{"id":18143,"date":"2011-11-16T12:10:07","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T08:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/?p=18143"},"modified":"2019-03-31T12:14:55","modified_gmt":"2019-03-31T08:14:55","slug":"unhcr-briefing-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/unhcr-briefing-points\/","title":{"rendered":"UNHCR Briefing Points"},"content":{"rendered":"
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1 \u2013 Rainfall, disease, hitting refugee camps in Kenya, Ethiopia
\nMore than a month after the kidnapping of three aid workers in Kenya’s Dadaab
\nrefugee complex, insecurity continues to affect aid efforts. The situation is being
\nexacerbated by heavy rains and accompanying risks of waterborne diseases.
\nNearly 100 additional Kenyan police have been deployed in the camps in the last
\nmonth. UNHCR is supporting them with vehicles, shelter and telecommunications
\nequipment. Together with our partners, we are exploring options to gradually
\nresume full operations despite continued security incidents in and around Dadaab.
\nIn the meantime, refugees are still receiving life-saving aid, namely food, water and
\nhealth care.
\nThe situation has been complicated by an outbreak of cholera in the camps, which
\nis believed to have started among new arrivals who had most likely acquired it in
\nSomalia or en route to Dadaab. Rains and flooding had affected the trucking of
\nwater to parts of the camps, and we fear some refugees resorted to using unsafe
\nwater from flooded areas.
\nThere are now 60 cases in the camps, including 10 laboratory-confirmed cases and
\none refugee death. To manage the outbreak, UNHCR and partners have set up
\ncholera treatment centres for severe cases. Most cases can be managed through
\noral rehydration solutions (ORS) that can be given at home or at the health posts.
\nWe are working with UNICEF and the Ministry of Health to train health workers in
\nthe community-based management of diarrhoea so that patients can begin
\ntreatment at home.<\/p>\n

We have increased levels of chlorine, which kills cholera-causing bacteria, at water
\npoints in the camps. These are monitored to make sure they are maintained at the
\ncorrect levels. We are also promoting hygiene practices among the refugees,
\nespecially the use of latrines and hand washing with soap. Each refugee received
\n250 grams of soap with the latest food distribution and this will continue monthly for
\nseveral months.
\nIn Ethiopia’s Dollo Ado area, a nutrition survey at the Kobe and Hilaweyn camps
\nhas found high levels of malnutrition among children under five years of age.
\nRefugees at both camps arrived from Somalia in extremely poor health condition,
\nwith many families losing children to malnutrition en route or after arrival in Ethiopia.
\nHealth and nutrition programmes have been set up by a range of experienced
\npartners to address malnutrition, especially among the youngest children, but
\nprogress has been slow, as this survey confirmed.
\nHowever, the number of deaths among children under five has decreased
\ndramatically compared to the very high level seen at the height of the refugee influx
\nthis summer. This reflects improved access to quality health care and nutrition
\nservices, as well as improved water and sanitation facilities. UNHCR is leading the
\ncoordination of a nutrition response to the survey\u2019s findings.
\nMeanwhile, intermittent downpours in Dollo Ado continue to cause flash floods in
\nthe area. The airstrip was hit by floods in the past four days and has subsequently
\nremained out of service.
\nNonetheless, work continues on the fifth refugee camp in the area, Bur Amino. The
\nground is rocky and this slows down the digging of latrines, a minimum number of
\nwhich must be in place before refugees can be relocated from the transit centre.
\nMore than 7,600 recent arrivals from Somalia are now encamped at the transit
\ncentre, where they receive basic shelter, relief items and hot meals.<\/p>\n

2 \u2013 UNHCR survey of previously isolated IDPs in CAR finds acute hardship
\nA UNHCR-Danish Refugee Council survey of displaced civilians near the town of
\nNd\u00c3\u00a9l\u00c3\u00a9 in northern Central African Republic has found acute hardship, including a
\nhigh incidence of child or teenage marriage and widespread use of children as
\nlabour.
\nThe survey covered 300 families from a population of 17,000 people in the area.
\nOne in five families reported having lost at least one family member during the first
\nhalf of 2011 to insecurity, a lack of health services, or shortages of food. Among
\nchildren between the ages of six and fifteen, 32.5 percent were being used as child
\nlabour.
\nAmong girls between the ages of 12 and 17, thirty percent had been sold into
\nmarriage. IDP families told UNHCR that they married their underage daughters to members of the host communities and sent children to farm and fish for these communities in exchange for housing, food or money. UNHCR staff also received reports of gang rape by armed groups.
\nThe survey was carried out mainly between May and September, and will be
\nextended to more villages in the region. Displaced people in the area had almost no
\naccess to humanitarian help before June this year when a ceasefire was signed
\nbetween rebels of the Patriots\u2019 Convention for Justice and Peace \u2013 one of the main
\nrebel factions in the area \u2013 and the CAR Government. Before the peace agreement,
\nthe only civilians able to benefit from humanitarian assistance were those who
\nmanaged to reach Nd\u00c3\u00a9l\u00c3\u00a9 town.
\nUNHCR hopes that the improved security will allow for a strengthened UNHCR
\npresence in this part of the CAR to respond to the protection and assistance needs
\nof the displaced populations. So far, UNHCR staff have been conducting missions
\nto the area from our office of in Kaga Bandoro, 350 kilometers further southwest.
\nThe journey to Nd\u00c3\u00a9l\u00c3\u00a9 takes around 11 hours, contributing to difficulties in delivering
\naid.
\nNd\u00c3\u00a9l\u00c3\u00a9 is located in the prefecture of Bamingui Bangoran, around 700 km from
\nBangui, the CAR capital. It was once considered the country\u2019s breadbasket, but
\ndue to the multitude of rebel groups and armed banditry since 2005, many of its
\nresidents have been reduced to living in the bush, unable to do farming.
\nIn CAR, UNHCR assists more than 176.000 IDPs and some 20.000 refugees mainly
\nfrom Sudan\u2019s Darfur region and the Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
For more information, visit ihc.ae<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \u2013 Rainfall, disease, hitting refugee camps in Kenya, Ethiopia More than a month after the kidnapping of three aid workers in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee complex, insecurity continues to affect aid efforts. The situation is being exacerbated by heavy rains and accompanying risks of waterborne diseases. Nearly 100 additional Kenyan police have been deployed in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18143"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18146,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18143\/revisions\/18146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}