07 Oct 2019

It has been more than two years in planning and preparation, but finally it has arrived. A three-month long cataract surgery programme brought about by a partnership between the Al-Imdaad Foundation, the KZN Department of Health, Air Mercy Services...

21 Jul 2020

This year, in the face of numerous challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is more important than ever that we take the legacy of our great humanitarian leader, Tata Mandela, to heart.

24 Aug 2020

The Al-Imdaad Foundation recently partnered with the Provincial Department of Economic Development Trade and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) and the Department of Agriculture for the relaunch of the One Home, One Garden initiative in KwaZulu-Natal's...

17 Jun 2020

This year, the winter has come upon us when many in our community are worse off than they have been in a very long time.

09 Apr 2020

Al-Imdaad Foundation teams in South Africa have been responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in partnership with Disaster Management authorities to help ‘flatten the curve’ and protect the elderly and vulnerable groups during lockdown.

10 Feb 2019

Yemen’s warring parties agreed a UN-brokered ceasefire for the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah back in December but, seven weeks on, deadlines have come and gone and much of the accord has still not taken hold.

22 Oct 2018

The doctors and nurses at Hodeidah city’s al-Salakhanah Hospital know what a cholera outbreak looks like: they’ve seen the influx of patients complaining of diarrhoea before, the crying children afraid of needles and intravenous drips, the nervous...

10 Oct 2018

Water shortages and cramped conditions are posing new problems in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province, where medical workers are reporting increasing cases of diarrhoea, skin rashes, and respiratory infections.

03 Oct 2018

Frustrations are mounting in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province as survivors wait for help that’s slow to arrive nearly a week after earthquakes and a tsunami destroyed homes and villages and buried an unknown number of people under rubble.

30 Sep 2018

Local authorities and NGOs are leading the initial rescue and relief effort on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in the aftermath of earthquakes and a tsunami that have claimed hundreds of lives.

04 Sep 2018

Bangladesh’s sprawling Rohingya camps are home to nearly one million refugees, but Atiqur Rahman Rabbi, a Red Cross aid worker, is searching for just one.

02 Sep 2018

As the Syrian government prepares to launch an offensive on Idlib province, humanitarians are on edge. Estimating the area may hold as many as three million people, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said he is “deeply concerned about the growing...

02 Aug 2018

Only half those who need counselling or other mental health services have access to it.

28 May 2018

Aid groups have set up makeshift “learning centres” in Bangladeshi camps, but Rohingya parents say proper schools are needed

31 Jan 2018

It’s midday in Bangladesh’s sprawling Rohingya refugee settlements. A group of men hover under the shade of a tiny bamboo shack, trading strands of information about the topic on everyone’s minds: the future of several hundred thousand refugees here...

16 Jan 2018

While repatriation plans inch forward, older refugees remember past returns gone wrong

16 Jan 2018

The UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees says it is facing “the gravest financial crisis” in its history after the United States announced it was holding back planned funding. But the agency is also promising that services for more than five...

11 Jan 2018

Three-year-old Walid sits on a hospital bed, his bones and veins visible through his skin, tugging at the intravenous drip that is keeping him alive.

04 Jan 2018

The pale green identity card in Nurul Hoque’s hands is torn and brittle. Time has faded the image of his grandfather, taken years before, to a ghostly outline.

20 Nov 2017

Noor Mohammed groans in pain as doctors push a needle into his withered vein. He lies exhausted on a metal bed that has a cut-out hole in the middle of it and a plastic bucket underneath. His frail body is weakened by severe, constant diarrhoea....

08 Oct 2017

Four-year-old Huzaifa stood nervously against a wall as a nurse recorded her measurements. Her stick-like arms hung limp by her sides and her ribcage protruded against the skin of her chest.

30 Sep 2017

Days after the Philippine military launched an assault on Islamist militants in the southern city of Marawi, the conflict came straight to Jamil Ampaso’s home.

19 Sep 2017

Myanmar plans to open new displacement camps for Rohingya in violence-ridden Rakhine State, sparking fears that members of the Muslim minority not already driven out of the country will instead be forcibly interned.

13 Sep 2017

• More than 80 sites set ablaze in orchestrated campaign since 25 August • More than 370,000 Rohingya fled across border in less than three weeks • Testimonies show attacks were planned, deliberate and systematic

13 Sep 2017

While the international community mulls action, deep-rooted Buddhist distrust of aid groups grows in Rakhine State

10 Sep 2017

(New York) – The United Nations, other multilateral organizations, and countries with influence should press the Burmese government to urgently allow humanitarian aid to reach ethnic Rohingya Muslims at risk in Burma’s Rakhine State. They should also...

18 Jun 2017

Hundreds of people trapped in the southern Philippines city of Marawi are on the verge of starvation after four weeks of fighting between the army and Islamist militants.

17 Jun 2017

Some 243km slightly north west of Mogadishu, exists the ancient African town of Baidoa. Pre-historic rock art has recently been found on the outskirts of the city. The history in these parts of the continent runs deep.

07 Jun 2017

Cape Town – #OperationSA and the Al-Imdaad Foundation have launched an urgent appeal for funds to assist victims of the devastating storms and fires in the Western Cape.

27 Mar 2017

Rice harvest could be the worst in 40 years in the South Asian island nation, Save the Children warns

14 Mar 2017

"The depth of suffering is unprecedented. Millions of children in Syria come under attack on a daily basis"

12 Mar 2017

By the time Ilida Alali was 16, she had been a prisoner in her own home for four years. Both government and rebel ordnance fell without warning on the hotly contested Karm al-Myassar neighbourhood near Aleppo’s airport where she and her family lived....

03 Mar 2017

The drought in Somalia is so severe it threatens not only to trigger famine, but also the viability of the age-old pastoralist way of life.

15 Feb 2017

Al-Imdaad Foundation project co-ordinator Ahmed Karrim had numerous requests from the community for water

08 Feb 2017

The UN should launch an inquiry into military abuses of Myanmar’s minority Rohingya Muslims, because the government is incapable of carrying out a credible investigation, the UN’s rights envoy will tell the Human Rights Council next month.

12 Jan 2017

Those who thought Europe’s refugee “crisis” was over were reminded this week that tens of thousands of refugees remain stranded in Greece and the Balkans. Images of refugee tents shrouded in snow on the Greek islands have sparked outrage about the...

11 Jan 2017

Military counterinsurgency operations are causing widespread hunger and malnutrition among Myanmar’s oppressed Rohingya minority, according to internal UN reports that directly contradict government statements.

02 Jan 2017

Proghyananda Vikkhu stood in his purple monk’s robe in front of gleaming gold statues of the Buddha, recalling the night that a mob of nationalist Muslims attacked his monastery in eastern Bangladesh.

01 Jan 2017

The UN has warned authorities that plans to demolish hundreds of homes belonging to ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims will “heighten tensions” in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where the military is accused of abusing civilians during counterinsurgency operations.

21 Dec 2016

One by one, seven Myanmar soldiers raped Yasmin in her home, as she stifled her screams for fear of being murdered.

12 Dec 2016

In a rapid offensive lasting less than a month, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have recaptured the last opposition enclave in east Aleppo. On Monday evening, the army cleared street after street as artillery and air strikes pounded...

27 Nov 2016

A 66-old Iraqi Kurdish woman and her six-year old grandson were burnt to death on Thursday night when a cooking gas canister exploded in their tent at Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesvos. The boy’s mother and his four-year-old brother, who were...

25 Nov 2016

Rohingya residents and human rights groups accuse the military and border guard forces of raping Rohingya women, torching houses and killing civilians

22 Nov 2016

With two months still to go, deaths of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean hit all-time high

21 Nov 2016

Mr Mc Todd says the commode has really improved his quality of life and is saving him the pain and effort of going upstairs with the broken ribs he sustained in the fall

14 Nov 2016

Soe Aung works for an international aid agency in his hometown of Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar’s Rakhine State. It’s a good job, but he isn’t eager to discuss it in a public setting or outside his close circle of friends and family. That’s because...

10 Nov 2016

The Al-Imdaad Foundation had made a number of small but meaningful interventions at the crèche including providing mattresses, face towels, water buckets

04 Nov 2016

The Islamic Educational Centre (IEC), in collaboration with the Islamic Medical Association (IMA) Ladysmith, hosted a breast cancer awareness campaign on Saturday, October 15.

04 Nov 2016

AN East Lancashire charity has sent response teams to Haiti to offer support and aid after the recent hurricane damage. Al-Imdaad Foundation members flew out to the Caribbean country after Hurricane Matthew caused widespread devastation damaging homes...

27 Oct 2016

Al-Imdaad Foundation co-ordinator wins Community Builder Award

27 Oct 2016

On October 21st 2016, at the Minara Business Chamber Awards Gala dinner, the Al-Imdaad Foundation’s local project coordinator, Abed Karrim took the Community Builder Award 2016.

18 Oct 2016

As the country cycles between drought and floods, managing water better is crucial, experts say

12 Oct 2016

A local humanitarian organisation, Al Imdaad Foundation says it's already deployed a team of ten members on the ground in Haiti where the death toll from Hurricane Matthew has passed 1000.

10 Oct 2016

In Myanmar’s Rakhine state, even food is political.

07 Oct 2016

The full scale of the devastation in rural parts of storm-hit Haiti became clear as the death toll soared to nearly 900 three days after Hurricane Matthew levelled huge swaths of the country’s south.

14 Aug 2016

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, has described the fight for the Syrian city of Aleppo as one of the most devastating conflicts in modern times. Fighting has been intensifying during the past weeks with hundreds...

12 Aug 2016

A deepening but often overlooked humanitarian crisis in West Africa’s Lake Chad region has been described “as the new terrible” by the UN’s top relief official, Stephen O’Brien.

08 Aug 2016

Fresh fighting threatens hundreds of thousands of lives, driving shortages of food, medical supplies and mass displacements.

05 Aug 2016

The Boko Haram insurgency has led to a food crisis the extent of which is only now being uncovered

05 Aug 2016

Al Imdaad Foundation workers provide blankets, hygiene packs and snack packs to flood-hit residents of uMlazi and Isipingo.

05 Aug 2016

Volunteers kit up to join the search for Brenda Lynn Scriven at Durban's Blue Lagoon. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng. Credit: INDEPENDENT MEDIA

29 Jul 2016

With a successful series of flights in 2015 that saw distributions of winter blankets targeting four hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal’s uMkhanyakude district, the repeat of the programme was agreed upon by all parties. This year, blankets and winter hats...

27 Jul 2016

The Baalbek International Festival is in town. Under silvery bunting, telltale tourists drift around in shorts in the sleepy mid-afternoon heat.

13 Jul 2016

“The most difficult part was crossing the desert. Three days and three nights, you walk and walk and you look around and it is only desert,” recalls Musa*, 18, from Gambia. He survived the Sahara crossing only to endure forced labour and violence in...

08 Jul 2016

Under intense pressure from the United States, Myanmar's new government is struggling to resolve one of its most pressing problems: it’s launched a programme aimed at providing citizenship to the Rohingya, an ethnic and religious minority who live...

03 Jul 2016

Every evening in Mytilene, capital of the Greek island of Lesvos, dozens of young Arab and African men gather at the base of a statue modelled, fittingly, after America’s Statue of Liberty. It overlooks the port, offering a good view of the entry gates,...

28 Jun 2016

Border closures have led to a migrant smuggling boom in the Balkans. Migrant smuggling and trafficking routes through the western Balkans that went dormant during the latter half of 2015 and early 2016 when migrants and refugees were allowed to move...

30 May 2016

Sri Lanka will enact a new, nationwide building code to mitigate the risks of future floods after heavy rain inundated the capital city, Colombo, and triggered landslides in the mountainous central region, killing about 200 people.

16 May 2016

How European policies are dividing refugee families

11 May 2016

Local NGOs and volunteers have been working around the clock to ensure that those left homeless after the weekend's heavy rains don't go hungry.

06 May 2016

Once Syria’s most populous city, Aleppo is now a humanitarian disaster zone. As fighting intensifies in several districts and bombs again rain down from the sky, tens of thousands of Syria’s forgotten civilians try to survive on the frontlines, dodging...

05 May 2016

The new residents of the City Plaza Hotel in downtown Athens can check out any time they like but, for now at least, they cannot leave Greece.

25 Apr 2016

Search-and-rescue teams continued to pull survivors from the rubble left by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Ecuador on Saturday evening, but some remoter coastal communities remained out of their reach with roads collapsed or blocked by landslides.

18 Apr 2016

Calls for donations have flooded social media since Ecuador’s worst earthquake in decades left a trail of destruction along the country’s Pacific Coast on 16 April.

16 Apr 2016

No happy ending for Myanmar refugees- When Malaysia allowed hundreds of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants abandoned by their smugglers and left adrift on the Andaman Sea to come ashore last May, it marked the end of a regional diplomatic stalemate...

13 Apr 2016

Dams have long run dry in Ilembe District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.

30 Mar 2016

As Greece prepares to deport an initial 500 migrants and refugees on Monday under a controversial agreement between the EU and Turkey, senior Greek officials say the pressure to process applications quickly has become too great, at the expense of legal...

22 Mar 2016

Indonesia used a regional meeting on migration in Bali on Wednesday to pressure Australia to take in more of the refugees who have become stranded in the Southeast Asian nation as a result of Canberra’s controversial policy of turning back asylum seeker...

08 Feb 2016

East London – Help is being provided to more than 50 families left homeless after a hailstorm in the Eastern Cape that killed one woman.

08 Feb 2016

LONDON, 3 February 2016 (IRIN) - The World Health Organization has declared that the strong links between Zika infection during pregnancy and microcephaly should be treated as a global public health emergency. IRIN maps the range of the Aedes aegypti...

08 Feb 2016

THARPARKAR DISTRICT, Pakistan, 4 February 2016 (IRIN) - At least 139 children died of waterborne disease in January in Pakistan's impoverished desert district of Tharparkar, which has been devastated by drought since 2013.

04 Feb 2016

OXFORD, 5 February 2016 (IRIN) - As the Zika virus continues its relentless spread through Latin America and beyond, causing anguish for would-be parents and leaving a trail of children with severe and lifelong developmental problems, the search to...

03 Feb 2016

East London - An elderly woman was killed, several people were injured, and homes damaged by a heavy hailstorm in the Eastern Cape, a municipal spokesperson said on Thursday.

02 Feb 2016

LONDON, 3 February 2016 (IRIN) - As a major funding conference opens in London, IRIN has run the numbers. Which countries can claim to be doing the most for the Syria crisis? We compare 29 aid donors (to Syria, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan) and refugee-hosting...

02 Feb 2016

On Wednesday, 3 February 2016 the Al-Imdaad Foundation, together with the eThekwini Deputy Mayor and poverty eradication programme Operation Sukuma Sakhe conducted distributions of 5 litre bottled water to 4 schools in the Waterloo and Seatide areas...

01 Feb 2016

MYTILINE, 2 February 2016 (IRIN) - Fotini Rantsiou is a volunteer aid worker and field advisor for Greek NGO, Solidarity Now. She is based on Lesvos while on a leave of absence from the UN’s emergency aid coordination body OCHA.

01 Feb 2016

GARDO, 2 February 2016 (IRIN) - Somalia is the new home for 30,560 people who have fled the fighting in Yemen and are trying to adjust to life in a country that – while no longer written off as a “failed state” – certainly has its challenges

01 Feb 2016

NAIROBI, 29 January 2016 (IRIN) - It’s almost a given that African leaders meeting this weekend in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, will not override Burundi’s objections and endorse the deployment of a 5,000-strong intervention force to help end the violence...

31 Jan 2016

Bogotá, 1 February 2016 (IRIN) - Since being infected with the Zika virus a month ago, Wendy Johana Castillo has been experiencing pain all over her body, a recurring fever and a skin rash. But the 23-year-old Colombian is more concerned about her...

28 Jan 2016

OXFORD, 27 January 2016 (IRIN) - A new Danish law that will allow police to search asylum seekers arriving in the country and confiscate any cash or valuables worth more than 10,000 kroner ($1,460) has been widely condemned by refugee and human rights...

28 Jan 2016

NAIROBI, 28 January 2016 (IRIN) - Southern Africa is facing the threat of extensive crop failures this year as a result of record low rainfall in a region in which 29 million people already don't have reliable access to enough affordable and nutritious...

18 Jan 2016

Before the war in Yemen, Lewa Abdurrahman worked in construction. Times have changed. As the owner of a donkey, he has become an integral part of the illicit economy that has sprouted up around the besieged city of Taiz.

18 Jan 2016

KAMPALA, 19 January 2016 (IRIN) - At least 640,000 people in Uganda’s northeastern Karamoja region – more than half its population – are facing food shortages as a result of a drought-affected harvest.

13 Jan 2016

LONDON, 12 January 2016 (IRIN) - At precisely the same time as aid lorries pulled into the besieged Syrian village of Madaya on Monday, too late to save those who had already starved to death, convoys also entered the besieged areas of Fua and Kefraya.

08 Jan 2016

NAIROBI, 23 December 2015 (IRIN) - El Niño is the largely unwanted Christmas gift – a warming of the tropical Pacific causing drought and floods that will peak at the end of this month, but will impact weather systems around the globe into 2016.

07 Jan 2016

AMMAN, 6 January 2016 (IRIN) - The Sudanese asylum seekers and refugees had been protesting for more than a month when the police came to deport them late December. Hundreds were camped outside the Amman offices of the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, driven...

06 Jan 2016

ROME, 7 January 2016 (IRIN) - “Please, sir, please! This is very serious. My engine is off and I have children and pregnant women.” The desperate plea comes from a rubber dinghy packed with 112 people who set off from the Libyan coast in the hope of...

05 Jan 2016

Extra water released from the Katse Dam at the end of last year is expected to reach drought-stricken Aliwal North today.

05 Jan 2016

JERUSALEM, 28 January 2016 (IRIN) - “Five years of conflict have been too much. The horror is in front of everyone’s eyes… You have seen enough conferences, two of them already taken place. This one cannot fail.”

16 Dec 2015

A FAMILY of 11 poverty stricken women and children were given a new lease on life with a new home in Cottonlands recently.

14 Dec 2015

After more than four years of civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced more than half the population, Syria is still a country divided. A variety of actors are locked in a power struggle including President Bashar al-Assad’s...

18 Nov 2015

After almost 7 months of diplomatic and bureaucratic wrangling, the Al-Imdaad Foundation’s Jordanian office has successfully launched the first of its kind humanitarian aid convoy from Jordan to the Gaza strip. The convoy will help address the dire...

04 Nov 2015

LESVOS, 5 November 2015 (IRIN) - I didn’t come to Lesvos as a volunteer. I came as a journalist, to report truthfully what I saw there. But in those crucial, urgent moments – when a few people struggle to feed 2,000 or screaming women hold their infants...

02 Nov 2015

As the death toll mounts in the Eastern Mediterranean, with stormy seas claiming the lives of at least 70 refugees in the last week of October, many of them children, the EU’s slow and fragmented response to the refugee crisis is looking increasingly...

29 Oct 2015

KwaZulu-Natal has been declared a disaster area.This follows a severe drought that has cost government hundreds of millions of rand. Strict water restrictions have been put in place in many areas to try and save water.

29 Oct 2015

On Wednesday, October 28th 2015, the Honourable Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Mr Senzo Mchunu made a visit to the head office of the Al-Imdaad Foundation in the town of Estcourt in Northern KwaZulu-Natal. The small town was abuzz with the sound of sirens...

28 Oct 2015

ISLAMABAD, 27 October 2015 (IRIN) - Pakistan added detailed seismic provisions to its national building code in 2007, two years after an earthquake in the disputed Kashmir region killed more than 80,000 people and destroyed countless constructions....

27 Oct 2015

KABUL/LAHORE, 26 October 2015 (IRIN) - Darkness put rescue efforts on hold in the mountainous Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, which was struck by a 7.5-magnitude earthquake on Monday, with roads destroyed and helicopters unable to fly...

26 Oct 2015

KUNDUZ, 27 October 2015 (IRIN) - Several districts near the epicentre of a 7.5-magnitude earthquake in Afghanistan are contested by government forces and Taliban insurgents, complicating relief to some of those affected by Monday’s quake.

26 Oct 2015

LONDON, 27 October 2015 (IRIN) - Counting the dead in a warzone as complex as Syria is so challenging that the UN abandoned the task in early 2014, saying it could no longer stand by the accuracy of its source material.

22 Oct 2015

Turkish aid agency the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) has launched a campaign for flour donations to boost its bread production in Syria.

21 Oct 2015

OXFORD, 19 October 2015 (IRIN) - For EU member states struggling to agree on the best response to the refugee crisis, the fallback plan has long been to look to third countries to solve the problem for them.

19 Oct 2015

THIAROYE, 20 October 2015 (IRIN) - When migrants go missing on the long journey from Africa to Europe the lack of information about their fate often adds immense bureaucratic hurdles to the anxious uncertainty suffered by their relatives back home.

13 Oct 2015

PRESEVO/OXFORD, 14 October 2015 (IRIN) - Rough seas and colder weather usually signal a sharp drop in the numbers of migrants and refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. But after a summer of unprecedented refugee arrivals,...

13 Oct 2015

YANGON, 13 October 2015 (IRIN) - After spending the summer rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean, a ship owned by an American millionaire will attempt to do the same in Southeast Asia. But the Migrant Offshore Aid Station could find itself sailing...

13 Oct 2015

DELHI, 12 October 2015 (IRIN) - Almost six months after Nepal was devastated by a massive earthquake, relief efforts are literally running on fumes. Tankers are unable to drive across the border from India. The country is running out of fuel. Will...

06 Oct 2015

The Al-Imdaad Foundation has sought to increase its assistance and aid towards refugees entering Europe from Syria and other war-ravaged countries in the Middle East, amid one of the world’s biggest refugee crises since World War II. A record number...

05 Oct 2015

BANGUI, 6 October 2015 (IRIN) - Six days of fighting that ended in Central African Republic’s capital last week has left a heavy toll: dozens dead, hundreds wounded, thousands displaced, and hope of an imminent resolution to the country’s protracted...

01 Oct 2015

ATHENS, Greece, October 2 (UNHCR) -- The UN refugee agency said on Friday that refugee and migrant arrivals in Greece are expected to hit the 400,000 mark soon, despite adverse weather conditions. Greece remains by far the largest single entry point...

23 Sep 2015

LONDON, 24 September 2015 (IRIN) - At the end of a long summer that has seen record numbers of migrants and refugees arriving on Europe’s shores, EU member states are still deeply divided in their response to the crisis. This week, they agreed to relocate...

20 Sep 2015

BELGRADE, 21 September 2015 (IRIN) - It is early afternoon and Miksalište, a major hub for refugees set up in a performance space in the heart of the Serbian capital, is a hive of activity. Some of the refugees queue to pick up donated food, clothes...

20 Sep 2015

BELGRADE, 21 August 2015 (IRIN) - Across the road from Belgrade’s main train and bus stations is a small park that until recently was known mainly for its sex workers. Now, hundreds of migrants and refugees camp out in the park every day, waiting for...

18 Sep 2015

SANA'A/BEIRUT, 18 September 2015 (IRIN) - Suddenly everyone knows about Syria as hundreds of thousands of refugees flee across Europe. But further south, another Middle Eastern country is also imploding, arguably at an even faster rate. Will refugees...

17 Sep 2015

LONDON, 18 September 2015 (IRIN) - Earlier this year, an 8.1-magnitude earthquake hit Nepal, killing more than 8,000 people and displacing nearly three million. A few days ago, an earthquake significantly more powerful struck Chile. The epicentre was...

17 Sep 2015

PATHEIN DISTRICT, Myanmar, 17 September 2015 (IRIN) - Almost two months after Cyclone Komen triggered Myanmar’s worst flooding in recent memory, parts of the Irrawaddy delta remain submerged while rising river levels have prompted the government to...

15 Sep 2015

ABU DHABI, 16 September 2015 (IRIN) - Just a few years ago, Hussein knew little about humanitarian aid. A mild-mannered Syrian car salesman in Doha, he lived a simple life between home and the office. Aside from the odd gift or remittances, he had...

14 Sep 2015

Röszke, 15 September 2015 (IRIN) - For the thousands of migrants and refugees streaming into Serbia with the hope of entering the European Union via Hungary, the journey ahead is littered with ever more obstacles: from a razor-wire fence and the threat...

11 Sep 2015

Thousands of refugees continue to cross into Macedonia from Greece daily. While authorities in both countries are doing a better job of managing the crowds at the border, it is a fragile order that quickly evaporates when trains fail to run and the...

10 Sep 2015

11/9/15 Geneva, Switzerland - The number of migrants, including refugees seeking asylum, who have arrived in Europe by sea so far in 2015 has surpassed 430,000, according to IOM analysis.This figure is double the amount of arrivals in the Mediterranean...

10 Sep 2015

OXFORD, 9 September 2015 (IRIN) - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called for “bold, concerted action” to manage Europe’s refugee crisis during his State of the Union address today and outlined a raft of measures that member states...

07 Sep 2015

LONDON, 8 September 2015 (IRIN) - At the same time as European Union nations consider opening their doors to more Syrian refugees, they are looking for ways to close them to asylum seekers from other countries.

06 Sep 2015

BERLIN, 7 September 2015 (IRIN) - As 18,000 asylum seekers arrived in Munich over the weekend, local authorities scrambled to find them all beds. Sites for trade fairs, an abandoned car showroom, even railway carriages, have all been turned into emergency...

06 Sep 2015

GAZIANTEP, 7 September 2015 (IRIN) - Ask any aid organisation working on Syria their biggest problems and towards the top of every list will be one thing: you can’t get the staff, or, more accurately, you can’t keep the staff.

04 Sep 2015

EIRUT, 2 September 2015 (IRIN) - Imagine Syria didn't exist - that the war never happened. Suddenly Europe’s migration crisis doesn't look so bad.

04 Sep 2015

OXFORD, 3 September 2015 (IRIN) - By now, most of us have seen the gut-wrenching photographs of a lifeless Syrian toddler washed up on a Turkish beach. Countless Twitter and Facebook users have suggested only such horrifying images can shame EU leaders...

03 Sep 2015

OXFORD, 4 September 2015 (IRIN) - In the face of a surge in migrant arrivals, the EU Commission has urged member states to take a tougher stance on rapidlyreturning migrants who don’t qualify for asylum, but a European Court of Human Rights judgement...

03 Sep 2015

OXFORD, 4 September 2015 (IRIN) - In the face of a surge in migrant arrivals, the EU Commission has urged member states to take a tougher stance on rapidlyreturning migrants who don’t qualify for asylum, but a European Court of Human Rights judgement...

01 Sep 2015

BUTHIDAUNG, Myanmar, 1 September 2015 (IRIN) - In the 2010 general elections, about 150,000 Muslims in this isolated township in western Myanmar were able to cast ballots. When the country returns to the polls in November the number of Muslim voters...

30 Aug 2015

AMMAN, 31 August 2015 (IRIN) - Responding to any urgent humanitarian situation, including the current inflow of migrants and refugees to Europe, involves correctly categorising and defining the problem. But agonising over labels and language risks...

25 Aug 2015

Smugglers cast 5,000 desperate souls adrift on the Andaman Sea. Survivors spoke to UNHCR about their terrifying ordeal.

24 Aug 2015

Röszke , 25 August 2015 (IRIN) - As Hungary rushes to complete the first phase of a controversial fence along its Serbian border, migrants – mainly refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq – have been desperately trying to reach the country, which...

24 Aug 2015

ATTEMPTS to provide quality healthcare for isolated areas received a major boost when the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health, the SA Red Cross Air Mercy Service and the Al-Imdaad Foundation joined forces last week.

10 Aug 2015

An iconic bakery and co-ordination centre set up on the Turkish border to facilitate humanitarian assistance to Syria’s refugees has gone up in flames.

07 Aug 2015

The infant mortality rate in Gaza has risen for the first time in five decades, according to an UNRWA study, and UNRWA’s Health Director says the blockade may be contributing to the trend.

27 Jul 2015

GENEVA, July 28 (UNHCR) – As Jordan's Za'atari camp – the largest refugee camp in the Middle East – prepared to mark its third anniversary, the UN refugee agency revealed on Tuesday (July 28) an increase in the number of refugees seeking shelter in...

27 Jul 2015

8 July 2015 – A political solution is more urgent than ever to end the “futile, hopeless” cycle of brutality and violence in Syria, the top United Nations humanitarian official said today, urging the Security Council to consider its options through...

19 Jul 2015

I can still hear my children’s worried voices from the backseat. ‘Mom, do you think they will be nice? What if I won’t make any friends?

05 Jul 2015

At the current rate that materials are entering Gaza, it will take over half a century to meet housing needs

17 Jun 2015

SANA'A, 16 June 2015 (IRIN) - Eighteen months ago, the small Yemeni village of Al-Hamza* was awash with joy. A mass wedding dominated its small streets, with a few dozen couples tying the knot simultaneously.

14 Jun 2015

LANGSA, Indonesia, 15 June 2015 (IRIN) - Nur Yanah can’t hold back the tears when she recalls hundreds of emaciated boat people arriving in her native Aceh province after being rescued by local fishermen in defiance of the government decision to leave...

10 Jun 2015

MANILA, 10 June 2015 (IRIN) - Recent quakes in Nepal and Malaysia have shaken the Philippines into action, with authorities scaling up earthquake preparedness drills and safety inspections of public buildings in the capital Manila.

09 Jun 2015

DUBAI, 10 June 2015 (IRIN) - Conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen are leading to unprecedented numbers of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Middle East and North Africa, and increasingly complex and severe humanitarian crises.

08 Jun 2015

KUALA LUMPUR, 8 June 2015 (IRIN) - As Malaysian police finish exhuming mass graves in human trafficking camps along the Thai border, Southeast Asian nations are under pressure to end the brutal trade in human lives by tackling the roots of the crisis.

31 May 2015

What started as a dream almost three years ago in a high-flood zone with supportive donors, has flourished into a beautiful garden

29 May 2015

SEATTLE — Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011 between forces supporting Syrian president Bashir Al Assad and rebel forces, many Syrians have been forced to flee their homes in an attempt to escape the conflict. About 7 million Syrians have been...

28 May 2015

SAY THA MAR GYI, Myanmar, 29 May 2015 (IRIN) - Maung Zaw Lin was shopping in the market when an unknown man approached him with a compelling proposal: he offered to take him from his camp for displaced persons on the western coast of Myanmar to Malaysia...

23 May 2015

OXFORD, 13 May 2015 (IRIN) - As Europe focuses on the migrants in the Mediterranean, another humanitarian crisis is playing out on a stretch of water between the Andaman Sea and the Strait of Malacca in Southeast Asia. Hundreds, possibly thousands,...

21 May 2015

AMMAN / DUBAI, 22 May 2015 (IRIN) - The conflict in Yemen is worsening the country's food insecurity, according to a new report, which predicts that the parts of Arab state may enter an emergency phase by the end of the year.

20 May 2015

MAILUNG , 21 May 2015 (IRIN) - Mento Ghale did what any parent would do when Nepal’s 25 April earthquake struck her village of Mailung: she grabbed the children and got them out of the house as quickly as she could.

20 May 2015

KIGOMA, Tanzania, 21 May 2015 (IRIN) - If you ask a Burundian refugee who has recently arrived in Tanzania when they plan to return home, there’s a good chance that the answer will be, “I don’t.” Now a cholera outbreak on the border has made the journey...

20 May 2015

NAIROBI, 15 May 2015 (IRIN) - Three weeks after a major earthquake struck Nepal, aid efforts have yet to reach many remote communities. Now those still living amid the rubble of their villages must survive the monsoon due in the next few weeks.

19 May 2015

A Turkish bakery is producing 170,000 loaves of bread per day and sending them to Syria's needy.

17 May 2015

Faizal Ahmad* has just spent six months at sea, in an open boat crammed with 450 people, praying that Allah would deliver him to safety and a future free of persecution.

14 May 2015

OXFORD, 15 May 2015 (IRIN) - The plight of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers from Myanmar and Bangladesh, left adrift without food and water for nearly a week, has all the hallmarks of a full-blown humanitarian crisis. Yet despite statements...

12 May 2015

The Al-Imdaad Foundation, which is based in Blackburn, sent out a team from its base in South Africa following the first earthquake in April

05 May 2015

BUJUMBURA, 6 May 2015 (IRIN) - At least a dozen people have been killed in recent days in Burundi amid protests against the president’s plans to run for a third term in office. The unrest has raised fears that the country, after a decade of peace,...

03 May 2015

KATHMANDU, 4 May 2015 (IRIN) - Sabita Danwar was washing dishes at the hotel where she works when the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal on 25 April. Her first thought was for the safety of her two sons on the other side of Kathmandu. Her second...

26 Apr 2015

Aid groups and governments worldwide intensified efforts Sunday to help earthquake-hit Nepal, but blocked roads, downed power lines and overcrowded hospitals posed formidable challenges in an already poor country.

14 Apr 2015

Durban - Locals and foreign nationals gathered at the Isipingo Beach Sports ground on Wednesday to offer their daily Islamic afternoon prayer, with an added call for peace.

13 Apr 2015

Many have fled their homes. The Isipingo police station continues to be inundated with the displaced. A temporary shelter has now been set up and on Thursday more than 200 foreigners were moved to the secure camp.

09 Apr 2015

The Al-Imdaad and eThekwini municipal workers hand out much-needed supplies to displaced foreigners at the Chatsworth Stadium.

01 Apr 2015

Hundreds of foreign nationals have sought refuge at a local police station in the town of Isipingo in South Africa, almost four days after a series of alleged xenophobic attacks in the town, local activists said.

11 Mar 2015

BEIRUT, 12 March 2015 (IRIN) - As Syria's war enters its fifth year, the human toll is almost unimaginable.

08 Mar 2015

JOHANNESBURG—Cholera has again reared its ugly head in Southern Africa, infecting nearly 6,000 people in Mozambique, Malawi and now Zimbabwe. Heavy rains have been cited as the main culprit of this outbreak, but poor sanitation continues to plague...

25 Feb 2015

(26 February 2015) – Six months have passed since a ceasefire on 26 August 2014 ended over seven weeks of fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip. As UN agencies and international NGOs operating in Gaza, we are...

05 Feb 2015

BANGULA, 6 February 2015 (IRIN) - For those who have lost everything in southern Malawi’s Chikwawa District, just getting the next meal is now the priority.

21 Jan 2015

NAIROBI, 20 January 2015 (IRIN) - The number of people affected by severe flooding in southern Africa continues to rise, and more rain is predicted.

16 Jan 2015

NAIROBI, 16 January 2015 (IRIN) - The scale and impact of the current flooding in southern Malawi seems to have caught the authorities by surprise. Some areas were deluged with a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours, and forecasts suggest there is more...

15 Jan 2015

The South African government is sending men and equipment from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to assist in search and rescue missions in flood hit areas of the central Mozambican province of Zambezia.

31 Dec 2014

Malaysia, southern Thailand and parts of the Philippines have been battered by heavy rain and flash floods in recent days, killing dozens of people.

20 Nov 2014

Nationwide, more than 3,400 children have been directly affected by the virus, including at least 89 children who have lost one parent and more than 795 who have lost both parents to Ebola, according to the MSWGCA/UNICEF-led Family Tracing and Reunification...

18 Nov 2014

Before the current outbreak in Mali, the World Health Organization (WHO) had categorized the country as at-risk, due to its long border and strong economic ties with Guinea, where the epidemic began. It was targeted as a country to receive technical...

12 Nov 2014

Many public health officials see survivors as a highly valued commodity in a struggle against a disease that has decimated so many people on the front line.

28 Oct 2014

"A lot of people also forget how emotional it is. You know your patients. You know their history and you see them dying. You see the father dying, you see the mother dying, the sister dying. It's quite emotional. We save lives, yet you cannot do it....

11 Oct 2014

Six Ebola-hit districts, including Kailahun, Kenema, Port Loko, Bombali, Mayambo and parts of Freetown, are “isolated” across the country, meaning locals need a special pass to leave them, and houses with confirmed Ebola cases are cordoned off, their...

09 Oct 2014

"You can see in their eyes the children are not well. They have fevers and have signs of skin disease. Many children in the village have diarrhoea. I see them grow weaker every day"

02 Oct 2014

Durban - A KwaZulu-Natal based humanitarian relief organisation is delivering 1 000 tons of flour in strife-torn Syria

29 Sep 2014

NEW DELHI: The Centre feels that both Jammu & Kashmir and Meghalaya were inadequately prepared to deal with the recent floods, though largely because they had not faced floods for a long time.

19 Sep 2014

Thus far there have not been widespread shortages of the staple rice, said Alimamy Bangura of the Finance Ministry's Economic Policy and Research Unit, though there are fears that long-term border closures could lead to dwindling stocks and panic...

18 Sep 2014

The “super-flood” surged south, wreaking havoc throughout Punjab, the country’s most populous province.

17 Sep 2014

“While many children move across South African borders and many of these may require protection of some kind… I sense we should be far more careful about developing a heavy-handed and securitized approach to these concerns,”

12 Sep 2014

“At this point in time, with the knowledge that flooding is expected in Sindh in the next few days, it is anticipated that this is a disaster that will figure between the flooding of 2013 which affected about 1.5 million people and the super floods...

09 Sep 2014

"The damage is shocking, people have been stranded on rooftops of their homes for the last three days in some parts of Kashmir,"

27 Aug 2014

GUWAHATI: Nine people have been killed and over 12 lakh hit by floods in 16 districts of the state. The floods were triggered by heavy rain in the region, mostly in neighbouring Arunachal, over the last few days. Till Wednesday, four persons were reported...

27 Aug 2014

The war in Gaza ended on Tuesday after Israel and the Palestinians agreed to halt fighting indefinitely, putting an end to seven weeks of catastrophic loss of life and destruction, but on terms which are likely to leave many on both sides of the conflict...

06 Aug 2014

GAZA CITY, 7 August 2014 (IRIN) - There are about 10 seconds, or at least that is what it feels like, between the launching of the missile and the devastating crash of the explosion. They are the darkest moments of my life. As the sound of the falling...

22 Jul 2014

Since the start of the Israeli assault on Gaza on 8 July 2014, the water and wastewater infrastructure in Gaza has been heavily affected by Israeli airstrikes. Main water supply and wastewater infrastructure has been hit and as a result the water supply...

21 Jul 2014

"And it is not only money we lack, but also security and personal safety. If we cannot provide our families with their basic needs, at least we try to move them to safety,”

15 Jul 2014

Ae'd Yaghi, director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, called for immediate international action to protect Palestinians and provide medical supplies.

05 Jul 2014

FRIENDS OF AL IMDAAD a volunteer wing have launched their first mobile musallah and madrasah.

25 Jun 2014

Johannesburg - KwaZulu-Natal premier Senzo Mchunu on Thursday announced plans to eradicate poverty in the province.

18 Jun 2014

Communal violence in Rakhine state in 2012 displaced more than 140,000 Rohingya, and forced many to cross into Bangladesh. Conditions are far from ripe for their return.

30 May 2014

Last month, the head of Italy’s Immigration and Border Police agency was widely quoted in the media telling a parliamentary committee that 800,000 more migrants were poised to depart the North African coast for Europe, a figure which he later admitted...

20 May 2014

States of emergency have been declared in parts of Bosnia and Serbia after the heaviest rain and worst floods since records began 120 years ago.

06 May 2014

The official said at least 26 persons were killed in Baksa. "Still 15 persons are missing. Out of them, 12 are children and 3 women,"

06 May 2014

More than 3,000 families displaced by flooding in the Tokwe-Mukosi dam basin in Zimbabwe’s southeastern Masvingo Province are facing looming food shortages after more than three months living in crowded, unsanitary conditions at a temporary camp.

06 May 2014

More than one million people live within a 10km radius of the summit, putting them at constant risk. Hundreds of lives have been lost due to its eruptions since the 1990s

20 Feb 2014

PK12, the last checkpoint at the exit of town, thousands of Muslim residents from Bangui and Mbaiki flee the Central African Republic capital Bangui in a mass exodus using cars, pickups, trucks, lorries and motorcycles, escorted by Chadian troops.

30 Jan 2014

“Rather than spending hours at the well, I can now take better care of my children, keep them clean to prevent sickness and share in discussions on family matters. As water collectors, we are just like chattel - but with water pouring from a tap we...

25 Jan 2014

“Every day we are providing two weeks rations to 500 displaced families at Bangui airport, and we have only enough food for another few days’ distributions,”

22 Jan 2014

The NGO said the Muslim neighbourhoods in Boali, a town about 80 kilometres northwest of the capital, were empty, and that Muslims were also reported to have fled in large numbers from the towns of Bossembele, Yakole and Boyali, as well as many smaller...

17 Jan 2014

The clinic sees 15 new cases of malnutrition per week, a threefold increase in as many years, explains Guindo, a doctor who practices both modern and traditional medicine.

16 Jan 2014

“Seeds and food stocks are in short supply: most people surveyed said their meal consumption has dropped from three times to once a day”

14 Jan 2014

A report released in 2013 by Novo Nordisk, a global healthcare company, says 7.6 million people in Indonesia are living with diabetes, with millions more are at risk.

17 Dec 2013

In high-risk cities, contingency planning should establish baseline information, including cost-of-living calculations, so that the difference between "normal" circumstances and shocks can be quickly determined.

17 Dec 2013

More than 300 people have been admitted to [the] Juba Teaching Hospital and [the] Juba Military Hospital over the past two days.

17 Dec 2013

"Large swathes of northern Gaza are a disaster area with water as far as the eye can see"

14 Dec 2013

The death and destruction in the Philippines is the worst since 1991. Up to 9 December 2013, the typhoon, which struck on 8 November, had affected more than 12 million people, killed nearly 6,000 and left almost 1,800 more missing.

12 Dec 2013

Fighting involving armed groups and attacks on civilians prompted the displacement of 700,000 people this year in Orientale Province,

12 Dec 2013

While under-five child mortality rates have been declining throughout Mali over the past decade - from an average of 197 deaths per 1,000 in 2002 to 130 per 1,000 in 2012, according to the researchers, this intervention has produced dramatic results....

11 Dec 2013

“As a matter of fact, most markets in the maize production areas have reached abnormally high price levels during the quarter July-September, with prices high in areas that had poor yields,”

11 Dec 2013

"It is really painful that the government had to dump us to such a place before they even set up any housing structures for us,” said Marlyn Mathambo, 44, a widow who takes care of her four children as well as three grandsons.

11 Dec 2013

With basic road infrastructure badly damaged, access to the coastal communities of Guiuan in Eastern Samar, where Haiyan first made landfall, was extremely difficult but has now improved. Roads have been cleared and public transportation is running...

09 Dec 2013

“In the first 14 days, we've seen over 4,000 kids under five, and a few adults, and we treated 3,200 for malaria,”

09 Dec 2013

A year-long outbreak that started in the slums of the capital, Luanda, in February 2006 and spread to 16 out of 18 provinces, resulted in over 80,000 reported cases and 3,000 deaths.

09 Dec 2013

“My farm, where I grew vegetables and fruits, has been completely wiped out, and I have lost an estimated fortune of US$12,000,” Abdullahi Mohamed Hussein, a resident of Jowhar

09 Dec 2013

“There are many young mothers who can hardly afford to feed their children, and this means the issue of malnutrition for children under five years is very high. The health facility can hardly cope with the demand here. HIV prevalence is higher than...

07 Dec 2013

Pakistan made strong vaccination efforts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, leading to significant strides in the battle against the disease, according to local monitoring organizations

05 Dec 2013

Thirty breastfeeding tents will be put up this month in evacuation centres in Tacloban and the nearby region of Tanauan. Aid groups will also broadcast nutrition-related messages for half an hour on the radio each morning at 10 a.m., according to the...

03 Dec 2013

“It is the main question in Gaza now. What we need - as an essential right - is living healthy and sound, in a decent way. We want this to be a place where my baby, family and Palestinians can live with dignity.”

02 Dec 2013

“Many of the farmers have been wiped out. Not only have they lost their homes, they have lost their homes and rice crops, but also their tools and equipment, as well as what rice they might have had in storage from the previous harvest

02 Dec 2013

We estimate that since the spill was reported on 8 November to today, some 850,000 litres of bunker oil have been leaked into the coastal waters of Estancia

02 Dec 2013

According to Google People Finder, 67,900 people have registered to look for loved ones or provide information on someone who was found.

28 Nov 2013

“Food security is still thought about too much in terms of quantity… the nutritional aspects of food are recognized, but it’s not enough,”

27 Nov 2013

Many of us have been refugees since 2007, and in Rwanda there is a Congolese population that left nearly 20 years ago.

27 Nov 2013

“Since polio outbreaks were confirmed in Somalia and other neighbouring countries of Kenya and Ethiopia, health authorities in South Sudan have been on high alert for any possible cases in the country,” said OCHA in a humanitarian bulletin. “South...

25 Nov 2013

Violence and inter-communal clashes between the Rohingya and Buddhists in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, most recently in June and October 2012, has prompted many Rohingya to flee, mostly across the border to Bangladesh, which stopped registering them as...

25 Nov 2013

Here's the paradox: Bangladesh is a very poor country,- much poorer than India or Pakistan. It has the lowest spending on healthcare in south Asia, (just US$27 per capita annually), and is extremely short of qualified doctors and nurses (only three...

25 Nov 2013

The main killer here is the lack of water that we have lived with for many years now,” said Phiri whose 3-year-old daughter died last year of dysentery, a waterborne disease. He suspects she contracted it when she crawled into a toilet that was overflowing...

22 Nov 2013

Nearly 400,000 people are being housed in some 1,500 evacuation centres, while over four million other displaced are living with relatives or friends.

22 Nov 2013

A growing number of volunteers have come to the city, with many arriving from various parts of the country in large groups. Dr Gary Larosa, a government health officer in his early 50s, was at a mall shopping with his family in Davao City the day after...

22 Nov 2013

A friend of mine is one of the few doctors left in the besieged southern Damascus town of al-Hajar al-Aswad. He told me newborns are the most affected. Their mothers are not producing enough breast milk, and there is no powdered milk available.

22 Nov 2013

“Because we do not have the information, we do not intervene, and we allow people to live in conditions that we would consider unacceptable in rural settings,

12 Nov 2013

Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt have spent billions of dollars hosting more than 2.2 million Syrian refugees in camps, towns and cities across the region.

02 Nov 2013

“Every year in Mali there are at least 10 deaths due to farmer-herder conflicts in villages along the Mali-Guinea border. The future of pastoralism worries me if no steps are taken,”

29 Oct 2013

"I found myself in Nongo [50 km south of Bunia] because of the weapons and bombs the FARDC [the DRC army] are setting off on the militia. We fled to prevent the children from being injured or dying. The fighters are out there; they will kill. It’s...

21 Oct 2013

"Alimentary system infections caused by acute water shortages in the dry season are equally important issues for non-IDP populations in Rakhine State, especially in rural and remote areas,"

18 Oct 2013

Of the 162,566 people displaced, nearly 100,000 are in 85 evacuation centres, mostly in Bohol, while another 65,000 are staying with family and friends, often near their homes, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC)

17 Oct 2013

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09 Oct 2013

The number of infections is on a par with an outbreak of dengue fever in 2011 in Lahore in which more than 17,000 people were infected and over 300 died in four months.

09 Oct 2013

“This country is so expensive,” Fatima said. “They were already giving us almost nothing and now they are going to stop this [aid].

01 Oct 2013

DAMASCUS, 2 October 2013 (IRIN) - The writer is a recent graduate of the University of Damascus from a well-to-do family belonging to a Syrian minority. For security reasons, he prefers to stay anonymous. In this fourth diary entry, he describes feelings...

24 Sep 2013

The EU still has a long way to go in implementing a Common European Asylum System, with some states much less likely to grant refugee status than others.

09 Sep 2013

87 percent could not afford the medication they require

01 Sep 2013

“There is an expectation that this is going to create new challenges in addition to those that already exist.”

30 Aug 2013

While Turkey's health response to leishmaniasis has involved the treatment of tens of thousands of patients in state-run camps and hospitals this year, much of the burden for treating the disease inside Turkey has fallen on poorly supplied clinics,...

29 Aug 2013

More than 8,000 camp residents are affected, while overall the torrential rains and flash floods, which started in mid-August, have killed 39 people and destroyed homes, schools and infrastructure.

28 Aug 2013

"How do you deal with an emergency for people who believe national borders don't exist? You cannot fix them [in a location]; it will not work. There is a need for innovative approaches,"

27 Aug 2013

“First we were refugees in Syria, and now we are seeking refuge in Lebanon… Like many other Palestinians, I feel we are double refugees.”

25 Aug 2013

"There is no one to take care of the children. Most of the time I have to work for other families to get money by helping out on the farms," said Oumar, who has children aged three and 13 months.

22 Aug 2013

“Our father is getting old. He worked as a labourer, but doesn’t work now because he is diabetic. I am staying here in this tent, along with some of my friends, so as to rebuild the house, which we only built six months ago."

19 Aug 2013

“Most parts of the country have not received favourable rains over the past two years or so, and this period has exposed how vulnerable the FISP is,”

16 Aug 2013

"Some of these people could have been saved. They could have been saved if there was somebody to save them"

16 Aug 2013

Over 3,500 people displaced by a volcano which first erupted in eastern Indonesia more than 10 months ago need further assistance

14 Aug 2013

“Darfur has seen a new wave of fighting in many areas in 2013. More than 300,000 people have had to flee their homes to escape violence since the beginning of the year, including over 35,000 people who have crossed the borders into Chad and the Central...

08 Aug 2013

Assalámo-alaikum-warahmatulláhi-wa barakátuh & EID MUBARAK.

04 Aug 2013

“People keep backups; some have savings, others have valuables and livestock. Once they’re gone, and they’re barely making enough to eat, it is extremely difficult for them to rebuild those backups,”

04 Aug 2013

"We are poor not because of a lack of aid, we are poor because aid does not reach the targeted populations."

18 Jul 2013

On this front, refugees say there are not enough bathrooms (toilets and washrooms) for the number of residents in the camp. Some say they have to walk up to 2km to get to a bathroom and wait in line for up to an hour, only to find no water in the taps.

10 Jul 2013

Guwahati: With no sign of relief from flood waters in Assam, the situation continued to remain critical as 27 more villages were submerged today.

03 Jul 2013

Some 11.3 million Sahelians are estimated to be short of food this year and 1.5 million under-fives acutely malnourished.

03 Jul 2013

“The main effects will be reduced service-provision to vulnerable populations, thus resulting in a potential increase in cases of communicable diseases, including water-borne and vector-borne diseases, as well as lack of service to injured individuals.”

28 Jun 2013

“These IDCs were not designed to accommodate so many people for long periods of time. Overcrowding and movement restrictions can lead to physical and psychological problems for these groups that have already faced trauma in their villages and on the...

28 Jun 2013

“You can see how we are struggling to collect food rations in this scorching sun, but I cannot trust to go back to Somalia so early, because I am sure I will be forced to run away again due to the ongoing conflict between the various factions fighting...

19 Jun 2013

One 19-year-old cradles her newborn, wrapped in a blanket. She travelled with her baby, literally just days old, from Aleppo, 500km north of Jordan, sleeping in a different village every night. Her husband, who fled to Jordan before her, has not yet...

12 Jun 2013

During the two-year conflict in Syria, close to six million people have been displaced, either within Syria or as refugees in neighbouring countries, according to the UN. The death toll has reached nearly 93,000, according to the UN High Commissioner...

10 Jun 2013

According to UNICEF, 150,000 Syrian children in Jordan are out of school

09 Jun 2013

The camp is home to 120,000 people who live in tents and caravans in the middle of the desert in conditions that - while improving - remain very difficult. Riots occur almost daily over perceived injustice in distribution and general frustration over...

08 Jun 2013

One week in mid-May, the camp saw almost no new arrivals - attributed at the time to security measures during two international conferences in Jordan. Since then, arrival levels have fluctuated, but remain in the hundreds of entries per night, far...

03 Jun 2013

Malnutrition comes in a variety of forms: undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity. Two billion people in the world suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, such as anaemia, for example, and more than a billion people are overweight...

03 Jun 2013

Nepal is home to at least 20,000 Tibetan refugees, many of whom fled south across the Himalayas following the 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Tens of thousands were reportedly killed....

02 Jun 2013

Locals had complained to the government that OFSL was poorly managed, spending money on ghost workers, jeeps and other equipment. Many had disapproved of the programme, seeing it as a means of paying off criminals.

29 May 2013

“There are no ‘durable solutions’ here without a change in the level of peace and stability, and changes in the destructive behaviour of the armed parties towards civilians,”

27 May 2013

Most of the Syrian community in Libya, estimated at around 110,000 by government officials, are believed to have arrived over the past 18 months after having fled the Syrian conflict.

23 May 2013

In Nasib village, just 2km from one of four border crossings between Jordan and Syria, there are 10,000 displaced people waiting to leave Syria, according to village imam Abu Omar.

19 May 2013

According to local government officials, 700,000 to 800,000 people have been evacuated in 13 coastal districts under the country’s Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP)

13 May 2013

“If the government fails to evacuate those at risk, any disaster that will result will not be natural, but man-made,”

06 May 2013

As Bangladesh armed forces retrieve bodies from the country’s worst ever industrial disaster, a garment factory collapse killing over 700, contingency planning is taking place for something worse - a long-predicted earthquake striking the mega-capital...

06 May 2013

Experts say the building was but one example of a broken system for authorizing, carrying out and monitoring construction; tens of thousands more buildings - and millions of people inside them - face the same fate

02 May 2013

“The Rohingya have been constant victims of arbitrary arrests, extortion, harassment and fines due to their precarious legal status and laws prohibiting basic rights such as freedom of movement,

30 Apr 2013

According to most estimates, 95 percent of those displaced are Muslims, mostly Rohingyas. Under Burmese law, the Rohingya are de jure stateless. There are an estimated 800,000 Rohingya in Myanmar, and human rights groups say they have long faced persecution...

30 Apr 2013

On 24 April, at least 385 people were killed when the concrete structure collapsed in Bangladesh’s Savar industrial suburb (24km northwest Dhaka), trapping more than 3,000 mostly garment workers inside.

21 Apr 2013

According to the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Bangladesh is ranked one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, with cyclones striking coastal regions almost every year

21 Apr 2013

“The war is just such a series of mixed blessings,” said Ned Parker, a former fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and long-time Iraq correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. “For every positive development, there’s a negative development that...

14 Apr 2013

Around 1,500 families fled their homes in March when heavily armed fighters from the Qantrar and Meshashya communities clashed in early March. The fight lasted five days, killing nine people, according to the head of the town’s local council, Abdel...

13 Apr 2013

“You go to the market, there is no fruit, no vegetables, meat or fish… There is only rice, millet and corn - mainly donated by the government or internationals. Old and young are surviving on these cereals, but it is not enough.”

07 Apr 2013

“There are few hospitals and clinics outside the major cities, and the few medical institutions available in these areas offer no services whatsoever to the patients. These medical institutions are cut off [from] whatever it takes to serve these patients.”...

07 Apr 2013

“Health centres lack electricity, water and other essential medical commodities to assist in delivery. In the past, I used to [hold] my cell phone in my mouth [and use its] torch to [assist delivering] mothers at the health centre,”

05 Apr 2013

“Niger faces drought once in every two years. Even in a good year, there is a part of the population that still remains vulnerable. Drought is the main threat to agriculture in our country. It’s responsible for 80 percent of losses in terms of agricultural...

04 Apr 2013

“In January, seven children drank water from a mountain stream that was polluted with pesticides from a nearby sugar cane plantation, and one of the girls died. Several of them had to be transferred to a Chinese hospital for emergency treatment,”

04 Apr 2013

“The main humanitarian needs in Bangui are access to health and nutrition and clean water [and] security and protection of civilians,”

02 Apr 2013

The camp, built to accommodate around 60,000 Syrian refugees, is now home to at least 140,000, according to the government. Some 50,000 arrived in February alone; between 1,500 and 2,000 more arrive every night.

01 Apr 2013

“This place is not a country,” said Jwan Abdullah, an English teacher at the small village school. “We have no government; there is no doctor, no hospital. We don’t have a [phone] number for emergencies, and we need this.”

28 Mar 2013

"We are concerned - our forecast shows that there is 80 percent probability that rains could trend from normal to below normal across Somalia,"

26 Mar 2013

“Right now something that is being tried is fisheries. This could be a viable employment opportunity, provided the communities are empowered to participate in such income-generating activities,

26 Mar 2013

“Criminal trials are never perfect... When all remedies are exhausted - national and international - we are left with a judicial truth, which may or may not reconcile society... War crimes justice hits a few defendants, while the crimes of the latter...

26 Mar 2013

At least 40 people were killed and more than 12,000 displaced in the area, officials estimate, in what is being described as the worst sectarian violence to strike Myanmar since the 2012 unrest in western Rakhine State, where more than 120,000 Muslim...

24 Mar 2013

Deadly sectarian clashes in June and October 2012 left 167 dead, hundreds injured and over 120,000 displaced. More than 10,000 homes were burned or destroyed.

24 Mar 2013

At least five mosques were set ablaze and scores of homes burned, and at least 20 people are reported to have been killed since the violence began, but exact figures remain unknown. According to local authorities, more than 10,000 people have been...

22 Mar 2013

The community was first named an ICT [information communications technology] village in 2005 through the separate Infopoverty Programme, which provided access to technology through classrooms equipped with computers

22 Mar 2013

Somalia has some of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world, and thousands of infants and children succumb annually to easily preventable and treatable conditions such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, malnutrition and measles.

21 Mar 2013

The comments follow two days of violence in Meiktila, in Mandalay Division - the worst communal unrest to shake Myanmar since clashes between ethnic Rakhine Buddists and Rohingya Muslims in western Rakhine State in 2012. That earlier violence left...

20 Mar 2013

Fighting in North Kivu in 2012 displaced some 590,000 people, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In total, some 914,000 people are displaced in the province. According to the NGO Refugees International (RI),...

20 Mar 2013

“Only to a certain extent, honestly, because life is very hard, there's no money in the house, no-one works. I am looking for a solution to improve life,”

19 Mar 2013

"The durdurs [springs] near Las-Anod have run out of water for the first time in history, and prices [have] increased,"

18 Mar 2013

“We are strongly advising people not to return to their homes as the security conditions have not been met. [Clearing of] landmines [and UXO] would be one of the conditions for people to return. We urge them to remain where they are,”

17 Mar 2013

“Droughts are becoming more prevalent and are an almost a permanent phenomenon in parts of Africa, punctuated by floods, leaving no recovery periods for vulnerable households,”

14 Mar 2013

. “During the flooding emergency that occurred in June 2012, around 3,196 girls dropped out of school. Most of the schools located in the seven woredas [districts] were flooded, with eventual destruction of all educational materials and school infrastructure,”

14 Mar 2013

"People build and settle in prohibited areas, including [around] sewers, blocking the free flow of wastewater, which explains the repeated outbreaks of cholera,” he told IRIN. "To stop the disease… everyone - the authorities, NGOs and communities -...

14 Mar 2013

“The impact of corruption on the water sector is manifested by lack of sustainable delivery, inequitable investment and targeting of resources, and limited participation of affected communities in developmental processes,”

11 Mar 2013

Since the beginning of the conflict in early 2012, an estimated 431,000 (260,665 IDPs and 170,313 refugees) have been displaced and 4.3 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian...

03 Mar 2013

“The smoke stinks terribly, and many people are suffering from respiratory problems and skin irritations because of it,” said a dentist in the eastern governorate Deir-ez-Zor, calling himself Abu Adnan. “But what can we do? We need warmth and we need...

03 Mar 2013

The grain milling industry in Zimbabwe, which includes maize-meal and livestock-feed manufacturers, says their current stocks will not last until the new harvest season in May-June. The country's Agricultural Marketing Association has warned the government...

03 Mar 2013

- Nearly 3,000 Malians who fled towns and villages in the north when armed men occupied their homeland have headed home, but the vast majority are staying put in the south or in neighbouring countries, for fear of insecurity, reprisal killings, and...

03 Mar 2013

The country’s children die less from acute malnutrition than they did 10 or 20 years ago, but their quality of life remains poor.

24 Feb 2013

According to the country’s National Disaster Risk Management Office (BNGRC), over 17,000 people have been affected by the storm, with 13 reported deaths and about 1,500 houses destroyed or flooded. Speed boats and traditional boats were mobilized over...

14 Feb 2013

“The current low stocks for both wheat and maize are a reason for concern because even small shocks could cause panic and speculation in international markets and contribute to price volatility,”

14 Feb 2013

“The displaced… had to leave everything behind and are living in utter destitution,”

13 Feb 2013

More than 60 percent of the population does not have secure access to food,39 percent live under the poverty line,and 29 percent are unemployedMore than 60 percent of the population does not have secure access to food,39 percent live under the poverty...

31 Jan 2013

According to the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Bangladesh is ranked one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, with cyclones striking coastal regions almost every year.

29 Jan 2013

“Palestinian wages have not kept pace with inflation… Many poor Palestinians have exhausted their coping mechanisms (taking on loans, cutting back consumption) and are now much more vulnerable to small price increases than they were,”

28 Jan 2013

Though the water has since receded, thousands of Chadians remain homeless in the capital and in the countryside, where farms were flooded, crops ruined and pasture destroyed. Aid groups and the Chadian authorities provided immediate help but the search...

28 Jan 2013

The mainly Muslim Rohingya have long faced persecution in Myanmar, where they are de jure stateless under Burmese law; in Bangladesh most Rohingya refugees are unwelcome and face discrimination

27 Jan 2013

Sitting under a large mango tree surrounded by a group of women and children, Guamba cooked two small pots of rice and beans over a fire. "We bought this on our own at the local market, and it is not enough for us all,” she said. “We are sleeping here...

23 Jan 2013

Heavy flooding in 2007 killed 57 people and displaced more than 420,000 in Jakarta. The authorities put the total damage that year at nearly US$695 million.

23 Jan 2013

“It’s good news that patients have stopped coming because we have less malnutrition, but on the other hand it’s also bad news because that means that since we as MSF are phasing out, access to this kind of care is very much reduced unless a new actor...

22 Jan 2013

Aid agencies are worried the blockages could aggravate already unusually high food insecurity levels in the north: of the 1.8 million people in the north, 585,000 are food insecure and more than 1.2 million are at risk of food insecurity, according...

22 Jan 2013

At least five people died and over 4,000 more were made homeless in Khayelitsha in the early hours of 1 January when a wall of fire, aided by strong winds, tore through an informal settlement called BM Section. Over a thousand shacks were burned to...

22 Jan 2013

Resident, Mariam Sissoko, was one of the first who had fled the fighting to return. “I no longer recognize Diabaly. Everywhere you look there are burnt-out cars and tanks, destroyed buildings, the stadium has been completely destroyed, frontless shops...

22 Jan 2013

The 1996 World Food Summit defined food security as “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.

21 Jan 2013

"In South Africa’s northern Limpopo Province, floodwaters claimed 10 lives and left hundreds stranded after the Limpopo River burst its banks. By 22 January, the rain had subsided, but rescue operations were still underway in Musina, near South Africa’s...

19 Jan 2013

While life slowly got back to normal downtown, tens of thousands remained affected by the waters elsewhere in the city of 14 million people.

17 Jan 2013

“The market is closed, the streets are deserted. People who didn’t flee are like prisoners. They are too scared to leave their houses because of aerial bombardments. In some households there is nothing left to eat”

17 Jan 2013

“If we don’t act soon to provide WASH systems in Myebon and Pauk Taw particularly, the situation can be desperate in one or two months and can turn into a health crisis.”

16 Jan 2013

At least 9,000 households have been affected by flooding since October 2012, according to Gift Mafuleka, deputy director for the Department of Disaster Management Affairs. The flooding has so far resulted in three deaths and significant damage to property...

15 Jan 2013

“People are continuing to flee for the south for fear of reprisal killings from Islamists who are now assimilated among the local population, and for fear of French attacks,”

10 Jan 2013

During military operations in a given area, the army would close off entry and exit to the area for days at a time. Soldiers had visited before. Sometimes they asked for bread or simply helped themselves to food in the fridge.

09 Jan 2013

"In the last six or seven weeks, we indicated, as a Municipality, that we are affected with a situation where two of our main dams, which is your Brummer and Douglas Dams that are actually the source of water of our area, particularly your Wesselton...

08 Jan 2013

“If you have a camp setting, it’s easier to count people, to provide a school, to provide a health centre. But for refugees, being in their own apartment, and being able to take their own decisions with cash assistance is preferred,”

07 Jan 2013

Za'atari camp's population has been rising quickly in recent weeks, with an average daily arrival of 1,100 people. It is now home to 54,000 Syrian refugees, according to official UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) registration figures, and 63,000 according...

01 Jan 2013

The blaze destroyed 15 formal houses and left 220 shacks in smoldering ruins. According to Solomons-Johannes, 800 people have been left without homes

31 Dec 2012

"The blaze destroyed over 800 shacks leaving more than 3,000 people homeless"

26 Dec 2012

“Pakistan is the kind of country where different types of natural disasters can hit at any time. These last few years have been a big learning process for us, and we have tried to ensure that past mistakes are not repeated.”

10 Dec 2012

The number of people living in flood-prone urban areas in East Asia may reach 67 million by 2060.

06 Dec 2012

“The persistent water-logging of the Satkhira region in the country’s southwest is currently the most significant slow-onset disaster plaguing the country.”

06 Dec 2012

"Disasters with very large impacts happen very rarely... This means that a much greater proportion of the risk is associated with rare events.”

03 Dec 2012

“This trial and the verdict represent an extremely worrisome precedent that must be considered by scientists when offering their services in the interests of public safety,”

26 Nov 2012

Doha is an important moment here to show the world that the most vulnerable are not left behind with the unavoidable consequences [of climate change]

22 Nov 2012

People are putting together a plan, so that if more assistance needs to go in, everyone is ready and everyone knows their role

21 Nov 2012

Despite the risks, lake water has become a commodity. "We can't drink the rainwater because of the volcano," said a young man as he drew water from Lake Kivu to fill one of eight 20-litre jerrycans strapped to his bicycle

21 Nov 2012

As darkness spreads, men, women and even children approach the trucks to empty their small sacks of rusting pots, vehicle parts and other metals.

20 Nov 2012

More than half a million Burundian refugees have returned home over the last 10 years as the effects of a 2000 peace accord took hold. Many have returned to their land, and most have received assistance with shelter, food, health and education.

20 Nov 2012

To improve the long-term understanding of migration, RMMS has partnered with the International Migration Institute (IMI), at the University of Oxford, to explore possible scenarios for the future of migration in the Horn of Africa over the next 20...

20 Nov 2012

The US State Department’s 2011 human rights report on Madagascar said chronic malnutrition affects as much as two-thirds of prisoners in some prisons and is the most common cause of inmate deaths.

20 Nov 2012

“It is very hard living in Lebanon, everything is too expensive and we can’t find jobs. And now I’m worried about the winter. We don’t have blankets, gas or heaters,”

19 Nov 2012

"A further escalation would be dangerous and tragic for Palestinians and Israelis."

18 Nov 2012

“It’s more dangerous now than before, and we expect that things will be worse if ground operations start”

18 Nov 2012

"Eight Palestinians killed as Israeli fighter jets hit Hamas government compounds, tunnels and power transformers".

08 Nov 2012

@Fungi and other microbes could enable food crops like maize, wheat and rice to grow in high temperatures and salty soils, and even withstand erratic rainfall, say microbiologists,"

02 Nov 2012

"The needs of the displaced people in Rakhine are urgent,” UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ashok Nigam told IRIN from Yangon.

27 Oct 2012

"Unless the authorities also start addressing the root causes of the violence, it is only likely to get worse"

26 Oct 2012

More than 22,000 people from mainly Muslim communities have been displaced by fresh unrest in western Myanmar that has killed dozens and seen whole neighbourhoods razed.

25 Oct 2012

"Over 10,000 desperate Syrians fleeing the terror of aerial bombardment and shelling are stuck on the Iraqi and Turkish borders, many living in miserable conditions."

24 Oct 2012

“The situation is very worrying. The opposition is hardening its stance and the government doesn’t seem to be listening. Holding elections under such conditions is a risky bet and a threat to peace,”

23 Oct 2012

"It is no longer that consumers are borrowing to buy a new car, but to get food on the table."

23 Oct 2012

Over 100 people have been killed by landslides in Bangladesh this year alone, say local media.

18 Oct 2012

350,000 people have been forced from their homes and another 4.7 million people affected by the flooding since August 22

12 Oct 2012

Under Burmese law, they are de jure stateless and face constant persecution,say activists, while in Bangladesh they are barred from employment.

03 Oct 2012

“Their condition is worse than animals.”

23 Sep 2012

lack of access to remote areas made it impossible to get a real idea of how many people had died during the crisis.

22 Sep 2012

The northern Amuru District, has a single state-employed doctor for a population of 234,000

21 Sep 2012

"The cattle did not have any layer of body fat [due to malnourishment] to shield them from the cold and to use as energy to generate heat"

20 Sep 2012

"Even if the rains come, the chances of the lake coming back are low"

19 Sep 2012

“In the past you could go for years without knowing if a death had even taken place so it’s been a positive response,”

19 Sep 2012

More than 330,000 children under the age of five were at risk of malnutrition, it noted. A harsh drought and high food prices have left more than 18 million people in the Sahel facing starvation.

13 Sep 2012

The Al-Imdaad Foundation handed food parcels to over 700 families ...

12 Sep 2012

Rising prices of staple grains have added momentum to efforts to control such outbreaks [of stem rust]

12 Sep 2012

“I don’t remember my parents’ name or address, but I remember they used to love me very much and I miss being at home,” said 14-year-old Mossamat Monira Begum.

11 Sep 2012

"All too often, men think that work on gender means that they will lose out, and historically it is true that programmes focusing on women only have ignored men’s real needs"

10 Sep 2012

OIC Delegation Concludes Its Visit Of Observation In Myanmar

06 Sep 2012

The floods have caused at least 13 deaths, affected 445,725 people and inundated about 255,720 hectares of cropland.

04 Sep 2012

Togo’s 12 prisons - many of them dilapidated - hold more than twice their designed capacity.

04 Sep 2012

"They lack both food and non-food items. The refugees are 5 times more numerous than the local population,”

04 Sep 2012

"I wept through the journey from my village to Jalozai. I never wanted to leave my home. I thought I would go back in 20 days. It has now been a year," she said, sitting in the courtyard of a makeshift tent compound.

03 Sep 2012

“My relatives who have returned say `Don’t come. ‘There aren’t any jobs and the cost of living is too high’,”

02 Sep 2012

"We prefer to deal with this problem smoothly and quietly without any problem that might create [a] new civil war in Lebanon "

31 Aug 2012

The humanitarian situation of hundreds of thousands of people in need of assistance inside Syria has been - as usual, aid workers would say - largely neglected.

28 Aug 2012

The first heavy rains of the 2012 monsoon, which have claimed at least 26 lives in northern Pakistan over the past four days, with torrents sweeping away houses and inundating villages

27 Aug 2012

“At Al Imdaad, humanitarian aid is complete and quite holistic. Yes, we are giving people relief aid; emergency aid. At the same time we are also there to recite Quran for them."

16 Aug 2012

The Myanmar government gave the go ahead after a delegation from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) met President of Myanmar Thein Sein in Yangon (Friday 10 August 2012)

05 Aug 2012

Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar

03 Aug 2012

Rohingya Muslims living in Malaysia hold placards during a rally in Kuala Lumpur.

31 Jul 2012

The UNHCR says that about 80,000 people had been displaced in and around the towns of Sittwe and Maungdaw.

24 Jul 2012

"Livelihoods are at risk of collapse"

17 Jul 2012

"Without additional funds, humanitarian agencies will struggle to provide the necessary assistance to communities at risk of increased vulnerability from consecutive flooding in the past two years"