Displaying items by tag: Refugees

Somalia is suffering its worst civil war since the collapse of the state, with the breakdown of clan protection mechanisms complicating all aspects, including the protection of displaced people. The crisis is affecting previously peaceful areas, including Somaliland and Puntland, as well as the wider region. The lack of coherence in Western donor governments’ agendas, their failure to call for accountability by the governments they fund, and their prioritisation of Western security interests over the humanitarian imperative are contributing to the escalating emergency. This timeline provides an overview of the complex interplay of political, security and humanitarian agendas in the…

In Mogadishu today, some 50,000 people will line up in queues in soup kitchens to get a dollop of porridge, which for some will be their only food for the day. These are the worst off: families with so few resources that they cannot even afford to flee the short distance that separates the war zone in Mogadishu from the next district. The UN estimates that 60% of Mogadishu’s population of some one million has fled, just 20km away. Somalia now has the world’s largest concentration of internally displaced people; more than 250,000 are living under the most basic shelter…

Once there was a fairy-tale image of the brave and noble humanitarian, who would storm into conflict zones – armed only with vaccines and sacks of food – and indiscriminately save lives, having no other impact that a strictly humanitarian one. In the mid-1990s, that image was shattered. Strikingly common-sensical, Mary Anderson laid out the idea of Do No Harm, based on the realisation that humanitarian assistance takes place within a political context, and that so-called humanitarians, in their eagerness to do good, risked exacerbating tensions and deepening conflicts. Of course, this insight was not new. As long as there…

Kenya’s post-election violence in January and February displaced at least 300,000 people. When President Mwai Kibaki made resettlement a priority, after appointing the coalition cabinet in March, a resolution to the crisis seemed to be in sight. No one wanted the displaced camps to become institutionalised. Lessons from the region show that long-term camps are killers – incubating HIV/AIDS, deepening impoverishment and promoting dependency – as well as a political blight on the nation. Better to push for resettlement than leave the displaced vulnerable to rain, disease and political manipulation. However, instead of seizing the political initiative and properly resettling…

This issue of Humanitarian Exchangefeatures articles on the humanitarian response in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The persisting humanitarian crisis in the DRC continues to exact its toll on the civilian population. Over a million Congolese are still displaced due to continuing violence in the east, healthcare across much of the country is virtually non-existent, infrastructure and other basic services are lacking, and insecurity and frequent attacks on civilians persist. The most recent mortality survey by IRC estimates that 5.4m excess deaths have occurred between August 1998 and April 2007, 2.1m of them since the formal end of the war…

An increasingly important area of focus for relief and development agencies relates to the demobilisation and reintegration of fighters and support for displaced people to return home or resettle elsewhere. Both groups – ex-combatants and forced migrants – are regularly implicated in war and post-conflict situations as perpetrators, victims and survivors of violence. They are widely considered to have become ‘dislocated’ from the mainstream, constitute potential ‘spoilers’ and are frequently targeted by comprehensive programmes designed to promote their sustainable ‘reintegration’ into society. But despite these and other similarities, there is comparatively little exchange between those working with soldiers and those…

This meeting was conducted under Chatham House rules. What follows is a summary of key points raised in the presentations and discussions. Key developments and trends in recent years: After several years of a ‘difficult but stable’ situation following population displacements in 1991 and 2001, by 2005/2006 the number of IDPs had reached 400,000 of which 250,000 reside in Mogadishu. By November 2007, this figure reached 1 million. In early 2006, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) succeeded in defeating warlord factions and took control over Mogadishu as well as large parts of the South and Central regions. This move coincided…

The violence that broke out in Israel, Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories in July 2006 was unexpected and, in the case of the Israeli bombardment and invasion of Lebanon, brief, lasting only 34 days. At the height of the conflict, over 900,000 Lebanese were displaced from southern Lebanon, and 1,191 Lebanese and 158 Israelis were killed. Reconstruction estimates run into billions of dollars, and the threat of sectarian violence and insecurity persists in the region. Since the Israeli government and civil society had the capacity to respond to Israel’s limited needs, the wider international scale-up of aid actors focused…

The return and reintegration of refugees and, increasingly, internally displaced persons (IDPs), are major objectives of UNHCR. Along with strategic resettlement, these activities are often central to the achievement of so-called durable solutions, even if what constitutes ‘durable’ has proven frustratingly difficult to measure on the ground. There is uncertainty within the agency concerning the standards by which to judge whether a durable solution has been achieved – whether defined as a basket of entitlements that are commensurate with refugee or IDP status, the achievement of self-reliance by displaced people or parity between the displaced and locals. UNHCR’s Executive Committee…

Over the past three decades, there has been a rapid growth in humanitarian interventions attempting to address the psychosocial distress caused by violence and forced displacement. A wide and diverse range of practice has emerged, reflecting different ways of assessing and understanding psychosocial distress. This article highlights some of the assumptions underlying these different approaches, and how these may inform subsequent practice. As detailed below, a ‘culturally relativistic’ approach attempts to take the point of view of the insider. By applying this approach among a Masaalit community in Darfur, we have been able to gather detailed information about the beneficiaries’…