Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

Number of displaced Iraqis in Kurdish region about to double with the battle to retake Mosul set for mid-October.

Dibaga Camp, Iraqi Kurdistan – In a stifling hot office with more flies than oxygen, Rzgar Abed does not hesitate when asked about the biggest challenge in managing the camp for Iraq's internally displaced people (IDPs).

"Space ... we're at 31,000 and that is our capacity. Thirty-one thousand," said Abed, who works for the Barzani Charity Foundation.

It oversees a number of camps, populated by 1.4 million Iraqi IDPs fleeing fighters belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in the Kurdish region.

That number is set to double within a month, with an additional 1.5 million people expected to flee when the operation to take back Mosul from ISIL starts in mid-October.

As it is, conditions in the Dibaga camp are already cramped – each tent can only hold up to six people.

Families fled from their villages under the control of ISIL, also known as ISIS, and have kept on leaving, even though some of those villages have since been recaptured.

Most are only within 10km to 50km of their homes.

More than half of the camp population are children. They flow through the camps, running between tents and climbing anything they can.

Intisar Mohamed Suleiman came here from Makuk with her husband and nine children – between one and 12 years in age.

In April, Kurdish and Iraqi forces supported by the US took out ISIL targets near her village with air strikes.

"It was very difficult – we walked five hours to get here," said Suleiman, 34, who has been at Dibaga for six months. She was part of the last wave of people who headed towards Erbil.

"We did not think we would stay long when we came here," she said, still hopeful that a return would be imminent.

While she is anxious to go back, like many here she is unsure of what she has to go back to.

"Most people have no idea what we are dealing with here," said Vian Rasheed, who heads the Erbil Refugee Council which reports to the governor's office.

"They have a few thousand refugees show up in Europe and they start to worry. When fighting broke out in Mosul in 2014, we had 100,000 people show up in one night at checkpoints," said Rasheed.

Contingency plans

Rasheed said they expect at least 420,000 people would flee to Erbil and Duhok. About 250,000, she said, will end up in Erbil governorate alone.

Neither Erbil nor Duhok, roughly 155km northwest of the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, are ready for such numbers.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has prepared a contingency plan for Mosul, which would cost $284m for six months, Rasheed said.

"With our economic crisis, nobody can have this money – we are now looking for donors and at UN agencies for intervention," he said.

But according to the UN's refugee agency UNHCR, funding has fallen short, with 63 percent of IDP shelter needs unmet.

Still, everyone is racing to build what they can in the next couple of weeks.

In Hassan Sham, about 60km from Dibaga, the UNHCR plans to build 2,000 tents while Iraq's Ministry of Migration and Displacement is funding an additional 10,000 tents to be built by the Erbil governorate.

That is nothing close to the 30,000 tents Erbil will need to deal with the upcoming influx of refugees, Rasheed said.

Caroline Gluck, UNHCR's senior public information officer in Baghdad, told Al Jazeera the expected influx represents an "enormous displacement" in a country that already has 3.3 million IDPs.

Negotiating for land, whether with the government or individuals, is time consuming, something agencies can ill afford at this make-or-break moment. And that is just part of the challenge.

"For Mosul, half of the IDPs will not be in camps," said Gluck. Some, she said, will have "emergency shelter kits" for the short term.

For aid agencies, it is a matter of trying to stay a step ahead of total disaster.

"It's not like the agencies hadn't been busy before this ... we were already overstretched," said Gluck.

Broke, but welcoming

International funding is crucial in this crisis because the Kurdish government is essentially broke. It has been unable to pay salaries for public sector employees, who have been protesting regularly.

"I believe we are in a massive crisis, a real crisis," said Dindar Zebari, deputy minister and head of KRG's foreign-relations department.

"KRG, by itself, will not be able to fully accommodate the IDPs."

The KRG has been strapped for cash since Baghdad cut its budget and the drop in oil prices took a bite out of its exports.

Zebari also said he is worried that there will be ISIL members and sleeper cells coming in with this massive wave of IDPs.

"We've already had some and we've arrested them, but we are scared. We need to accommodate them somewhere outside [the cities] because at least there are a lot of checkpoints," he said, adding that this is a greater worry now than in the past.

"Now we are facing the dangerous people," said Zebari.

Still, unlike some officials in the EU and US, who feel that any potential security threat is enough to justify barring all refugees from countries such as Syria and Iraq, Zebari said the KRG will not turn away the IDPs,

"We are different ... we have never had that strategy," he said.

"I must assure you, KRG will continue to, with open arms, receive those in need."
 

The UN said Thursday it expected at least 700,000 people in Iraq's second city of Mosul would need assistance once an expected offensive on the Islamic State group stronghold begins.

"Mosul has the potential to be one the largest... disasters of many, many years," warned Bruno Geddo, the United Nation's refugee agency's main representative in Iraq.

Iraq is already facing one of the world's biggest displacement crises, with around 3.3 million people forced to flee their homes in the country since 2014.

IS seized Mosul along with other areas in June 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained significant ground from the jihadists and are preparing a drive to retake the city by the end of the year.

In a sign the battle could happen soon, Washington said this week it would send some 600 extra troops to train local forces for the offensive.

Geddo warned that more than one million people might be displaced during that offensive.

"We are planning for at least 700,000 who will be in need of assistance, shelter food, water, everything that you need in a situation of humanitarian disaster," he told reporters in Geneva.

UNHCR has already begun building camps in anticipation of the exodus, but as it races against the clock, it is struggling to find available land and funds to build others, Geddo said.

The UN agency is hoping to have 11 camps finished by the end of the year with the capacity to hold 120,000 people, while Iraqi authorities expect to be able to house 150,000 more, he explained.

"This is the plan.... The capacity is much lower," he warned.

Even if the plan works, an estimated 430,000 displaced people would be left without accommodation.

To avoid leaving them without shelter, UNHCR is aiming to build a number of "emergency camps" located near the city and the surrounding villages where the battle is expected.

People would only stay at these sites for very short periods of time, he said, pointing out that once a village or an area was secured, people could hopefully return to their homes.

Geddo said the UN had already begun prepositioning work. "We will pitch our tents everywhere," he said.

While there has been much recent discussion about the launch of the drive on Mosul, preparations for it began months ago, with Iraq first announcing the launch back in March.

Since then, nearly 62,000 people have fled the city and surrounding areas, according to the International Organization for Migration.
 

L'offensive annoncée sur Mossoul, en Irak, pourrait provoquer "l'un des pires désastres humains depuis de nombreuses années". Le HCR a indiqué jeudi à Genève se préparer à aider au moins 700'000 personnes dans le besoin.

Au total, plus d'un million de personnes pourraient être déplacées de la région, a estimé devant la presse le représentant en Irak du Haut Commissariat de l'ONU aux réfugiés (HCR) Bruno Geddo. Ces derniers mois, plus de 70'000 personnes ont déjà réussi à fuir Mossoul et le même nombre la région de Kirkouk.

Ces personnes évoquent difficilement les mauvais traitements perpétrés par l'Etat islamique (EI). Elles ont pu fuir vers la Syrie ou vers les camps du HCR au sud de la région. Elles ont dû payer des passeurs qui les font sortir de Mossoul au risque d'être exécutés par les djihadistes.

Aide à plus long terme pour moins de 300'000 personnes

Première contrainte, il faudra suffisamment de sites. Certaines zones sont la propriété de privés, ne sont pas adaptées à des camps ou sont contaminées par des restes explosifs de guerre. Autre problème, il faudra être prêt le plus possible au moment de l'offensive, alors qu'un travail d'assainissement des sites est indispensable.

Le HCR prévoit une dizaine de camps stables pour au moins 6 mois ou un an pour 20'000 familles ou plus de 100'000 personnes tout autour de Mossoul. Certains sont en cours d'établissement mais la capacité actuelle est "bien moins élevée" que ce chiffre. Le gouvernement irakien va organiser ses propres camps pour 150'000 personnes. Mais il manque dans ce dispositif 450'000 places par rapport aux estimations des besoins.

Des camps d'urgence seront établis plus près des villages et de Mossoul pour une courte période. Au total, le HCR va distribuer près de 40'000 tentes. Certaines seront prépositionnées pour éviter d'être dépassé par les arrivées. M. Geddo estime que tous les déplacés pourraient avoir un abri en "48 heures".

Demande de centaines de millions de dollars

Du matériel d'abri d'urgence sera prévu pour des dizaines de milliers de personnes, mais aussi un dispositif de secours pour 100'000 personnes. Et du matériel pour l'hiver pour plus de 130'000 personnes. Sur près de 200 millions de dollars demandés, il manque plus de 115 millions dont plus de 70 millions pour cette aide liée aux températures.

"Notre principale préoccupation" est la protection des civils, a indiqué le représentant du HCR. Le risque qu'ils soient maltraités par l'EI est important. Un dialogue a aussi été lancé depuis plusieurs mois avec le gouvernement pour éviter les représailles contre les déplacés comme après les affrontements à Falloujah. "Nous voulons éviter des abus" des droits de l'homme contre ces personnes.

Seules les formes armées et non les milices devront examiner ceux qui arrivent. Des garanties ont aussi été données pour considérer les combattants de l'EI comme des prisonniers de guerre.
 

UNHCR's Iraq chief has warned 'one of the largest manmade disasters' in modern history would follow the military campaign later this year. Some 60,000 people have already fled the city since Iraq announced its plans.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) chief in Iraq on Thursday warned that up to one million people could need assistance in the wake of a military offensive to reclaim Mosul from the so-called "Islamic State" militant group.

"Mosul has the potential to be one of the largest man made disasters for many, many years," UNHCR Iraq director Bruno Geddo said at a press conference in Geneva. "More than a million could be displaced as a result of the forthcoming offensive."

"We are planning for at least 700,000 who will be in need of assistance, shelter, food, water, everything that you need in a situation of humanitarian disaster," Geddo added.

However, the UN refugee agency does not have sufficient resources to host all those expected to flee the war zone, lacking capacities to offer the necessary humanitarian aid for about 400,000 people. The Iraqi government said it would provide emergency accommodation for an additional 150,000 people.

The offensive is expected to being as early as October, although it is more likely to take place towards the end of the year, Geddo noted.

The IS group rose to notoriety in June 2014. Then, it launched a major ground offensive to expand its so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria, culminating in the group seizing control of Mosul, one of Iraq's largest cities.

The US-led coalition against the militant group has been preparing with Iraqi forces, including tribal militias, to wrestle the city out of the militant group's control.

More than 60,000 people have fled Mosul and surrounding areas since March, when the Iraqi army first announced it would was preparing for the military campaign.
 

GENEVA, Sept 29 (Reuters) – More than a million people could flee the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul when the Iraqi army launches an assault on the city, the United Nations said, warning it lacked facilities to house about 400,000 of them.

Bruno Geddo, chief of the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR in Iraq, said Emergency camps would include 18,000 tents in open areas, and those not lucky enough to get a tent might get one of 50,000 emergency shelter kits.

"An emergency shelter kit is a sack of 15kg which includes hammer, rope, wire, nails, plastic sheeting and timber. Each will be used to build a rudimentary shelter," Geddo told a news conference in Geneva.

A further 30,000 will get "sealing off kits" – emergency kits with a plank of plywood that can be used to create some privacy in a communal shelter. The U.N. is also procuring 100,000 kits with core relief items, including blankets, jerry cans, buckets and kitchen utensils.

Geddo said the battle for Mosul, seized by Islamic state as it swept across Iraq two years ago, was expected to begin as soon as October, and most probably by the end of 2016.

"Mosul has the potential to be one of the largest manmade disasters for many, many years...More than a million could be displaced as a result of the forthcoming offensive."

The U.N. expects to have to help at least 700,000 with shelter, food and water, and UNHCR is building or planning 11 camps with lighting, piped water and 20,000 family plots – spaces for a six-person tent demarcated by bricks to keep scorpions and snakes out.

The Iraqi government plans camps to accommodate up to 150,000 more. But that leaves about 400,000 places lacking, and the U.N., lacking time and available land, is "frantically" preparing to set up emergency camps close to the battle.

The U.N. said in July it would need $284 million to prepare for the battle and up to $1.8 billion to deal with the aftermath.

UNHCR's needs are still only 33 percent funded.

"It is too late if you receive funding when the crisis hits the television screen," Geddo said. "Each family plot in a UNHCR camp costs $2,000. We are short of 6,200 family plots, $15 million. It's not cheap."

Things could be even worse if Islamic State fighters decide to make a "last stand" and there is massive destruction in the city, or to use civilians as human shields as they did in the battle for Falluja in June, he said.

Geddo said it was not his remit to deal with any captured Islamic State fighters, but he said the U.N. had received assurances that they would be treated as prisoners of war. (Reporting by Tom Miles)
 

In a small yard by the side of the road in the Bekaa Valley, eastern Lebanon, Kim and David are watching over their students.

The couple moved from Texas five months ago to set up a school for Syrian refugee children. They called it the House of Love.

"We have nothing left in the States now. We sold everything," says Kim. "We have a 10 x 12 [foot] storage unit with our family pictures and my favorite chair. That's it." The couple, who asked for their last names not to be used, built the school from scratch, using money they fundraised in the US before coming. They staffed it with volunteers from around the world. All of them are motivated by a desire to help Syrian children living in desperate conditions. But there's something else driving them, too.

"Actually it was God's idea," Kim says. She and her husband, middle-aged with eight grown children, had worked at their church in Texas and describe themselves as nondenominational Christians. During a previous visit to Lebanon to help refugees, they heard the call, as they put it, to return permanently.

"You know what, all kids all over the world just wanna be loved. They just want attention and they want to know they are worth something. That's what we do here at House of Love," she says.

A number of large, established Christian charities work with refugees in Lebanon, but not many people like Kim and David, who say they are here as independent missionaries, no big institution attached. It's risky work, and raises a list of ethical questions.

Their school consists of two container buildings a few feet apart, with a school yard in the middle. It even has a sports court adjacent. Work was recently finished on a fence surrounding the property — a team had come from the US to build it after raising the money themselves.

Most of the kids who attend the school live in informal camps that dot the landscape in the Bekaa.

The Lebanese government and aid agencies have been overwhelmed by more than a million Syrians crossing the border to escape that country's almost 6-year-old war. Many of the refugees here live in crippling poverty.

The kids are mostly Sunni Muslims from across Syria. In the morning they receive English and Arabic lessons, then in the afternoon they learn about Jesus and the Bible. On the afternoon of our recent visit, the children were singing along to a music video called "Jesus Is My Sugar," which showed adoring children gathered around Jesus while singing those words.

Missionary work like this is controversial in Lebanon. The country has a sizeable and influential Christian population of its own, but relations between Christians and Muslims here have a complicated past, to say the least. (See the 1975-1990 civil war, fought largely along sectarian lines. Relations are continuing to be rebuilt 26 years after the war ended.)

So the few foreign missionaries who come here on their own are walking into a fraught situation. "Some of the independent missionaries who come out might not know the delicate balance of certain areas," says Christine Lindner, a historian at Murray State University in Kentucky who has studied the history of missionaries in Lebanon.

"People who might have good intentions, but don't necessarily speak the language, don't know where to go or what not to say or do, they might inadvertently cause more problems than good."

Kim and David, who are learning Arabic, say they are aware of the potential issues with their work and are very upfront with the parents of the kids they're teaching.

"The families around us that bring their kids here, they know that we are Christians from the States and they are OK with that. We let them know, 'look, it's in our nature, it's gonna be in the way we teach morals and values. And are you OK with that?' Of course! And if they are not, then they don't come. This is neutral ground," Kim says.

Still, this kind of work can be dangerous. Back in 2002, American missionary Bonnie Penner was fatally shot in the southern city of Sidon. Less than a year later, a Jordanian convert to Christianity was killed in a bomb attack on a European missionary's home in the Lebanese city of Tripoli.

Extremists aside, many in the Muslim community don't look kindly on any activity that could be perceived as Christian evangelizing.

David and Kim insist this is not what they are here to do.

"I know some that come here, that this is their main agenda, and they want to evangelize to see them converted from Islam. We're not here to convert anyone," says Kim.

"Our main agenda is not to see that they become a follower of Christ, but if they ever question us, we certainly share with them."

Out of school

More than 250,000 Syrian children registered with the United Nations as refugees in Lebanon are not in school. The true number is likely higher because many are not registered.

The House of Love caters to around 40 students who might otherwise not receive any education at all. The team of volunteers, which includes a Syrian former principal from Damascus, visit the camps and explain they are Christians and have a school nearby.

Not everyone is eager. The couple says they haven't had a lot of trouble with locals, although David acknowledges they had to relocate the school when they first arrived due to "tensions."

"We were very close to the [refugee] camp, there was a camp literally right behind us, and there was a lot of jealousy, sort of," he says.

The couple doesn't have to look far to see how things can get complicated for those wanting to convert, even if that is not what they are trying to do.

Christopher, a volunteer at the House of Love, is a Kurd from Iraqi Kurdistan, the semi-autonomous region of northern Iraq. He says he was a "good Muslim." He prayed five times a day and went to mosque. When the Islamic State swept into northern Iraq, Christopher joined the Kurdish peshmerga security forces with his friend Elias, who was a Christian.

When Elias was killed, Christopher remembered what he had said about the Bible and decided to buy one.

"I stayed about two months at home not going out, just staying at home. And then I thought about what he told me about God, and I decided to buy a Bible and I felt like something is happening inside me," he says.

His family found out, and did not approve.

"My father, at first he burned a bible. I bought a new one and then after one week he checked my stuff and found another one, so that's why he tried to kill me. Because it's like shame or to bring back honor or something."

When asked if he worried whether the children at the House of Love would get in trouble with their family like he did, Christopher replies: "Yes of course, but that's why we just talk through the story and watch movies about Jesus. We don't tell them what to do. They are going to decide, not us."

Many people, including Lindner, the historian, argue that supporting local organizations is the best way to help refugees.

"There are a number of organizations on the ground that have been here for a long time, that know the communities, that would love to receive funding, that would love to receive prayers. This would be providing jobs for individuals from the region," she told The World by phone. "And if you were interested in maintaining Christianity in the Middle East, provide jobs for Christians in the Middle East, don't displace them."

Kim and David said they thought about working with a local organization, but it just didn't feel right — they didn't feel peace.

Today, they insist they are here for the long run, despite the danger.

"You have to understand that as a Christ follower, I don't fear death. I know where I'm going, so it changes my worldview," Kim says.

"Did I sign up to be a follower of Christ to be safe or to be happy? I signed up to follow Christ because of what he did for me. It's in my heart to give back to him, and what he wants is to love on these people."

Richard Hall reported from Bekaa Valley, Lebanon.
 

Tripoli, Libye (PANA) – Le Bureau du Haut Commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés (Hcr) en Libye a organisé une formation de trois jours pour 20 responsables libyens en Tunisie axée sur la discussion et l'échange des informations sur le droit international des réfugiés, ainsi que la situation des réfugiés en Libye.

Du 26 au 28 septembre courant, la formation a été l'occasion de rassembler diverses autorités locales en Libye impliquées dans la protection des réfugiés.

"La promotion du droit des réfugiés est un aspect important du travail du Hcr, parce que les autorités locales et les acteurs de la Société civile sont les premiers sur le terrain de la protection des réfugiés", explique Samer Hadaddin, chef de mission du Hcr en Libye cité dans un communiqué publié jeudi.

Parmi les participants figuraient des représentants des ministères de l'Intérieur, des Affaires étrangères et de la Justice ainsi que la Garde côtière libyenne.

Les discussions ont porté sur les obligations de la Libye envers les réfugiés en Libye, mais aussi sur l'importance de la coopération internationale dans un contexte mixte de migration qui va bien au-delà des frontières libyennes, selon les organisateurs.

Financée par l'aide humanitaire et de protection civile (Echo) de la Commission européenne, cette formation fait partie d'un vaste programme de renforcement des capacités élaboré par le Hcr en 2016. L'objectif est de sensibiliser le gouvernement libyen et la Société en matière d'asile, d'améliorer la situation des réfugiés et des demandeurs d'asile en Libye.

Il y a environ 100.000 réfugiés et demandeurs d'asile en Libye, dont certains, 38.000 sont enregistrés auprès du Hcr. Tous les civils en Libye sont affectés par les combats actuels, mais les réfugiés et les demandeurs d'asile se trouvent dans une situation particulièrement vulnérable, étant également confrontés au risque d'arrestation, de détention et d'autres formes d'abus.

En Libye, le Hcr identifie les registres et les documents des personnes ayant besoin de protection internationale par le biais de ses services d'assistance téléphonique, par l'intermédiaire de ses trois centres de développement communautaire à Benghazi et à Tripoli à travers des visites de sensibilisation menées par ses partenaires.

Le Hcr travaille également avec les responsables et les acteurs de la Société civile pour renforcer les capacités en matière de protection internationale dans un contexte de migration mixte.

Une déclaration faite récemment par l'envoyé de l'ONU en Libye, Martin Kobler, exhortant la Libye à décriminaliser l'immigration clandestine et à adopter un système de réfugié et dénonçant la précarité des conditions des immigrés dans le pays, a soulevé un tollé auprès des autorités libyennes.

Le Parlement libyen a vivement condamné ces déclarations les considérant comme une ingérence dans les affaires intérieures et une atteinte à la souveraineté de la Libye.
 

Increasingly, hungry refugees receive aid not as food, but as cash

BACK in Syria food was cheap, remembers Maya, as she sits cross-legged in the small flat she shares with her husband, their five children and another couple in Amman, Jordan's capital. When she first arrived here, she had to cut back. But now, with her husband working and 20 dinars ($28) a month from the World Food Programme (WFP), a UN agency, she can buy the children a treat like fish or chicken.

Scattered across Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan are 4.4m registered Syrian refugees, 90% of whom, like Maya, live outside formal refugee camps. This makes it a logistical nightmare to get the traditional food aid to them--sacks of rice and pulses. The WFP, the world's largest food-aid provider, has adapted: a decade ago, it doled out aid only in kind. Now just over a quarter of its aid globally is cash-based. Every month Maya gets a text message alerting her that her special debit card, which she can use only to buy food, has been topped up. The WFP reaches around 1.1m refugees like this in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

This week saw the launch in neighbouring Turkey of the largest-ever humanitarian-aid project financed by the EU: a whopping EUR348m ($390m) for the WFP, in partnership with the Turkish Red Crescent, to be transferred to electronic cards held by up to 1m refugees. Unlike Maya's, their cards will be unrestricted; they can withdraw cash from ATMs. In effect, the WFP is shifting from aid in kind to electronic distribution--first of food and now of cash--giving refugees more choice over what to buy.

The vast majority of the WFP's aid is still food in kind or in e-cards limited to food. Donors want to know that their money is being well spent ("food" is in WFP's name, after all). In Mafraq, a city in Jordan where Syrians number 50% of the population, Nour Sahawneh directs volunteers handing out old-fashioned bags of rice and tea. He admits that some refugees sell them, perhaps to pay the rent. But at least he knows they are not overcharged.

Delivering food as aid, even indirectly, by vouchers or e-cards, inevitably distorts markets. A shop sure of aid-financed customers may be tempted to raise prices. But money-based help at least takes procurement decisions away from well-meaning but misguided aid workers and pumps money directly into the local community. Also, studies have shown that recipients of cash-based aid consume a more varied diet (though, in fact, fewer calories).

Your flexible friend

The WFP has learnt that some forms of cash-based aid are better than others, however. The food vouchers it once used turned out to be a good way of transforming photocopiers into aid-printing machines. They also irritated users, who had to queue for the vouchers and spend them all at once. Maya prefers her e-card, though she still has to queue at the supermarket. Sometimes fights break out in the rush to the shops when the cards are topped up.

The queues might be shorter if Maya could use her card at any shop. At first she had to spend 10 dinars just on the taxi to her closest WFP-approved supermarket. Saleh Dhnie, a 59-year-old Syrian refugee and a former civil servant, gets 20 dinars a month from the WFP in Jordan, but is convinced the chosen supermarkets raise their prices when cards are topped up. The street market, he grumbles, is much cheaper.

Contracted shops certainly seem to be doing a brisk trade. In Lebanon the e-card programme doubled revenues at those taking part. Rami Al Shdeafat, who manages a supermarket in Amman, says he bought four extra card-readers to cope with the surge in custom. He insists his prices are competitive, boasting of the promotions on offer and pointing proudly to a bag of milk formula that normally sells for 11 dinars and that is on sale for 9.52 dinars. Besides, the Syrian customers are much more price-sensitive than Jordanians.

The WFP doesn't take his word for it: every 20 days it sends price-checkers. Some shopkeepers are deterred by this. Amer Shbeilaat runs a smaller food shop with, he claims, the lowest prices in Mafraq but doesn't accept the WFP's card. He heard some shops lost their contracts for raising prices. He can do without the bother. Letting competition drive down prices is more effective than intrusive checkers. In Lebanon, after WFP officials spotted that prices were lower in shops facing more competition, they enlisted more shops to accept their cards--up from 250 in 2014 to around 460 today. This has helped keep prices low.

For now, in Lebanon and Jordan, unlike in Turkey, WFP officials are sticking to cash-based but restricted schemes--and hence to the agency's mandate, as a single-purpose food-aid provider. Officials worry that to move to unrestricted schemes, as in Turkey, might in effect hand the cash to landlords in the form of higher rents. They also worry about funding. "You can't get people used to cash one day and then go back the other day," says Dominik Heinrich, head of the Lebanese branch of the WFP. And free-floating cash is harder to monitor. The WFP in Lebanon is busy analysing masses of transaction-level data from contracted shops. They hope these will serve to reassure donors that their funds are being well-spent, and could even be used to work out how much aid they should be giving.

But aid-workers must have realised that, rather than spend hours checking up on grasping shopkeepers, it would be easier simply to hand out cash. It also would give refugees more freedom. An experiment with unrestricted cash handouts in Lebanon suggests that people do indeed like the chance to spend the money as they please. As a spokesman for the European Commission said, in justifying the EU's intervention in Turkey: "Cash empowers the beneficiaries...They are the best placed to know what their basic needs are." And few could begrudge them that little scrap of control over their tempest-tossed lives.
 

Why the West must protect the people of Syria, and stand up to Vladimir Putin

JUST when it seems that the war in Syria cannot get any worse, it does. On September 19th Syrian and Russian planes struck a convoy about to deliver aid to besieged parts of Aleppo. The attack wrecked the ceasefire brokered by America and Russia, and was followed by the worst bombardment that the ancient city has yet seen. Reports speak of bunker-buster, incendiary and white phosphorus bombs raining down.

Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, is destroying his country to cling to power. And Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, is exporting the scorched-earth methods that he once used to terrify the Chechen capital, Grozny, into submission. Such savagery will not halt jihadism, but stoke it. And American inaction makes it all worse. The agony of Syria is the biggest moral stain on Barack Obama's presidency. And the chaos rippling from Syria--where many now turn to al-Qaeda, not the West, for salvation--is his greatest geopolitical failure.

Mr Obama thinks that resolutely keeping out of the Syrian quagmire is cold, rational statesmanship. He may be "haunted" by the atrocities, but is convinced there is nothing he can usefully do. "Was there some move that is beyond what was being presented to me that maybe a Churchill could have seen, or an Eisenhower might have figured out?" Mr Obama mused in a recent interview with Vanity Fair. Mr Obama is right to think that the world's problems cannot all be solved by American power, and that ill-considered intervention can make them worse, as when America invaded Iraq. But Syria's agony shows that the absence of America can be just as damaging.

Cool, rational and wrong

As America has pulled back, others have stepped in--geopolitics abhors a vacuum. Islamic State (IS) has taken over swathes of Syria and Iraq. A new generation of jihadists has been inspired to fight in Syria or attack the West. Turkey, rocked by Kurdish and jihadist violence (and a failed coup), has joined the fight in Syria. Jordan and Lebanon, bursting with refugees, fear they will be sucked in. The exodus of Syrians strengthens Europe's xenophobic populists and endangers the European Union. A belligerent Russia feels emboldened.

By sending warplanes to Syria to prop up Mr Assad, Mr Putin has inflamed the struggle between Shia and Sunni Muslims. Mr Putin and Mr Assad now seem determined to take control of "useful Syria"--the line of cities from Damascus to Aleppo, and the territories to the west, forsaking the desert and the Euphrates valley--before a new American president takes office next year. Hence the ferocity of the assault on east Aleppo, the last major rebel-held urban area.

None of this is in America's interest. Being cool and calculating is not much use if everybody else thinks you are being weak. Even if America cannot fix Syria, it could have helped limit the damage, alleviate suffering and reduce the appeal of jihadism. This newspaper has long advocated safe areas and no-fly zones to protect civilians. The failure to strike Mr Assad's regime after he crossed the "red line" on the use of chemical weapons damaged American credibility, as many around Mr Obama admit. Now it is Russia that sets the rules of the game. Western action that once carried little risk now brings the danger of a clash with Russia.

Mr Obama says that Mr Assad eventually must go, but has never willed the means to achieve that end. (Some rebel groups receive CIA weapons, but that is about it.) Instead he has concentrated on destroying the caliphate: its Syrian capital, Raqqa, is under threat, and the assault on the Iraqi one, Mosul, is imminent. The president wants to avoid thankless state-building and focus on fighting terrorists. This is important, but jihadism is fed by war and state failure: without a broader power-sharing agreement in Syria and Iraq any victory against IS will be short-lived; other jihadists will take its place. To achieve a fair settlement, the West needs greater leverage.

We still hope that Mr Obama will take tougher action. More likely, he will leave the Syrian mess in his successor's in-tray. Any Western strategy must start from two realisations. First, the most important goal in the Middle East is to assuage Sunnis' grievances enough to draw them away from the death-cult of jihadism and into more constructive politics. Second, Russia is not part of the solution, but of the problem.

The West must do more to protect Syrians, mostly Sunnis, who are still beyond the grip of Mr Assad. An undeclared no-fly zone over Aleppo may be feasible. America could retaliate against Mr Assad's forces after particularly egregious actions. It could air-drop aid into besieged areas (see "Syria's civil war: The agony of Aleppo"). In zones freed from IS, America should establish a secure hinterland where an alternative government can take root.

As a Dutch-led inquiry into the destruction of flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 makes clear (see "Russia and MH17: Brought to BUK"), the challenge of Russia is not only, and not mainly, in Syria. The West must keep talking to Mr Putin, but resist his adventurism--starting with the maintenance of EU sanctions. Mr Putin is a bully, but not irrational. He will keep gambling for advantage for as long as he thinks the West is unwilling to act. But he will, surely, retreat as soon as he feels it is serious about standing up to him.
 

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT

The United States is close to suspending talks with Russia on a ceasefire in Syria, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday, as the Kremlin vowed to press on with an assault on the city of Aleppo.

Moscow and Damascus launched a campaign to recapture the rebel-held sector of Syria's biggest city this month, abandoning a ceasefire a week after it took effect to embark on what could be the biggest battle of a nearly six-year war.

Syrian government forces made a significant advance, capturing the Handarat refugee camp a few kilometers (miles) north of the city. They had briefly seized it on Saturday, before losing it again in a rebel counter attack.

Rebel fighters have launched an advance of their own near the central city of Hama, where they said they made gains on Thursday.

The United States and European Union accuse Russia of torpedoing diplomacy to pursue military victory in Aleppo, and say Moscow and Damascus are targeting civilians, hospitals and aid workers to break the will of 250,000 people living under siege in the city.

The United States called the assault on Aleppo by Syria and Russia "a gift" to Islamic State on Thursday, saying it was sowing doom and would generate more recruits for the militant group.

Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari rejected accusations that his government was killing civilians.

But U.S. officials are searching for a tougher response to Russia's decision to ignore the peace process and seek military victory on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad.

"We are on the verge of suspending the discussion because it is irrational in the context of the kind of bombing taking place to be sitting there trying to take things seriously," Kerry told a public policy conference in Washington.

"It is one of those moments where we are going to have to pursue other alternatives," he added.

Kerry spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday, the U.S. State Department said but it did not announce a suspension of the diplomacy, suggesting Washington may give Moscow a little more time.

Recapturing Aleppo would be the biggest victory of the war for government forces, and a potential turning point in a conflict that until now most outside countries had said would never be won by force.

The multi-sided civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, made half the Syrian population homeless, and allowed much of the east of the country to fall into the hands of Islamic State jihadists who are enemies of all other sides.

EU CONDEMNS ALEPPO 'MASSACRE'

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini called the air strikes in Aleppo a "massacre" and said European governments were considering their response. Russia and the Syrian government say they are targeting only militants.

Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken told U.S. lawmakers President Barack Obama had asked staff to look at how Washington might respond.

"The president has asked all of the agencies to put forward options, some familiar, some new, that we are very actively reviewing," Blinken said, adding that officials would "work through these in the days ahead."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, said Russia would "continue the operation of its air force in support of the anti-terrorist activity of Syria's armed forces".

Peskov said Washington was to blame for the fighting, by failing to meet an obligation to separate "moderate" rebel fighters from those he called terrorists.

"In general, we express regret at the rather non-constructive nature of the rhetoric voiced by Washington in the past days."

U.S. officials say they are considering tougher responses to the Russian-backed Syrian government assault, including military options, although they have described the range of possible responses as limited and say risky measures like air strikes on Syrian targets or sending U.S. jets to escort aid are unlikely.

Two U.S. officials said the speed with which the diplomatic track collapsed in Syria and pro-government forces advanced in Aleppo had caught some in the administration off guard.

Possible responses include allowing Gulf allies to supply rebels with more sophisticated weapons, or carrying out a U.S. air strike on a Syrian government air base, viewed as less likely because of the potential for causing Russian casualties, the officials told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

One of the officials said the list of options included supporting rebel counter-attacks elsewhere with additional weaponry or even air strikes, which "might not reverse the tide of battle, but might cause the Russians to stop and think".

BATTLE FOR ALEPPO

Aleppo has been divided into government and opposition sectors for four years, and its rebel zone is now the only major urban area still in the hands of anti-Assad fighters supported by the West and Arab states. The government laid siege to it in July, cutting off those trapped inside from food and medicine.

The last week of bombing has killed hundreds of people and wounded many hundreds more, with no way to bring in medical supplies. There are only around 30 doctors inside the besieged zone, and eastern Aleppo's two biggest hospitals were knocked out of service by air strikes or shelling on Wednesday.

Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to Assad, denied Syrian planes had bombed the hospitals, saying the question was "insulting".

"What is the interest of the Syrian government to bomb its own hospitals?" she said on Australia's ABC TV. "This is not the first time that such an allegation is uttered and then proven to be absolutely false."

Russia says the only way to defeat Islamic State is to support Assad. Washington says the Syrian president has too much blood on his hands and must leave power.

Washington is bombing Islamic State in the east but has avoided direct participation in the civil war in the rest of the country, leaving the field open to Russia, which joined the war a year ago tipping the conflict in favor of its ally Assad.

FEROCITY OF ASSAULT

The ferocity of the assault on Aleppo is driving many of the Western-backed anti-Assad groups to cooperate more closely with jihadist fighters, the opposite of the strategy Washington had hoped to pursue, rebel officials told Reuters.

In Aleppo, rebels in the Free Syrian Army are sharing operational planning with Jaish al-Fatah, an alliance of Islamist groups that includes the former Syrian wing of al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, in nearby Hama province, FSA groups armed with U.S.-made anti-tank missiles are taking part in a major offensive with the al Qaeda-inspired Jund al-Aqsa group.

The FSA rebels have deep ideological differences with the jihadists, and have even fought them at times, but say survival is the main consideration.

"At a time when we are dying, it is not logical to first check if a group is classified as terrorist or not before cooperating with it," said a senior official in one of the Aleppo-based rebel factions. "The only option you have is to go in this direction."

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay, John Walcott, Matt Spetalnick, Phil Stewart and Lesley Wroughton in Washington, Dmitry Solovyov in Moscow, Robin Emmott in Brussels and Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman; Writing by Peter Graff and Giles Elgood, Editing by Peter Millership and Sandra Maler)
 

GENEVA

The U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday declined to set up an independent inquiry into abuses in Yemen, instead calling on a national inquiry to investigate violations by all sides, including the killing of civilians and attacks on hospitals.

The move disappointed activists, who, along with the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, had called for an independent probe, especially into air strikes by a Saudi-led Arab coalition backing the Yemeni government.

The United Nations blames the coalition strikes for 60 percent of some 3,800 civilian deaths since March 2015.

The alliance has been fighting the Iran-allied Houthi movement in Yemen since March 2015 after the group took over the capital and forced the internationally recognized and Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile.

The Yemeni National Commission of Inquiry reports to Hadi.

"For now Saudi and its allies, like the U.S., have shown they can still block efforts at the U.N. to ensure accountability for war crimes in Yemen," Salma Amer, U.N. Advocacy Officer at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies said in a statement.

The 47-member rights council adopted a resolution brought by Arab countries that asks the United Nations to provide "substantive technical assistance and advice, including in the areas of accountability and legal support".

This should enable the Yemeni probe to "complete its investigatory work concerning allegations of violations and abuses committed by all relevant parties in Yemen".

Senior U.N. officials had seen the Yemeni issue as a test of the council's credibility after it also backed away a year ago from launching an independent inquiry.

"The resolution provides the Commissioner a clear mandate to send more investigators to Yemen, vigorously investigate abuses by all sides, and report publicly," said John Fisher of Human Rights Watch. "Saudi Arabia's aggressive lobbying against a full international investigation shows why the country should be suspended from the Council and should not be re-elected."

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, said last month that the national probe lacked impartiality as it focused on alleged violations committed by Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and had not worked in pursuing perpetrators.

The European Union withdrew a stronger Dutch-led text hours before the Arab resolution was adopted by consensus. Britain, an ally of Saudi Arabia, had blocked the Dutch-sponsored draft within the EU, a U.N. official said on condition of anonymity.

The Dutch resolution would have sent a U.N. fact-finding mission to Yemen to report back on violations in March 2017.

The EU delegation said the amended Arab resolution was a "reasonable compromise text and the European Union could support the resolution".

(Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva and Yara Bayoumy in Washington; Writing by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alison Williams)