Category Archives: Aid

Turkey finds a few more earthquake survivors as further rescue hopes fade

Posted on by

Turkish rescue efforts wind down amid grief and anger while UN calls for aid access to north-west Syria

A diminishing number of survivors have been pulled from the catastrophic earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria as the death toll climbed to over 35,000 and UN aid officials pushed for more aid access to rebel-controlled north-west Syria, where only one crossing from Turkey was open.

Search and rescue teams began to wind down their work on Monday as hopes of finding anyone alive faded, but there were cheers in Turkish cities when people were freed after seven days under the rubble, including a young girl named Miray in Adıyaman and a 12-year-old boy named Kaan in southern Hatay province.

Continue reading...

Syrian rebel leader pleads for outside help a week on from earthquakes

Posted on by

Former al-Nusra Front chief keen to show scale of crisis in Idlib province and play down past links to al-Qaida

A Syrian rebel leader with a $10m (£8.3m) US government bounty on his head has appealed for urgent international aid to help the north-west province of Idlib after the earthquakes that have killed thousands and brought the last opposition-controlled area to its knees.

“The United Nations needs to understand that it’s required to help in a crisis,” said Ahmed Hussein al-Shara, better known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, amid a humanitarian crisis that had already reached critical levels in Idlib before the twin earthquakes last week.

Continue reading...

UK’s Turkish and Syrian communities rush to aid earthquake victims

Posted on by

Determination to get donations to stricken areas is galvanising people haunted by fears for family and friends

Dozens of volunteers are packing boxes piled high on a north London industrial estate, filling them with vital donations to be sent to Gaziantep, the south-eastern province in Turkey devastated by the earthquake that hit in the early hours on Monday.

Huseyin Goran, 36, has been helping for three days straight. “The first two days I didn’t sleep and did as much as I could. I took a three-hour rest and carried on.”

Continue reading...

Pressure mounts on UN to provide urgent support to north-western Syria

Posted on by

Rescue teams say death tolls will continue to rise if UN does not speed up ‘overly cautious’ delivery of aid into rebel-held region

Pressure is mounting on the UN to provide urgent support to north-western Syria, which is yet to receive meaningful aid five days after the earthquake that devastated the region, and with the chance of finding any survivors beneath the rubble almost gone.

A convoy of 14 UN lorries entered the opposition-held part of the country from Turkey on Friday at the Bab al-Hawa crossing, containing humanitarian-kit, solar lamps, blankets and other items, one day after a six-lorry convoy crossed the border with blankets and basic supplies. Thursday’s convoy had been arranged before the disaster that has killed at least 3,500 people inside Syria and left thousands more buried under rubble.

Continue reading...

Syria accused of playing politics with aid in aftermath of earthquake

Posted on by

Dispute with Damascus over who controls aid hinders efforts to get supplies into rebel-held north

Syria was accused of playing politics with aid after the Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, said his country should be responsible for the delivery of all aid into Syria, including those areas not under Syrian government control.

The dispute over the control of the aid – along with the weather, destroyed roads and closed crossing points – is hampering aid efforts into northern Syria, which is held by rebel groups.

Continue reading...

UK to send aid to Turkey and Syria despite budget ‘strain’, says minister

Posted on by

More than 70 rescue specialists and sniffer dogs to help with efforts after thousands killed in earthquake-hit region

UK aid will be sent to Turkey and Syria despite “very considerable strain” on the development budget, the cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell has said, after earthquakes killed thousands in the region.

Mitchell, who as a backbench MP opposed cuts to the aid budget, said there were specific funds allocated for major humanitarian disasters.

Continue reading...

‘Catastrophic’ earthquake in Turkey and Syria kills at least 3,800 people

Posted on by

Dozens of countries offer help as rescue workers and residents frantically search for survivors after devastating 7.8-magnitude tremor

International rescue missions were rushing to Turkey and Syria on Monday after one of the most powerful earthquakes to hit the region in at least a century left more than 3,800 people dead, thousands injured and an unknown number trapped in the rubble.

The early-morning quake and dozens of aftershocks wiped out entire apartment blocks in Turkey and heaped more destruction on Syrian communities already devastated by over a decade of war.

Continue reading...

Calls to ease Syrian border controls as offers of aid pour in after earthquake

Posted on by

Rebel-held enclave in north-west Syria, across border from Turkey, among areas worst hit by disaster

International pledges of emergency aid have poured in for Turkey and Syria, leading to calls for the international community to relax some of the political restrictions on aid entering north-west Syria, the country’s last rebel-held enclave and one of the areas worst hit by the earthquake.

With the support of Russia at the UN, the government in Damascus allows aid to enter the region through only one border crossing. The Syrian Association for Citizens Dignity said all crossings must be opened on an emergency basis.

Continue reading...

First UN aid convoy reaches area close to Soledar in Ukraine

Posted on by

Spokesperson says three trucks carrying supplies for 800 people have headed to scene of intense fighting

A UN humanitarian convoy has reached an area close to the town of Soledar in east Ukraine, where some of the fiercest fighting in the country has taken place in recent weeks.

“Our colleagues in Ukraine have just reached government-controlled areas close to Soledar in eastern Donetsk oblast,” Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters in Geneva. “This is the first interagency convoy to reach this area since the war began.”

Continue reading...

Afghan aid at risk from Taliban ban on women, warns United Nations

Posted on by

Standoff between UN and Taliban may lead loss of billions in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan

The UN’s lead humanitarian coordinator has said UN-supplied aid cannot continue if the Taliban do not lift their ban on women working for humanitarian aid agencies in Afghanistan.

Martin Griffiths, the head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, is due to visit Kabul shortly to discuss the impasse.

Continue reading...

UN Afghanistan head meets Taliban over ban on female aid workers

Posted on by

At least seven international NGOs have suspended aid, saying they cannot work without female staff

The acting head of the UN mission in Afghanistan met Taliban leaders on Monday in a bid to persuade them to withdraw their ban on all women working for aid agencies.

Ramiz Alakbarov met the Taliban’s economy minister, Din Mohammad Hanif, in Kabul, telling him that millions of Afghans need “humanitarian assistance and removing barriers is vital”.

Continue reading...

Former development secretaries urge Sunak to increase east Africa aid amid drought

Posted on by

‘Famine in all but name’ ravaging Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, yet British aid is one-fifth of 2017 amount

The UK urgently needs to do more to help more than 28 million people in drought-stricken Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, two former secretaries of state for international development and the heads of 14 of the UK’s leading aid agencies have warned in a joint letter to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak.

They say one person is dying every 36 seconds, yet British aid to the region is only one-fifth of what Britain provided when the region was struck by famine in 2017. More than 7 million children are acutely malnourished across the three countries.

Continue reading...

UK aid to Afghanistan entrenched corruption and injustice, report finds

Posted on by

Government watchdog says £3.5bn aid in 20 years to 2020 failed to achieve aim of stabilising Afghan government

The UK’s £3.5bn aid to Afghanistan between 2000 and 2020 was implicated in corruption and human rights abuses and failed to achieve its primary objective of stabilising the country’s government, an assessment by the UK government’s aid watchdog has found.

Describing the two-decade aid project as the UK’s single most ambitious programme of state building, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) says decisions to spend aid on counterinsurgency operations were flawed, adding that efforts to reduce gender inequality are likely to be wiped out by the Taliban.

Continue reading...

Ethiopian rivals agree on humanitarian access for war-ravaged Tigray

Posted on by

Region is in the grip of a severe crisis due to a lack of food and medicine after a two-year conflict

Ethiopia’s government and Tigrayan rebels have agreed to facilitate immediate humanitarian access to “all in need” in war-ravaged Tigray and neighbouring regions.

The agreement followed talks in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi this week on the full implementation of a deal signed between the warring sides 10 days ago to end the brutal two-year conflict in northern Ethiopia.

Continue reading...

Race against time for sick patients after Ethiopia peace deal

Posted on by

Restart of aid imminent after surprise deal earlier this week brought prospect of end to blockade and one of Africa’s deadliest conflicts

Doctors and aid workers in Tigray are racing against time to keep desperately sick or malnourished patients alive as they wait for humanitarian assistance after a surprise peace deal potentially ended the conflict in northern Ethiopia.

In the deal, signed on Wednesday in South Africa, the federal government pledged to end the blockade on Tigray imposed at the beginning of the war two years ago, while the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political movement in power in the region, agreed to disarm its forces.

Continue reading...

Climate crisis funds not reaching countries in need, senior UN official says

Posted on by

With famine in Somalia almost inevitable, Martin Griffiths criticises opaque handling of $100bn a year promised to poorer countries

The UN’s humanitarian chief has questioned why billions of dollars pledged to tackle the climate crisis have not been used to fight famine in Somalia.

Martin Griffiths said he did not know where the promised $100bn (£87bn) a year to fight the impact of global heating in poorer countries had gone, and called for greater transparency around climate finance.

Continue reading...

Failure to extend Yemen ceasefire leaves millions at risk, say charities

Posted on by

International organisations cite 60% fall in civilian casualties over six months, but critics say benefits of truce have been exaggerated

The expiry of a six-month ceasefire in Yemen has thrust the country back into war after limited improvements in humanitarian conditions, according to analysts.

Charities have criticised the failure to extend beyond Sunday the truce that was first agreed in April, and which they said had created hope for Yemenis. Although critics have said it created only a temporary stop in fighting that allowed the Houthi rebels to strengthen.

Continue reading...

UK under pressure to increase aid to Global Fund after US pledge

Posted on by

Initiative to fight malaria, TB and Aids has asked for 30% increase after Covid crisis, but UK yet to announce pledge

Britain’s new government is facing the first test of its commitment to the global south as it decides whether to follow Joe Biden’s lead and pledge an extra £1.8bn to the Global Fund, the highly successful 20-year-old initiative that fights malaria, tuberculosis and Aids.

A replenishment event to cover funding for the next three years is taking place in New York, and Liz Truss’s administration has been delaying an announcement, partly owing to the death of the Queen.

Continue reading...

UN chief appeals for ‘massive’ help as flood-hit Pakistan puts losses at $30bn

Posted on by

Countries most responsible for climate crisis must ‘end war with nature’, says António Guterres

The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has said the world owes impoverished Pakistan “massive” help in recovering from the summer’s devastating floods because the country bears less blame than many others for the climate crisis.

Months of heavy monsoon rains and flooding have killed 1,391 people and affected 33 million while half a million people have become homeless. Planeloads of aid from the United States, the United Arab Emirates and other countries have begun arriving, but Guterres said there is more to be done to help a country which contributes less than 1% of global emissions.

Continue reading...

Drought likely to push parts of Somalia into famine by end of year, warns UN

Posted on by

World is ‘in last minute of the 11th hour to save lives’, says aid chief, amid fears that crisis is worse than 2010 famine, when 250,000 died

Two areas of Somalia are likely to enter a state of famine later this year as the country battles an unrelenting drought and flare-ups of conflict, the UN humanitarian chief has warned.

Martin Griffiths said the latest UN food insecurity analysis had found “concrete indications” that famine would occur in the Baidoa and Burhakaba districts of south-central Somalia between October and December unless aid efforts were significantly stepped up.

Continue reading...