water and sanitation increasing,” Mahecic said.

According to the most recent situation report [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2009.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/AZHU-7X42PL-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf] from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), four camps - al-Mazraq, Sam, al-Ihsa and al-Talh camps - host 13,700 IDPs. UN agencies have registered 42,740 IDPs in all, most of whom are not in camps.

The current IDP crisis has been prompted by fierce clashes between Houthi-led rebels and government forces over the past two months.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86755HARADH Tuesday, October 20, 2009 (IRIN) - Fatma Abdullah’s daughters Salma, aged 9, and Khadija, 11, are going to school for the first time in their lives in al-Mazraq camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Haradh District, Hajjah Governorate, northern Yemen.HARADH Tuesday, October 20, 2009 (IRIN) - Fatma Abdullah’s daughters Salma, aged 9, and Khadija, 11, are going to school for the first time in their lives in al-Mazraq camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Haradh District, Hajjah Governorate, northern Yemen.

They had never been to school in their home area in Malihidh District, Saada Governorate, near the border with Hajjah, the scene of clashes between government troops and Houthi-led Shia rebels.

Salma and Khadija have enrolled in grade one, rather than grades three and five that children their age would normally be in.

"Before we fled our homes, my children received no education… They couldn't go to those faraway schools in neighbouring villages," said 50-year-old Fatma, a mother of nine.

"It is better for us to live in this camp than in our home district… I would like to see our little girls reading things to us and the other seven family members, including the three boys, who have never been to school."

UN officials said they were pleased: "I am pleased to see more than 80 little girls with their books in this classroom… It is our duty to teach children about their right to have education, food and protection,” Mahmoud Kabil, regional goodwill ambassador for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said on 19 October during a visit to the camp, some 300km northwest of the capital, Sanaa.

Poor conditions

"I saw children [in al-Mazraq camp] on the brink of death due to acute malnutrition and dehydration... I have never seen such a sight since I became UNICEF regional goodwill ambassador in 2003 - not when I was in Darfur five years back, or anywhere in this region," said Kabil in a statement on 20 October.

UNICEF said the latest estimates from Hajjah Governorate suggested there were up to 14,000 IDPs in and around al-Mazraq camp.

A daily influx of newcomers to the camp was weakening the already basic infrastructure.

"One month ago, there were only 1,000 IDPs in the camp, but now their number exceeds 7,000, most of whom are children," Nasim Ur-Rehman, chief communications and information officer for UNICEF in Yemen, told IRIN on 19 October.

Burgeoning numbers

Yarmouk primary school in the camp originally served 135 local children, but now caters for some 950 (777 displaced and 165 locals), according to Ibrahim Qadash, a teacher at the school.

UNICEF, in cooperation with other aid agencies and local authorities, has provided tents, blackboards and teachers so that the school can cope with the growing numbers.

"We provided extra teachers and pay them to teach displaced children," said Ur-Rehman. "Between 30 and 40 displaced children apply for enrolment every day… Now, the school has 11 teachers, compared to only five who were teaching at the school before the displacement."

Children in classrooms or tents sit on the ground as there are not enough chairs. "Chairs don't matter, and they can learn without chairs," al-Qadash told IRIN. "The most important thing is that they get an education."

Schools damaged

Dozens of schools in Saada Governorate, where the fiercest fighting is taking place, have been damaged or completely destroyed in five years of intermittent conflict, said Abdullah Dhahban, a local councillor. "The war deprived tens of thousands of children of their right to education."

However, Dhahban noted that around 50 percent of school-age children in rural areas in Saada did not go to school even before the war and that at least half of those that did go to school, dropped out before grade seven.

According to UNICEF, at least half of the estimated 150,000 IDPs in northern Yemen are children.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86656SANAA Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Hundreds of people in Taiz city, 250km south of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, have dengue fever and local hospitals are taking in new cases on a daily basis, according to health officials.SANAA Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Hundreds of people in Taiz city, 250km south of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, have dengue fever and local hospitals are taking in new cases on a daily basis, according to health officials.

"Since the new outbreak in September, at least 350 cases have been confirmed and a further 1,000 are suspected," Mohammed Mahmoud, manager of the government's National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) in Taiz, told IRIN.

He said the number of infections had increased due to the widespread use of uncovered water tanks, particularly in the city’s slums. "Swamps and open sewers contribute much to the reproduction of the vector, known as Aedes [mosquito] that transmits the fever," Mahmoud said.

Many cases go  undiagnosed  and are not properly treated as most of those infected do not go to hospital for screening, said Huwaida al-Shathili, a professor at Taiz university's faculty of medicine. Al-Shathili said the number of dengue-infected cases may be many times more than those registered by NMCP, as symptoms can be difficult to detect.

Doctors say Taiz (population 500,000) has a fertile environment for mosquito breeding. "In Taiz, dengue isn't an epidemic… it is a recurring disease in the governorate where stagnant water and pollution are commonplace… The disease appears every two or three years," al-Shathili noted. "Last year, more than 300 cases were detected."

Epidemiology

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), http://www.who.int/topics/dengue/en/ dengue is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with any one of the four dengue viruses. It occurs in tropical and sub-tropical areas. Symptoms appear 3-14 days after a bite from an infected mosquito.
 
Common dengue symptoms include high fever, vomiting, headache, acute pain in the joints and skin rash, according to Murshid Hassan, a senior health official in the governorate. "Infected cases must have access to immediate treatment under the supervision of physicians," Hassan said. A WHO factsheet http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs117/en/ states: "There is no specific treatment for dengue, but appropriate medical care frequently saves the lives of patients with the more serious dengue haemorrhagic fever."

Spraying campaigns were undertaken in some parts of the city in September but results have been poor due to a lack of funding, according to Mahmoud.

"We proposed two massive spraying campaigns to cover all 94,000 houses in the city at a cost of YR 38 million [US$190,000],” he said, adding that the Health Ministry had provided insufficient funding.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86616DAKAR Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - Designed to be safe havens in times of disaster, health facilities are vulnerable to upheaval when catastrophe strikes, according to the UN, which is focusing on hospital safety for International Day for Disaster Reduction.DAKAR Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - Designed to be safe havens in times of disaster, health facilities are vulnerable to upheaval when catastrophe strikes, according to the UN, which is focusing on hospital safety for International Day for Disaster Reduction.

Only half of UN member countries have set aside money for health facility emergency preparedness, according to World Health Organization (WHO).

The world’s 49 least-developed countries house at least 90,000 health facilities, most of which have not been evaluated for disaster preparedness. Latin American and Caribbean countries have created a Hospital Safety Index that has been used in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Oman, Sudan and Tajikistan.

In Burkina Faso September 2009 flooding forced the largest hospital to shut down. The facility is barely functioning six weeks later.  Health Minister Seydou Bouda told IRIN he believes disaster can effect change. “In Burkina Faso nothing will be like it was before. Each [health] sector activity should integrate crisis management into its operations because catastrophe can arrive at any moment.”

UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Margaret Wahlström said much has been done to boost hospital safety worldwide, but more investment is needed to brace hospitals for potential disasters.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86581SANAA Monday, October 12, 2009 (IRIN) - “One of the reasons I’m here is to try to give a bit more profile to a conflict, and its humanitarian consequences, which had been fairly low on the list of the international media’s priorities,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes told IRIN at the end of his three-day visit to Yemen.SANAA Monday, October 12, 2009 (IRIN) - “One of the reasons I’m here is to try to give a bit more profile to a conflict, and its humanitarian consequences, which had been fairly low on the list of the international media’s priorities,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes told IRIN at the end of his three-day visit to Yemen.
 
Some 150,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been forced to flee their homes as a result of sporadic clashes since 2004 between the Yemeni government and a Shia rebel group in and around the northern governorate of Saada.
 
“We launched a flash appeal a few weeks ago. The funding for that is creeping up… but it’s still not enough. So we need to keep on drawing these issues to the attention of the international community and the donors in particular, and say that there are problems here that need to be funded,” he said.
 
As of 11 October, only 16 percent of the funds for the flash appeal had been received - most of which is going towards the establishment and management of IDP camps. But there are many other needs which have yet to be funded, according to aid officials.
 
At a press conference on 11 October, Holmes said that if the flash appeal requests are not met aid agencies would have to cut back on the provision of essential needs. However, he said he was “optimistic that [the UN] will not get into that position”.
 
The US, Saudi and Swiss governments are the biggest donors to the flash appeal, according to the UN. On 9 October the UK said it would pledge US$3.2 million to the appeal.
 
“The UK’s support will target those people in most urgent need, providing critical relief such as water, sanitation and food, as well as boosting UN capacity to respond to the broader humanitarian crisis,” said UK's International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander in a statement.
 
Holmes said it was not all that unusual for funds to be slow in coming through in the initial period: “Sometimes people need to do some assessments of their own to see if they really think the situation warrants the aid we’re asking for,” he said.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86535SANAA Monday, October 12, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has launched a cross-border aid operation through Saudi Arabia to meet the urgent needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs) trapped in and around Saada city in northern Yemen, according to UN officials.SANAA Monday, October 12, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has launched a cross-border aid operation through Saudi Arabia to meet the urgent needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs) trapped in and around Saada city in northern Yemen, according to UN officials.

"The first UNHCR convoy is on the way with essential emergency items to thousands of trapped IDPs, who remained inaccessible for the past two months as a result of escalating clashes between the government troops and Houthi-led Shia rebels," said UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes at a press conference on 11 October in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

Holmes has ended a three-day mission to Yemen during which he visited the Mazrak IDP camp in Hajja Governorate, some 300km west of Sanaa.

The cross-border operation was to start on 10 October, but was postponed until 11 October due to technical issues related to paperwork, said Andrew Knight, an external relations officer with UNHCR in Yemen.

"The first batch of emergency items includes mattresses, blankets, hygiene kits and kitchen sets for 2,000 people," he told IRIN. "The items will be distributed to trapped IDPs through the Saada-based NGO Al-Amal Society, our implementing partner."

In Baqim and other northern areas near the Saudi border, 15,000-30,000 IDPs have been inaccessible to aid workers for the past two months, according to UNHCR.

"In cooperation with our local partner Yemeni Red Crescent Society, we managed to provide tents for over 1,000 IDPs in Baqim area over the past two days," Rabab al-Rifai, a spokeswoman of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told IRIN.

"We are in the process of sending more tents to cover the needs of more than 10,000 IDPs in Saada and Amran governorates," al-Rifai said.

Security

Efforts will be made to ensure the safety of aid corridors, according to Holmes.

"We want to convince Houthi fighters that access to IDPs in various sanctuary areas is our major concern at the moment," he said. "Aid workers need safe corridors to help those trapped IDPs."

Holmes urged the warring parties to ensure protection of civilians, as stipulated by international humanitarian law.

Jan Nicola Marti, head of ICRC Yemen, also stressed the importance of security for aid workers and beneficiaries.

"Many citizens in the war-ravaged governorate told us their homes were damaged or completely destroyed in the sixth bout of clashes that broke out on 12 August. They lost their jobs, assets and other livelihood sources, and therefore can't afford to buy basic foodstuffs that are either unavailable or extremely expensive," Marti said.

In the latest round of fighting between government troops and Houthi rebels, UNHCR field staff have registered up to 36,216 IDPs in three governorates (Saada, Hajjah and Amran), while the total number of displaced persons since 2004 stands at about 150,000, including those living with host families or those still inaccessible.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86536NAIROBI Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - When an earthquake strikes a town, or a building is levelled by an explosion, news footage invariably shows search and rescue teams trawling through the rubble looking for survivors. But what does it take to rescue people trapped under tons of concrete?NAIROBI Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - When an earthquake strikes a town, or a building is levelled by an explosion, news footage invariably shows search and rescue teams trawling through the rubble looking for survivors. But what does it take to rescue people trapped under tons of concrete?

Step one - coordination

The first thing is to activate search and rescue teams, often highly trained volunteers.

"Most of our members are doctors, ambulance operators, engineers or fire fighters," said John Holland, operations director of Rapid UK [http://www.rapidsar.org.uk/], a charitable search and rescue group.

They go through a rigorous two-year training process before they are allowed to assist in disasters.

"We try to deploy within 24 hours because the earlier we are on the ground, the better the chances of rescuing survivors," Holland said. "During the Pakistan earthquake [in 2005], we were able to deploy in 21 hours."

The International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) [http://ochaonline.un.org/Coordination/FieldCoordinationSupportSection/INSARAG/tabid/1436/language/en-US/Default.aspx] - a global network of more than 80 countries and disaster response organizations under the UN umbrella - has standardized guidelines for rescue missions.

"Once a government has made that call for international assistance, we alert our members, who begin mobilizing to travel to the area," said INSARAG's Winston Chang, a Singapore Civil Defence Force veteran who coordinated the search and rescue efforts following the recent earthquake in Padang, Indonesia. "We run a portal where once a disaster occurs, we pool information and our various teams can input data on their movements - whether they are on standby, mobilizing or have reached the ground."

INSARAG will usually set up an “on site operations coordination centre” where all search and rescue teams get instructions - depending on their area of specialty - on where to go and how to operate; the desk holds regular meetings to update itself and the teams on the progress being made on the ground.

"These operations can be quite large; just now in Padang, there were a total of 21 teams with 668 personnel and 67 search dogs," Chang said. "They need bases of operation where they will fuel their heavy equipment, coordinate their internal logistics and sleep."

"We also ensure that they follow specific standards of operation and remain culturally sensitive, especially since the teams are from such diverse backgrounds," he added.

Step two - analysis

Once in the disaster area, the first step is to analyze the task at hand, said Julie Ryan, a volunteer with the British NGO, the International Rescue Corps. [http://www.intrescue.co.uk/news/index.php/about-us/home]

In a collapsed building, "you need to analyze the building, assess its history and try to establish where in the building people are most likely to be", she told IRIN. "You also need to determine how badly a building has been damaged and whether it is likely to collapse any further, causing damage to [survivors] and rescue teams."

The assessment also involves checking for hazards such as downed power lines, gas leaks, flooding and hazardous materials. Protective gear includes special suits, gloves, masks, and oxygen and carbon monitoring systems for air quality.

Step three - search mode

At its most basic, this involves trying to spot limbs in the rubble, and calling out to survivors to identify their locations.

Rescuers look for "voids", or pockets where people may be trapped when walls collapse or where survivors may have hidden, such as under desks, in bath tubs or stairwells.

"We feed a camera on the end of a flexible pole into the collapsed building - this shows where people are and how much of the building's structure is left," Ryan said.

"Rescuers also use sound location devices connected to a microphone system; the device bangs on the rubble three times and if people tap back or call out for help, they can be tracked and assisted," she added.

Listening is a crucial part of the operation, and search teams will often stop for several minutes to try to hear any calls, scratches or taps.

Other search tools include a thermal image camera system, which shows areas of body heat, and trained sniffer dogs. "We also use a carbon dioxide analyzer, which helps us detect people who might be unconscious but still breathing," Ryan said.

Buildings that have been searched are marked with INSARAG-recognized signs to avoid duplication of searches.

As survivors are found, rescuers try to get them to keep talking to determine their exact location, and dig towards them - the least dangerous way to do this is by hand.

Step four - the rescue operation

If survivors are trapped under rubble, it may need to be stabilized first; a process called cribbing - the construction of a rectangular wooden framework, a box crib, underneath the debris - may be used.

Survivors who are not able to move usually need to be lifted, dragged or carried out of the rubble using special equipment.

"If people cannot be manually dug out, then we can cut them out - there are specialized tools that can cut through concrete, metal and wood to reach survivors," Ryan said. "There is also a process known as `slabbing’, where heavy slabs of concrete are removed in order to free survivors - this is always a very difficult judgment call, because it risks further collapse, which could injure or kill more people."

Concrete saws, jackhammers, chainsaws, bolt cutters, cranes and bulldozers are all part of the tool kit; chains, cables, anchors and rope-hauling systems are used to remove large pieces of masonry. Other equipment may include flat bags that are inserted under heavy objects and inflated with an air pump, and “shoring” equipment, which ensures passageways are stable and safe.

As survivors are removed, their medical condition is determined; patients are prioritized according to triage - based on the severity of their condition.

Search and rescue teams usually start the most urgent medical procedures on site; the most experienced teams may have defibrillators and endo-tracheal equipment to shock people back to life or perform emergency tracheotomies.

Step five - closure

Deciding when to end a rescue operation is always difficult.

"Obviously, the more time passes the less likely you are to find people alive," said Ryan. "But sometimes - especially if they have water available - people can remain alive for many days. In Pakistan, our team rescued two boys five days after the earthquake; they had survived on trickles of rainwater through the rubble."

According to Ryan, finding bodies - cadaver rescue - after the search for survivors is over is a very important part of any operation.

"Even when people haven't survived the collapse of a building, families find that having a body to bury is an important part of getting closure," she said.

According to INSARAG's Chang, the high octane operations can take their toll on rescuers, especially when they have to pull hundreds of dead people out of buildings.

"Most of them are used to dealing with blood and death in their daily professions, but from time to time it can become very difficult," he said. "Many teams are equipped to deal with trauma - the Swiss government's team, for instance, has a psychologist on hand, while doctors in the Singapore team have been trained to search for signs of trauma in team members."

Once the host government officially calls off the search, INSARAG starts the process of withdrawing the teams. A few remain and become part of the humanitarian relief effort, rebuilding hospitals and schools or shelter for families, but most will head back to their day jobs and await the next call to action

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86493DAKAR Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - A landmine survivor in Senegal’s Casamance region on 6 October used the recent report, ‘Voices from the Ground’, based on a survey of mine victims worldwide, to remind aid agencies, Senegal’s anti-mine agency and the media of victims’ needs and governments’ responsibilities. DAKAR Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - A landmine survivor in Senegal’s Casamance region on 6 October used the recent report, ‘Voices from the Ground’, based on a survey of mine victims worldwide, to remind aid agencies, Senegal’s anti-mine agency and the media of victims’ needs and governments’ responsibilities.

The Handicap International report, which authors say is the first such compilation of mine victims’ views on assistance, says: “[Landmine] survivors are still too often left to do just that – survive – on the margins of society, when they should be helped to rebuild their lives and thrive in the heart of their communities.”

The report includes input from 1,645 mine survivors in 25 affected countries.

Mamady Gassama of the Senegalese Mine Victims Association highlighted the Senegal portion of the report, which says the government needs to boost national funding for victim assistance rather than depend on donors.

“The government must not leave victims’ needs to – often uncertain – external aid,” said Gassama. Senegal is a signatory to the Mine Ban Treaty, which calls on the international community, and individual governments “in a position” to do so, to assist victims.

Mine survivors surveyed said among their greatest needs is assistance in skills training and employment.

np/mad/pthttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86506BANGKOK Monday, October 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Most migrants do not move from developing to developed countries, and when they do, rather than hurting host economies, they benefit them, according to a new report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).BANGKOK Monday, October 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Most migrants do not move from developing to developed countries, and when they do, rather than hurting host economies, they benefit them, according to a new report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The UNDP's Human Development Report 2009, launched globally on 5 October in Bangkok, dispels several myths about migration, instead underlining the economic and social benefits for countries.

"Mobility can bring large gains in development," Jeni Klugman, director of the report, told IRIN. "It's presently very much constrained by a whole range of barriers, and reform [of] these barriers could allow much greater potential to be released."

The annual report calls for several migration reforms, including for states to ensure basic rights for migrants, and the mainstreaming of migration into national development plans.

ey/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86431SANAA Monday, October 05, 2009 (IRIN) - The government has welcomed a new campaign launched on 5 October by NGO Save the Children to help reduce child mortality in Yemen, which has the highest rate in the Middle East and one of the highest in the world outside Africa.SANAA Monday, October 05, 2009 (IRIN) - The government has welcomed a new campaign launched on 5 October by NGO Save the Children to help reduce child mortality in Yemen, which has the highest rate in the Middle East and one of the highest in the world outside Africa.

“This is a good move to save the lives of children in Yemen; a poor country where 74 in every 1,000 children die before they reach one year of age and 104 in every 1,000 die before age five,” said Fahd al-Sabri, a reproductive health expert at the government’s National Population Council.

Yemen was ranked 48th worst in the world for child mortality in 2009 by a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report.However, it appears progress is being made as Yemen was ranked 73rd in 2007 and 147th in 1990.

Al-Sabri told IRIN that diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections were the primary causes of under-five deaths. “Thirteen percent of under-fives in the country suffer anaemia and are underweight, which means their lives are at high risk if no effective interventions are undertaken.”

The initiative in Yemen is part of Save the Children’s global Survive to 5 campaign first announced on 6 September in New York.

The organization estimates the global number of deaths of children under five at more than 10 million a year. Health experts say that up to six million children could be saved if a package of low-cost health interventions were made more readily available to children and their families.

“The campaign aims to save the lives of 500,000 children over the next five years in 40 developing countries, including Yemen,” Andrew Moore, director of Save the Children in Yemen, said.

He added that the campaign aims to help Yemen achieve its Fourth Millennium Goal and that its first step would be to focus on increasing awareness among families in Sanaa and Aden - the most populated cities - about the risks leading to child deaths.

Awareness “not enough”

Some experts have said Yemen needs more than awareness-raising to reduce child mortality rates.

“Awareness is not enough to solve the problem… The government and those NGOs concerned should train rural midwives on how to attend mothers delivering at home,” Ahmad al-Qurashi, chairman of NGO Siyaj Organization for Childhood Protection (SOCP), told IRIN on 5 October.

“Another factor behind the phenomenon is the lack of healthcare centres, particularly in rural areas,” he said, noting that this was where more than 70 percent of Yemen’s 22 million people lived.

Save the Children’s Moore said another issue to be addressed in the campaign would be breastfeeding as, he said, only 12 percent of children in Yemen were exclusively breastfed until six months of age.

“This contributes to high levels of malnutrition in young children. Almost one in every two children is underweight… this makes them more likely to get diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia, which are among the major causes of child death in Yemen,” he said.

Home delivery kits

Rashida al-Nisairi, head of the Woman and Child Department at the Ministry of Social Affairs & Labour, said more needed to be done to assist Yemeni mothers delivering at home.

“Home delivery puts the lives of both the mother and the baby at risk due to poor personal hygiene and lack of experience on the part of female relatives who usually attend mothers during delivery,” she said, adding that over 80 percent of Yemeni mothers deliver at home, particularly in remote areas.

Supported by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the government has distributed 30,000-50,000 clean home delivery kits nationwide over the past three years, according to al-Nisairi.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86442SANAA Sunday, October 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Many children in the impoverished northern governorates of Yemen, particularly Saada, are suffering severe malnutrition as a result of food price hikes and limited access to food because of escalating violence between the army and rebels, according to UN and Yemeni government officials.SANAA Sunday, October 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Many children in the impoverished northern governorates of Yemen, particularly Saada, are suffering severe malnutrition as a result of food price hikes and limited access to food because of escalating violence between the army and rebels, according to UN and Yemeni government officials.

In May, the World Food Programme (WFP) screened children in Saada city and in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in and around the city and found they were more malnourished than the national average.

According to Giancarlo Cirri, WFP representative in Yemen, 4.5 percent of children in the camps were suffering severe malnourishment, and 12.9 percent were moderately malnourished.

"The nutrition situation in the city was even more serious, with 12.6 percent of children severely [malnourished] and 27.2 percent acutely malnourished," Cirri told IRIN.

He said that since a sixth bout of clashes between the government and Houthi-led Shia rebels broke out on 11 August "the nutritional status of children might have worsened with the reduction of access to food, particularly in Saada where families have lost their livelihoods and other assets”.

Interventions

Soaring prices of grains and other staples in northern Yemen have contributed to increasing malnutrition among children, particularly those displaced by fighting, according to Naseem Ur-Rehman, chief communications and information officer at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) office in Yemen.

An assessment carried out by a UNICEF team in early September in the Maraziq IDP camp in Hajja Governorate, some 250km northwest of the capital, Sanaa, found that 7 percent of children there were severely malnourished and in need of immediate attention, Ur-Rehman told IRIN.

"An arrangement has been worked out with the district hospital in Haradh [in Hajja Governorate] to treat severe cases," Ur-Rehman said, adding that UNICEF was providing ready-to-use food, plumpy’nut (a peanut-based food used in famine relief) and nutritional support wherever they could. This included adding micro-nutrients to food, such as Vitamin A to cooking oil, iron to wheat flour and iodine to table salt.

Dr Najeeb Abdulbaqi, director of the malnutrition department at the Ministry of Public Health and Population, said that through their healthcare units in Saada and Hajja governorates, children with severe malnutrition were being provided with free therapeutic formulas (high-potency vitamin and mineral formulas).

"The ministry has well-trained medical staff treating acutely malnourished cases in these units," he told IRIN. "We also treated moderate and severe cases in old IDP camps in both governorates, as well as in Amran and al-Jawf [governorates]."

However, Abdulbaqi said that because of government budget cuts this year, the health ministry lacked adequate funding to carry out further interventions for malnourished people in these areas. "The ministry still needs unlimited funding from international and/or local donors to implement other malnutrition strategies,” he said.

Emergency plan extended

In response to the increasing needs in conflict-ridden northern areas, WFP is expanding its emergency operation to support 150,000 beneficiaries, Cirri said, adding that blanket supplementary feeding for all beneficiary children under five will be implemented in the context of the ongoing expanded emergency operation for Saada.

"Due to the volatility of the security situation, the WFP emergency operation is being extended until June 2010," he said. WFP is distributing high-energy biscuits to cover the immediate needs of newly displaced persons, Cirri said.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world with 35 percent of its 21 million people living below the poverty line. According to UNICEF, 45 percent of its child population is underweight.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86423SANAA Thursday, October 01, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has received permission from Saudi Arabia to send humanitarian aid to trapped internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Yemen through its border, according to agency officials.SANAA Thursday, October 01, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has received permission from Saudi Arabia to send humanitarian aid to trapped internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Yemen through its border, according to agency officials.

"We will begin our cross-border operation next week if the security situation allows," Andrew Knight, a UNHCR external relations officer, told IRIN on 30 September. "Our first convey will transport tents, blankets and mattresses for 2,000 people, and further assistance will be dispatched according to the needs and numbers of IDPs."

Naseem Ur-Rehman, chief communications and information officer at the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN on 30 September that one UNICEF and three UNHCR officials had been dispatched to the border area to assess needs and the security situation.

He said UNICEF had locally stocked supplies including blankets, hygiene kits, kitchen sets, nappies and water filters for 20,000-25,000 people, "but insecurity [had] restricted our access to the displaced."

Saudi permission came 20 days after humanitarian agencies appealed for a new aid route to be opened up. The trapped IDPs fled an upsurge in fighting between government forces and Houthi-led Shia rebels based in the northern governorate of Saada.

Saudi donation

The Saudi government has agreed to give UNHCR a US$1 million for its aid operations, said Knight, who is currently on mission to Maraziq IDP camp in Hajja Governorate, some 250km northwest of the capital Sanaa. "We thank both Saudi and Yemeni governments for supporting our operations," he added.

The UNHCR said in a 29 September statement that it was still $2 million short of what it needed for its aid operation in the area and appealed for further donations.

Stranded

On 30 September Siyaj Organization for Childhood Protection (SOCP) appealed to the Yemeni and Saudi governments to help save the lives of 120 children stranded with their families in the Elb area near the Saudi border since mid-September.

There was evidence of other groups of IDPs near the border.

"Our volunteer workers in Baqim District, north of Saada, confirmed that more than 70 trapped families are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance," said SOCP Chairman Ahmad al-Qurashi. "Yemen should coordinate with the Saudi government to open the border to allow trapped IDPs to find sanctuary with Saudi relatives in the kingdom's southern region."

The government-rebel clashes in the region first started in 2004 and have left 150,000 displaced, according to UN estimates.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86381DAKAR Thursday, October 01, 2009 (IRIN) - According to (yet another) new climate change report, this time from development think-tank CGD, these are the 20 cities where the most people will be at the greatest risk from sea level rise and storm surges in the developing world.DAKAR Thursday, October 01, 2009 (IRIN) - According to (yet another) new climate change report, this time from development think-tank CGD, these are the 20 cities where the most people will be at the greatest risk from sea level rise and storm surges in the developing world.

The report’s basic assumptions were: one metre sea-level rise; 10 percent increase in the intensity of a 1-in-100-year storm; UN medium population projections.

Manila, Philippines

Alexandria, Egypt

Lagos, Nigeria

Monrovia, Liberia

Karachi, Pakistan

Aden, Yemen

Jakarta, Indonesia

Port Said, Egypt

Khulna, Bangladesh

Kolkata, India

Bangkok, Thailand

Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire

Cotonou, Benin

Chittagong, Bangladesh

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Yangon, Myanmar

Conakry, Guinea

Luanda, Angola

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Dakar, Senegal


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