humanitarian crisis - The African Mirror

Jun

2021

Africa’s forgotten crisis

YASMINE SHERIF A few weeks ago, I travelled with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi to the Modale refugee site in the Nord-Ubangi province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). What we witnessed there was a profound humanitarian crisis that has left 4.7 million children and youth in need of urgent, life-saving, life-changing educational support. Yasmine Sherif Here on the frontlines of violence, forced displacement, climate change-induced disasters, and COVID-19, an entire generation of children are at risk of being left so far behind they will never catch up. Fleeing the chaos and insecurity connected with last year’s…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Intensifying Islamist insurgency in Mozambique drives humanitarian crisis

NEWS

MORE than half-a-million people have fled their homes due to an Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique, and the violence and humanitarian crisis will worsen without international help, according to United Nations officials. "If nothing is done soon, we won't have only 535,000 displaced people. We won't have only 2,000 people killed by the conflict, but tens of thousands," said Valentin Tapsoba, regional director for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). The displaced people were in a dire situation, with overcrowding, malnutrition and a lack of essentials including food and water, the officials said in an online news briefing. Insurgents staged…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Humanitarian disaster at South Africa’s borders on Christmas eve

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER A humanitarian crisis is unfolding at South Africa’s borders with Zimbabwe and Mozambique where hundreds of people - including children - have spent four days in kilometres long queues, trying to get home for Christmas. Unconfirmed reports claimed that a Zimbabwean woman died between Musina and the Beit Bridge border, whilst waiting to cross. South African non-governmental organisations yesterday called for the provision of water, food and sanitation services to the stranded Zimbabweans and Mozambicans who face the threat of spending Christmas on the road, between home and their places of employment. The long queues of trucks…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

EU delays 90 million euros in aid to Ethiopia over Tigray crisis

NEWS

THE European Union has postponed nearly 90 million euros in budget support payments to Ethiopia due to the bloc's concerns over the crisis in the northern Tigray region, according to an internal EU document seen by Reuters. The delay appears intended to reinforce the EU's request for a response from Ethiopian authorities over the bloc's calls for aid to be allowed into Tigray, where five weeks of war have led to a humanitarian crisis. The prime minister's spokeswoman directed requests for comment to the Finance Ministry, which did not immediately respond. There was no immediate response to a request for…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

‘Full-scale’ humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ethiopia – U.N.

NEWS

EMMA FARGE A major humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Ethiopia, the United Nations refugee agency has warned, with more than 27,000 people now having fled heavy fighting to Sudan. The pace of the exodus, some 4,000 a day, may also indicate huge uprooting of people within the Tigray region, U.N. agencies said, adding that teams on the ground were overwhelmed. "People are coming out of Ethiopia really scared, afraid, with stories saying they have been fleeing heavy fighting and there's no sign of the fighting stopping," Babar Baloch, spokesman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a Geneva…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Catalogue of failures behind growing humanitarian crisis in northern Mozambique

HUMAN RIGHTS

CABO Delgado, the northernmost province of Mozambique, has been under attack for three years. The violence was triggered in 2017 when armed men attacked a police station, killing one police officer and critically injuring another. Locals identified the assailants as “al-shabaab”, alluding to an Islamic connection. CRISTIANO D'ORSI, Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at the South African Research Chair in International Law (SARCIL), University of Johannesburg This year, the violence has escalated. In August, militants linked to the Islamic State seized the province’s strategic port town. The militants are reported to have formal ties to Islamic State. They are also…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

Libya’s humanitarian crisis deepens, talks needed – Red Cross says

HUMAN RIGHTS

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY LIBYA’S' humanitarian crisis is worsening, compounded by the halt of oil operations, blockade of ports, and spread of COVID-19, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday. ICRC President Peter Maurer voiced hope that a flurry of diplomatic activity, including a visit earlier this week by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, would restart a political peace process. Maurer spoke on return from the divided North African country where he held separate talks with Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the internationally-recognised government, and General Khalifa Haftar, whose eastern-based forces launched an assault…