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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
WCK round-up: aid groups complain about IDF but won’t leave; WCK suspends operations, sends aid ships back to Cyprus
2024-04-04
Groups accuse Israel of ‘systematic’ attacks on aid workers, but won’t leave Gaza
How can we miss you if you never leave?
[IsraelTimes] Humanitarian NGOs say conditions have become impossible for them, with soldiers disregarding a mechanism in place to allow relief efforts to operate safely

Aid groups said on Wednesday that the international community must treat the Israeli strike that killed seven humanitarian workers in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 as a watershed moment, accusing Israel of "systematic" attacks on civilians and NGOs working there.

Charities told AFP they had no immediate plans to pull out of Gaza after an Israeli air strike killed seven staff members of the US-based food charity World Central Kitchen late Monday. But they said conditions were becoming increasingly impossible, pointing to serious problems with a coordination system that is designed to keep aid workers safe from military activity aimed at rooting out armed members of Hamas
...one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
 and other terror groups.

The United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
 says the bloodiest-ever Gaza war had left nearly 200 aid workers dead even before the Monday night attack, including more than 175 members of the UN’s staff.
How many of the dead were also on the payroll of Hamas or another jihadi group?
The WCK stressed that its staff had come under attack "despite coordinating movements" with the IDF and traveling in a de-conflicted zone in two armored cars branded with the WCK logo and another vehicle.

Israel described the deadly strike as unintentional and apologized for the deadly strike, while vowing to probe the incident, at a time of an outpouring of anger from governments around the world.

But the UN and others say the way Israel has conducted the war puts relief providers and other civilians at grave risk.

"Israel has now killed more aid workers in Gaza than all other armies, militias, and holy warriors in all other wars combined," said Jan Egeland who heads the Norwegian Refugee Council.

"I deeply hope that this terrible attack will act as some kind of watershed moment, and lead to a change in approach," he said, reiterating calls for a sustained ceasefire.

Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s policy adviser for the Paleostinian territories, said staff have been "terrified" and tried to minimize their movements.

"There’s been a deliberate and systematic assault on humanitarian aid efforts, including humanitarian aid workers," she said. "We’ve seen a systematic disregard for the de-confliction system."

’DEEP CRISIS’
Benjamin Gaudin, who leads the Middle East operations of Premiere Urgence Internationale, a La Belle France-based NGO, said his organization had no immediate plans to pull out, even though it was "very difficult" to continue to work in Gaza.

"This attack is catastrophic, not only for the World Central Kitchen, but also for the entire humanitarian community," said Gaudin.

Like other relief groups, Gaudin’s NGO has been seeking to closely coordinate their movements with Israel through a special "platform," but pointed to communications problems.

"So far it hasn’t guaranteed the safety of the organizations, because many incidents have occurred, despite this system being put in place," he said.

Egeland said the notification and coordination system with the IDF was "in deep crisis" and had to be rebooted.

The deadly attack "either shows that Israel has no control over its forces — that indiscriminately attack in Gaza — or that it has never communicated with its armed operations the notifications that it had promised to communicate," he said. "Both would be unforgivable."

Camilla Dogliotti of Handicap International, whose office in Gaza City was destroyed in a bombing strike in late January, said "the level of risk is very high in some southern and central areas of Gaza and unacceptable in all other areas."

"This new attack is first and foremost the consequence of Israel’s continued disrespect of international humanitarian law and of the required protection of civilians, including aid workers, during conflict," she charged.

’UNPRECEDENTED DANGER’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the military had "unintentionally" killed the aid workers, calling it a "tragic case" that would be investigated "right to the end."

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi apologized for the incident on Tuesday: "It was a mistake that followed a misidentification, at night, during a war, in very complex conditions. It shouldn’t have happened," Halevi clarified, adding that there was no "intention of harming WCK aid workers."

Since October 7, World Central Kitchen has served millions of meals in Israel and Gaza
[IsraelTimes] Non-political aid agency, founded in 2010, provided over 500,000 meals to displaced, vulnerable Israelis in wake of Hamas attack, has been working for months to get food into Strip. World Central Kitchen (WCK), the food charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, called a halt to its work in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after an Israeli airstrike killed seven of its workers, mostly foreigners, the previous night. The group said it will make decisions about longer-term plans in the region soon.

IDF chief apologizes as details emerge of strike that picked off Gaza aid cars one by one
[IsraelTimes] Halevi: Deaths of 7 WCK staffers ‘a mistake that followed a misidentification, at night, in very complex war conditions’; report claims ‘each commander makes his own rules’ in Gaza.

UN suspends Gaza nighttime aid operations following WCK strike

Undelivered food returns to Cyprus after aid workers’ killing in Gaza

And more about the seven who died here.

Link


Afghanistan
Daily Evacuation Brief May 23-24, 2023
2023-05-24


Daily Evacuation Brief | May 24, 2023

[AfghanDigest] LAST 24 HOURS
  • DEADLY ATTACK ON PAKISTANI OIL OPERATION IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA – A large militant force of up to 50 men stormed a Hungarian oil complex in the Hangu District of the Province. The attack targeted two specific pumping wells and heavy weapons and rocket-propelled grenades were employed in the attack. 4 Police and 2 private security guards were killed in the attack. It is not known how many of the militants were killed or wounded in the exchange of fire. After the attack, the militants were thought to have retreated into North Waziristan. The TTP claimed credit for the action, but this has not been confirmed by officials in Pakistan. Minor damage was inflicted on the facility but did not affect production. Police and military units were conducting sweeps of the adjacent areas as well as sending heavily armed patrols into North Waziristan.

  • IMRAN KHAN MAY HAVE OVERESTIMATED HIS POPULARITY – The ousted Prime Minister appears to have overplayed his hand and is reeling from a wave of defections from his political party. Since the nationwide violence broke out on 9 May, thirty-five party leaders have resigned from the party. Several local party offices have been vandalized, some by their own former members. Turnout at local rallies has dwindled. At this point, it is not clear how much support the embattled politician retains. A source in Islamabad said that Khan made a monumental mistake when he ‘challenged the Army’. While few are counting Pakistan’s ‘master of spin’ out, there is a growing sense that even many within his own party are tired of the constant tirades and conspiracy theories. The former PM appeared in front of three separate proceedings yesterday over a slew of legal issues. Despite launching several Twitter warnings, he was not arrested and the courts gave him lenient extensions of bail.

  • HEAVY FLOODING IN GHOR PROVINCE KILLS 5 – Rain and melting snow contributed to severe flooding in the Madrasa area that reportedly killed 5 people. Damage from the floodwaters was also reported in the Pasaband District.

  • TALIBAN FINALIZING RULES REGARDING WOMEN WORKING IN AID CAPACITIES – According to the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, the Taliban have nearly completed the new guidelines for Afghan women to work for nongovernmental organizations in the country. When pressed for dates or a timeline, the Taliban would not provide additional information. Many are skeptical that any work is being done and, even if it were, the ruling cabal in Kandahar would overrule plans to allow women back to work.


CONFLICT TRACKER
Laghman: ALM forces reportedly engaged a Taliban unit near Mount Barmasmut yesterday evening. 6 Taliban were reportedly killed in the encounter.

NEXT 24 HOURS: No Threats Received

Daily Evacuation Brief | May 23, 2023

[AfghanDigest] LAST 24 HOURS
  • TALIBAN CAUTIONS IRAN OVER HELMAND RIVER THREATS – The escalating war of words over water rights between Iran and the Taliban continued yesterday as the Taliban Foreign Minister sent mixed messages regarding the commitment to the 1973 treaty. Amir Khan Muttaqi said during a press conference in Kabul that the Taliban was committed to honoring the treaty but then hedged by saying that Tehran needs to be prepared to lower expectations based on the drought in Afghanistan. In previous statements about the matter, the Taliban has consistently said it would adhere to the provisions of the treaty. We assess that the change in rhetoric was likely provoked by Iran’s public request to dispatch an assessment team to Afghanistan to measure water levels. A source in Tehran said that several of the drone flights conducted by Iran in the Spring of 2023 were sent into Afghanistan to conduct aerial hydrological surveys of reservoirs and that Tehran is convinced the Taliban are withholding water from the Helmand River with plans to divert it for domestic agricultural use. The Taliban appear to be adjusting their messaging with regard to the water issue.

  • THE RAINY SEASON MAY USHER IN DENGUE FEVER CONTAGION – The World Health Organization has issued a warning over the risk of outbreaks of Dengue Fever in Afghanistan. Populations in Eastern Afghanistan are the primary concern as the region has historically suffered the highest infection rates from the disease. The organization said it had anticipated the problem and had successfully trained approximately 300 medical staff to deal with the disease. Of note, the majority of the medical staff trained for this potential crisis are women.

  • MODERATELY POWERFUL EARTHQUAKE REPORTED IN BADAKHSHAN – An earthquake struck Badakhshan Province before noon yesterday. The 4.9 magnitude quake was centered near Faizabad and the tremors were felt in Kabul. The quake was the second above 4.0 magnitude reported in a ten-hour span and seismologists are concerned that a stronger earthquake may be coming.

  • NEW PRIME MINISTER APPOINTMENT THOUGHT TO BE AIMED AT THE ‘YOUNG LIONS’ IN THE TALIBAN 2.0 – Several long-time observers and analysts feel the appointment of Maulvi Abdul Kabir as acting Prime Minister by the supreme leader was a political message aimed at Mullah Baradar, Mullah Yaqoob, and (most importantly) at Sirajuddin Haqqani. Kabir’s roots lie in Paktia Province and his family ties are largely seen as competition to the Haqqani family. There seems to be a growing consensus that Hibaitullah Akhundzada has grown paranoid and it is said that he overruled several of his inner circle who had urged for a promotion for Mullah Baradar (First Deputy Prime Minister). Further reshuffling is expected to take place and many believe the Haqqani family will lose key positions.


CONFLICT TRACKER
Takhar: An ALF unit reportedly attacked a Taliban security checkpoint in the 1st police district of Taloqan yesterday evening. 1 Talib fighter was reportedly killed and 3 others were wounded in the incident.

NEXT 24 HOURS
PAKISTAN - FORMER PM KHAN SCHEDULED TO MAKE THREE COURT APPEARANCES TODAY – The ousted Prime Minister will start his day with questioning in front of the National Accountability Bureau in Rawalpindi over a corruption case. Then, he is scheduled to request bail in a case concerning potential charges of terrorism at the Anti-Terrorism Court. Lastly, he is scheduled to appear at the Islamabad High Court where he will be processed for his biometric data in an attempt to receive another grant of bail in several new cases. The former PM called on his followers to remain calm if he is arrested today. Some believe the about-face is due in large part to several high-level defections from his party and recent polling that gives the Pakistani military very high approval ratings. Relative calm has reigned in Pakistan since the events that transpired after 9 May but the former PM has proven to be a wily political figure and it is possible that orders have gone out to instigate a new round of mass protests should be detained. However, the matters before him today are considered routine and we assess the likelihood of violence to be low. At-risk Afghans sheltering in Islamabad and Rawalpindi should continue to remain vigilant but should be able to go about their daily affairs.
Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
'World War Three has already started': Putin's TV cheerleaders rant that UK and America will 'pay a heavy price' for interfering with Ukraine war as they threaten to demilitarise NATO
2022-06-01
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Russian One broadcaster Olga Skabeyeva effectively declared war on the West

  • 'In a sense, the real war has started - World War Three,' the propagandist said

  • She called for the demilitarisation of the entire NATO alliance during her show

  • It comes days after another presenter said Russia will go as far as 'Stonehenge'

  • Russia is making slow but steady gains in the east of Ukraine amid bitter fighting

  • The city of Severodonetsk in Luhansk is now mostly under Russian control

  • Former UN Humanitarian Affairs Chief Jan Egeland warned up to 12,000 civilians are trapped in the city with little to no access to food or water
Link


Arabia
Yemen aid workers fear possible U.S. blacklisting of Houthis
2020-11-20
[THEBAGHDADPOST] Humanitarian agencies say a possible U.S. designation of Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
 group as a foreign terrorist organization would prevent lifesaving aid to the conflict-riven country, where fears of famine are rising.

Washington sees the group, which controls northern Yemen and its most populated areas, as an extension of Iranian influence in the region. President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
’s administration has been threatening to blacklist the group, sources have told Rooters, as part of its "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran.

Over the past few weeks concern has risen among humanitarian groups that such a designation might be imminent, sources said.

Two separate sources told Rooters around a dozen American aid workers had left the country this week. Other sources said an informal note had been sent to American aid workers last week, in anticipation of potential safety concerns in Houthi-controlled areas.

Aid agencies worry their work would be criminalised. The Houthis - also called Ansar Allah - are the de facto authority in northern Yemen and humanitarian organizations have to get their permits to carry out aid programs, as well as work with ministries and local financial systems.

Should the U.S. government proceed, it should also issue a ’General License’ that ensures humanitarian groups can still work with Houthi authorities and provide aid, said Jan Egeland, a former U.N. aid chief who now heads the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which works in Yemen.

"We must be able to negotiate access for our aid and protection of civilians with all sides to all conflicts," he said.

The U.N. describes Yemen, already poor before almost six years of war, as the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, with 80% of the population reliant on aid.
This year the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
 pandemic, economic decline, floods, escalating armed conflict and a severe aid funding shortage have again raised the possibility of famine.

"A potential designation is coming at a time of unprecedented need ... but our ability to respond is diminishing," said the NRC’s Sultana Begum from Yemen.

Aid workers also worry a designation - with the increased burden on banks’ compliance mechanisms - would impact Yemenis’ access to financial systems and remittances from abroad, as well as complicating imports and raising goods prices further.


Link


Iraq
Charity: Iraq excludes 45,000 children born under ISIS rule
2019-05-01
[Rudaw] An estimated 45,000 children in Iraq who were born under the rule of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 group are being excluded from society because the government denies them documentation and ID papers, an international charity said Tuesday.

Jan Egeland, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s secretary general, is warning that these children ‐ most of whom are in camps for the displaced today ‐ are a "possible human time-bomb."

"Undocumented children risk remaining left on the margins of society if this issue is not addressed immediately. This seriously undermines future prospects of reconciliation efforts," said Egeland.

"We urge the government to ensure that undocumented children have the right to exist like any other Iraqi citizen," he added, citing the organization’s 38-page report "Barriers from Birth."

The children were born during IS’s 2013-2017 rule, when the bully boy group controlled nearly a third of Iraq. The Iraqi government today considers their birth certificates invalid because they were issued by IS.

After U.S.-backed forces defeated the IS and the murderous Moslems lost their self-styled "caliphate," many IS families and those of civilians who lived under the group’s rule were put in camps for the displaced.

The Norway-based group said its legal teams receive on average 170 requests for help each month in cases of unregistered children, children whose fathers are undocumented, are on one of the government’s security databases or are perceived to be affiliated with IS.

Egeland said the chance of obtaining ID documents for children from families accused of IS affiliation is nearly impossible, resulting in collective punishment of thousands of innocent children.

"Children are not responsible for crimes committed by their relatives, yet many are denied their basic rights as Iraqi citizens," he said.

Without ID papers, these children have no access to education or health care, they are not allowed to enroll in schools and their mothers cannot get badly needed aid ‐ they are denied "simply the right to exist," Egeland said.

Providing these children with such basic rights to education and health care is "key to ensuring a sustainable future for them and for the country," he said. "A society cannot be at peace if it allows a generation of stateless children in its midst."
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Nearly 30 Civilians Dead in Heavy Bombing on North Syria
2018-08-11
[AnNahar] Heavy bombardment killed nearly 30 civilians across northern Syria on Friday, a monitor said, in some of the fiercest shelling of rebel-held areas there in months.

The air strikes and barrel bombs targeted the key opposition-held province of Idlib in Syria's northwest and a rebel town in the adjacent province of Aleppo.

Idlib is the largest chunk of territory still in rebel hands, and Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
 has warned it would be his next target.

The province's southwest was shelled heavily on Thursday and the bombing the next day "moved further east," leaving 11 civilians dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"Air strikes by Russian warplanes and barrel bombs from Syrian helicopters hit southern parts of Idlib province today in very heavy shelling," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said Friday.

"It's the most intense bombing since Idlib was declared a de-escalation zone last year," he told AFP.

The shelling left eight civilians dead in the main town of Khan Sheikhun, and another three including a child died in nearby al-Tah.

The White Helmets, a rescue force operating in opposition-held areas of Syria, said its volunteers were responding to a bombing blitz on both Khan Sheikhun and al-Tah.

A White Helmets rescuer in Khan Sheikhun told AFP that residential districts had been hit.

Hours later, air strikes pummeled the main rebel town of Orum al-Kubra in the neighbouring province of Aleppo, the Observatory said, without being able to immediately identify if they were Syrian or Russian.

"The corpse count is now at 18 civilians including three children, and dozens of people injured," said Abdel Rahman.

Rebels have lost swathes of the territory they once controlled in Syria to regime forces over the last few months, including three areas that had been designated as "de-escalation zones" last year.

Assad's troops now appear to have set their sights on the last such area, Idlib.

The Britannia-based Observatory said regime reinforcements, including troops and equipment, had been amassing around the southwestern part of Idlib for several days.

But a full-fledged assault would be devastating for the estimated 2.5 million people living in Idlib, many of them rebels and civilians bused out of other areas that came back under regime control.

The United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
 appealed Thursday for talks to avert "a civilian bloodbath" in the province, which borders The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund....
"The war cannot be allowed to go to Idlib," said Jan Egeland, head of the U.N.'s humanitarian taskforce for Syria.

Around 60 percent of Idlib is held by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
 (HTS), which is led by al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate.

Rival factions control most of the rest, but Syrian troops have carved out a small southeastern part.

Government helicopters on Thursday dropped leaflets over towns in Idlib's eastern countryside urging people to surrender.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Talks urgently needed to avoid Idlib ‘bloodbath’, says UN
2018-08-10
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Negotiations are urgently needed to avert "a civilian bloodbath" in Syria’s last major rebel bastion Idlib, the United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
 said on Thursday, after regime forces shelled the area ahead of an expected assault.

"The war cannot be allowed to go to Idlib," the head of the United Nations humanitarian taskforce for Syria, Jan Egeland, told news hounds in Geneva.

Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
 has warned that the northwestern province would be his military’s next priority. Artillery and rocket fire reportedly slammed into rebel and gunnies positions in the area earlier on Thursday.

Egeland said he remained "hopeful" that diplomatic efforts underway could stave off a major ground offensive that would force hundreds of thousands to flee.

"It is bad now," in Idlib, Egeland said. "It could be 100 times worse."

Idlib is home to about 2.5 million people, up to half of whom are rebels and civilians transferred en masse from other territory that fell to Syrian troops after intense assaults.

A major military operation in Idlib would pose a particular humanitarian nightmare because there is no opposition territory left in Syria where people could be evacuated to, Egeland said.

"I cannot see evacuations to other opposition-controlled areas," he said, explaining that contingency plans were being formed to deal with a range of scenarios.

At Thursday’s humanitarian taskforce meeting, ambassadors discussed options to ramp up assistance in the event of additional massive displacement, Egeland said, noting that "it is very hard to take on more mouths to feed and there is no (additional) shelter available" in the area.

Ensuring that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
 keeps its border open for those who might flee an assault by Damascus would be a priority, he added.

"The scenario that we really need to avoid at any cost is the big war coming to civilian areas (in Idlib)," the UN official said.

He added that he was "heartened" to hear diplomats from Assad allies Russia and Iran as well as opposition backer Turkey say they were committed to avoiding a large-scale offensive.

Egeland said the string of rebel surrender deals brokered elsewhere during the Syrian conflict could be applied in Idlib to save civilian lives.

Around 60 percent of the area is now held by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
 (HTS), which is led by al-Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate, while the rest is controlled by rival opposition factions.

Link


Africa Horn
South Sudan and Sudan agree to repair damaged oil infrastructure, humanitarian crisis continues in South
2018-06-08
Islam’s bloody border about to become less bloody?
[AlAhram] South Sudan said on Thursday it had agreed with its northern neighbour Sudan to repair oil infrastructure facilities destroyed by conflict within three months to boost production in Africa's youngest country.

Michael Makuei Lueth, South Sudan's information minister, told Rooters officials agreed with their visiting Sudanese counterparts to "evaluate and assess the damage" to South Sudan's oilfields in the Heglig area in the country's north.

"There is an agreement between the two oil ministries of the two countries. They agreed to cooperate and work together in order to repair (the damage)," he said.

South Sudan depends virtually entirely on oil sales for its revenue but production has declined since war broke out in the country in 2013.

The oil is shipped to international markets via a pipeline through Sudan.

Fighting was triggered by a political disagreement between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar and a regionally brokered peace pact failed to end the war after violations by both parties.

Officials from the two countries "agreed that within the period of three months they will repair all the oil blocks and resume oil production in the region," he said referring to the infrastructure in the oil blocks.

The war has uprooted a quarter of South Sudan's population of 12 million, ruined the country's agriculture and battered the economy.

A joint force would also be established by both countries to protect the oilfields from attacks by both rebels forces in South Sudan and Sudan.

S. Sudan's Dire Humanitarian Crisis Worsens

[AnNahar] A humanitarian crisis in conflict-torn South Sudan is reaching alarming proportions after four and a half years of fighting, Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) warned on Thursday.

"I've never before seen, heard, experienced so many people being so food-insecure in so many places in South Sudan," he told a press conference in Nairobi.

"What is different this year is that the acute food insecurity has spread to more parts of the country," such as southern Equatoria, he said.

In February, U.N. agencies warned that 48 percent of South Sudan's population was experiencing extreme hunger and seven million would need aid in 2018.

In 2017 some 100,000 people were affected by a famine -- meaning people started dying due to lack of food. It was declared over in June. However the protracted conflict has devastated agriculture, displaced millions and sent food prices soaring, putting 11 counties at risk of man-made famine this year.

Egeland highlighted increasing fatigue with the conflict while donors are overstretched with crises elsewhere, and the difficulty for aid workers inside the country.

"South Sudan gets decreasing attention and has increasing needs. We are ready to help but we need more resources, we need access, security and we need a ceasefire," he said.

Since war broke out in December 2013, 101 aid workers have been killed in South Sudan, said Egeland.

South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, was engulfed by civil war in 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his rival and former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup against him. Violence -- initially between ethnic Dinka supporters of Kiir and ethnic Nuer supporters of Machar -- has since spread to other parts of the country, engulfing other ethnic groups. The last ceasefire, signed in December, was broken within hours while the latest round of peace talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa have stalled.

Last week the U.N. Security Council gave the two warring sides a month to reach a peace deal or face sanctions.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir this week offered to host a meeting between Kiir and Machar. Kiir welcomed the opportunity while Machar's camp said they would be happy to hold such a meeting, but had not been informed about it. Observers say that with the government winning militarily and the opposition fractured more than ever before, there is little incentive for Kiir to make concessions to his rivals.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Bombardment kills 25 civilians in Syria's Ghouta, Russia calls for 2 day truce as Syrian army advances in E. Ghouta, discovers chemical factory
2018-03-15
[ARABNEWS] Russian defense ministry annouced this afternoon that it was ready to renew a humanitarian truce
..The purposes of a truce are twofold: 1.) bring up more arms, ammunition, and reinforcements; and 2.) get the enemy to relax his vigilance. A truce is not the same thing as a ceasefire, and a ceasefire doesn't mean you have to stop shooting...
 for eastern Ghouta for two more days. Previous calls for a cease fire in the suburb of Damascus never materialised with casualty numbers rising daily.

Bombardment by the Syrian regime and its Russian ally killed 25 civilians, among them three children, in the embattled rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Wednesday, a monitor said.

"At least 25 civilians including three children were killed on Wednesday, most of them in regime air strikes and others in Russian raids on an area controlled by Faylaq al-Rahman," a rebel group, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

Syrian opposition activists say the town of Hamouria, in the southern pocket of eastern Ghouta, was the worst hit, with at least 10 killed there and a rescue center bombed and destroyed.

A doctor in Hamouria says he was overwhelmed and that for four hours, no vehicle was able to move the injured to a medical facility. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity fearing for his own safety.

The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Ghouta Media Center say the towns of Arbeen, Jesreen and Saqba were also targeted. Recent government advances have cleaved eastern Ghouta into a northern and southern pocket. The bombing Wednesday focused on the southern pocket.

A senior UN adviser said on Wednesday Syria could see "tremendous battles" for two remaining rebel enclaves even once a government onslaught on the last murderous Moslem pocket near Damascus is over.

International attention has focused on the battle for besieged eastern Ghouta outside the capital and for Afrin in the far north where The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
 sent in forces to combat Kurdish militia it sees as a threat to its security.

But they are not the last flashpoints as Syria’s war enters its eighth year, three years after the tide began turning in the government’s favor, said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council and a senior UN adviser on Syria.

"Our fear is that after eastern Ghouta we may see tremendous battles now in and around Idlib (in the far northwest)and, in the south, Daraa," he said.

Those would be just the latest in a string of increasingly bitter and cruel "end battles" following fighting for Homs, Aleppo, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, Egeland said.

He said that in each battle, civilians were caught between warring sides who justified their ruthlessness by claiming to be fighting terrorism or dictatorship.

"It’s really not too late to have talks around Idlib, to have talks around Daraa, and to have talks around Afrin," he said. "Idlib would be a tremendous concern because Idlib is in many ways a gigantic refugee camp."

To stem one of the worst effects of the fighting ‐ air strikes on medical facilities ‐ Egeland said a new notification system for the coordinates of more than a dozen hospitals had gone into effect in the last few days.

"We have delivered coordinates on hospitals both in eastern Ghouta and in Idlib to the United States and to Russia, and Russia will not only guarantee that they will not attack, we’re asking them also to make sure that Syrian armed forces, the air force, is not targeting the hospitals," Egeland said.

Syrian Army advances towards East Ghouta suburbs amid latest push

[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) continued their large-scale offensive inside the East Ghouta, Wednesday, seizing the last farms under Lion of Islam control in the eastern part of this region.

Led by their elite Tiger Forces and 4th Division, the Syrian Arab Army scored advances at two different axes in this rural region outside of Damascus, giving them access to the eastern suburbs of the East Ghouta.

According to a military source in Damascus, the Syrian Army captured the eastern farms of Jisreen in the southern part of the East Ghouta, while also making new advances inside the town of al-Rayhan.

As a result of the aforementioned advance, the Syrian Army has managed to reach the eastern outskirts of Jaish al-Islam
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
’s largest stronghold in the East Ghouta, Douma.

The Syrian Army is now working to capture all of al-Rayhan, along with Jisreen and nearby al-Hamouriyah.

Syrian Army uncovers militant chemical factory in East Ghouta

[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army claimed that it uncovered a plant used by snuffies to produce toxic chemicals, in the area between Douma and al-Shefounieh in Eastern Ghouta, on Tuesday.

The footage shows the interior of the alleged plant, with various pipes and storage tanks reportedly used for mixing and heating chemicals and for creating explosives.

Traces of chlorine gas were also reportedly discovered there.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria: Hundreds left behind in evacuations
2017-12-30
[ARABNEWS] More than 400 patients on a UN list waiting for evacuations from a siege in Syria were left behind on Friday as the Red Thingy said it had finished transferring just 29 people and their families to Damascus for medical care.

It took the International Committee of the Red Thingy and the Syrian Arab Red Islamic Thingy three days to evacuate the patients and their family members from the Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus to hospitals just minutes away, underscoring the degree to which authorities have obstructed basic relief work in the war-torn country.

The UN submitted a list of names to the government six months ago of patients requiring evacuation from the regime’s siege of the suburbs of its own capital because they were suffering from war wounds, kidney failure, and malnutrition.

In November, UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said the list had reached 494 names, and 12 patients had died waiting for care. The UN’s children’s agency said more than 100 children require evacuation.
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Arabia
Saudi blockade of Yemen still in place, amounts to collective punishment: Aid agency
2017-11-24
[PRESSTV] A major aid agency says Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
’s crippling blockade of Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
is an "illegal collective punishment" of the Yemeni nation, some seven million of whom are on the brink of an appalling famine.

Jan Egeland, a former UN aid chief who now heads the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), made the remarks on Thursday, a day after the Saudi-led military coalition announced that it would partially lift the siege on the impoverished nation and would let humanitarian supplies in.

Egeland, whose charity group has already helped one million Yemenis, welcomed an announcement by the coalition on removing the blockade of Yemen’s western port city of Hudaydah and the international airport of the capital city of Sana’a, but said, "We only have it in writing now and haven’t seen it happen."

This came more than two weeks after Saudi Arabia announced that it was shutting down Yemen’s air, sea, and land borders, after Yemeni Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
Ansarullah fighters targeted an international airport near the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with a cruise missile in retaliation for ceaseless bombardment of Yemen by the Saudi war machine over the past two and a half years.

The Saudi military, however, announced that it had intercepted the missile, which apparently reached the deepest parts within the Saudi territory.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Daesh-held Raqqah worst place in Syria, United Nations says. Really.
2017-08-18
That tears it! I'm cancelling my Labor Day getaway to Raqqa!
[Iran Press TV] The United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
 has expressed serious concerns over the humanitarian condition in Syria’s northern city of Raqqah, describing the territory still controlled by the ISIS Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
 terrorist group as "the worst place" in the conflict-plagued Arab country.

"The worst place probably today in Syria is the part of Raqqah that is still held by ISIS," Jan Egeland, the UN humanitarian adviser for Syria, told news hounds in Geneva on Thursday.

The city of Raqqah, which lies on the northern bank of the Euphrates River, was overrun by ISIS bandidos Lions of Islam in March 2013, and was proclaimed the center for most of the Takfiris’ administrative and control tasks the following year.

It is estimated that some 300,000 civilians are trapped inside Raqqah, including 80,000 displaced from other parts of Syria. Thousands have fled in recent months, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs believes about 160,000 people remain in the city.

On June 6, the US-backed murderous Moslems from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they had launched an operation aimed at pushing ISIS out of Raqqah.

"They (civilians) are encircled by the SDF fighters and they are used seemingly as human shields by ISIS," Egeland said, noting that "constant air raids" by the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the ISIS Takfiri terrorist group also threaten their lives.
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