humanitarian

Traumatized, exhausted and half-starved civilians who have fled Sri Lanka’s conflict zone are being housed in camps without decent water and sanitation facilities and with inadequate food supplies, international aid agency Oxfam said today.

A coalition of 68 aid and human rights groups said the council should make clear to both the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo and the Congolese army that stronger measures to protect civilians are urgently needed during military operations against Rwandan militias.

While Oxfam recognizes that a solution is needed to halt appalling levels of human rights abuses committed by armed rebels, the answer cannot be action that knowingly increases levels of human suffering

As the UN Security Council meets on May 11th to discuss the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Oxfam International urges the Council not to overlook the needs of civilians in the Gaza Strip, and to put humanitarian imperatives first.

Oxfam is now providing emergency relief to over 36,000 civilians who have fled fighting between Sri Lankan troops and LTTE rebels in the past few days, amid fears for thousands more women, men and children trapped behind rebel lines.

Over 3.2 million Somalis are in desperate need of emergency assistance, a 77% increase since January 2008. More than one million people have fled their homes in the last two years.

International aid agency Oxfam GB said today that it has formally submitted its appeal against the Sudanese government’s decision to expel it from northern Sudan, and expressed serious concern at the false allegations that continue to be made against it and other expelled agencies.

Hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees will face a humanitarian emergency this year, unless urgent steps are taken to deal with a serious public health crisis unfolding in the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya, international agency Oxfam warned in a new report issued today.

Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, is on a high-level European lobbying tour to highlight the situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where civilians have experienced an upsurge of violence in recent months.

Civilians in Chad are still facing high levels of banditry and danger as the European force (EUFOR) hands over to a UN force later this week (Mar 15). Although the European troops made some civilians feel safer, the underlying security situation has not significantly improved.