By Tim Gaynor | 27 February, 2019

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Donors pledge US$2.6 billion to aid Yemenis ‘one step away from famine’. International donors have pledged $2.6 billion to provide urgently needed support to millions of Yemeni civilians facing an “overwhelming humanitarian calamity”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told a pledging conference in Geneva on Tuesday. Countries promised 30 per cent more funds than during last year’s conference on Yemen, where almost four years of war have killed or injured tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, Guterres said, adding: “Many more have died from preventable diseases, exacerbated by malnutrition.” He stressed that around 20 million Yemenis are unable to “reliably feed themselves or their families,” while “almost 10 million are just one step away from famine.” Fighting has uprooted 3.3 million Yemenis within the country. Hamamah, a displaced 16-year-old living in a makeshift shelter in Aden with her husband, Mohamed, recently told a UNHCR aid worker: “Every day is a fight for survival. We do not know how or if we will eat.” She said the couple’s only child, a girl, was stillborn, owing to lack of food and medical care. Paying monthly rent of US$30 is a struggle, and only the irregular work allows them to eat.

Syria still suffering ‘staggering of levels’ need. “Staggering levels” of humanitarian need persist throughout Syria nearly eight years after civil war broke out, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told Security Council members on Tuesday. Reena Ghelani, OCHA’s Director for Operations and Advocacy, said some 11.7 million people will need life-saving humanitarian assistance across the country this year. Ghelani highlighted the “dire humanitarian situation” of about 41,000 displaced people – mainly women and children – in Rukban camp, near the Syria-Jordan border, facing hunger and lacking the most basic necessities. Although the UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent recently delivered essential aid, as part of the largest convoy of the entire war – vaccines and logistical items in 133 trucks during a 10-day mission earlier this month – “the gravity of the situation for civilians in Rukban means that sustained humanitarian access is needed moving forward,” Ghelani explained, noting that supplies are expected to last “only 30 days.” UNHCR staff who visited Rukban this month described desperate conditions, with practically no services and limited access to clean water. Children were seen walking barefoot through puddles and mud, in cold and continuous rain.

WHAT’S ON OUR RADAR

An Iranian refugee on Nauru who set himself on fire would have had a 95 per cent chance of survival in Australia, an inquest heard. A burns specialist who treated Omid Masoumali after he self-immolated on Nauru three years ago testified at an inquest in Brisbane that the 23-year-old would have had a 95 per cent chance of survival had he been treated in Australia. Jason Miller, a burns specialist at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, saw Masoumali about 30 hours after he burned himself in April 2016, The Guardian reported. Miller testified that based on Masoumali’s age and the fact that about half his body was burned, the injuries would have a death rate of 5-10 per cent under his care in Australia. UNHCR last year urged Australia to evacuate refugees and asylum-seekers from its off-shore facilities in Nauru and Papua New Guinea, citing deteriorating health and reduced medical care. The Iranian died of organ failure.

Lack of reconciliation preventing Yazidi return to Sinjar.’ More than three years after so-called Islamic State militants were driven out of the city of Sinjar in northern Iraq, only a quarter of its residents, all Yazidis, have returned, Reuters reports . Citing the Norwegian Refugee Council, it said none of the members of the other communities in the formerly mixed city have returned because of a lack of reconciliation between them. Sinjar is regarded as their heartland by Yazidis, whose ancient religion has its roots in Sufism and Zoroastrianism. Before it was overrun by militants in August 2014, it was also home to Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims, Christians and ethnic Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and others. Militants targeted the Yazidis, separating men and boys older than 12 years from their families and killed those who refused to adopt their beliefs.

‘Protracted crisis’ in Venezuela leads to ‘alarming escalation of tensions.’ Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN’s political and peacebuilding chief, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the “grim reality” facing Venezuela showed a deteriorating economy, with citizens dying of preventable causes, and 3.4 million Venezuelans so far, choosing to leave, due to conditions at home. Civil society groups meanwhile reported that infant mortality has increased by over 50 per cent since 2017, as have the number of infant deaths. She added that data from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) indicate that 80 per cent of hospitals lack sufficient medicines, while up to 40 per cent of the medical personnel have left the country. Last week, UNHCR reported that, on average, during 2018, an estimated 5,000 people left Venezuela every day in search of protection or a better life. Colombia hosts the highest number of refugees and migrants from Venezuela, with over 1.1 million.

GET INSPIRED

In Beirut, a ‘Fun Bus’ supported by UNHCR and the EU offers Syrian refugees and other children a safe space to learn and play, as part of wider push to get kids out of work and into school.

DID YOU KNOW?

As many as 7.4 million people require services to treat or prevent malnutrition in Yemen, including 3.2 million people who with severe malnutrition, 2 million of them children under five.

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