Disaster Relief

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced his concern at the devastation and increasing death toll left by Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh.

Media reports say that more than 2,000 people have been reported killed as a result of Cyclone Sidr, which struck the southwest coast of Bangladesh late on Thursday local time, bringing winds of more than 240 kilometres per hour and a water surge that created waves up to five metres high. The death toll is expected to climb further. Thousands of homes have been damaged or destroyed, large tracts of cropland have been wiped and hundreds of thousands of people have had to evacuate their home villages and towns and now depend on aid for basic necessities.

Ban expressed "his profound condolences to the people and Government of Bangladesh for the many deaths and the destruction involved, and the full solidarity of the UN system at this time of crisis." More

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is sending relief in the wake of Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh—the organization is sending food to feed 400,000 people in the affected areas.

“We have to move as quickly as possible to get food to the most vulnerable,” said WFP Bangladesh Representative Douglas Broderick, pointing out that the biscuits are critical “when there is a scarcity of clean water for drinking and cooking.”

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The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is sending aid to 70,000 people affected by floods in the Mexican state of Tabasco. "We are moving as swiftly as possible to bring critical help to the people of Tabasco, who are suffering the worst crisis in their recent history," said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran. More

On the heels of World Food Day, highlighting the "inherent human right of every woman, man, girl and boy, wherever they live on this planet" to food, comes news that the head of the World Food Program in Somalia, Idris Osman, has been abducted by government troops, in turn highlighting the danger that UN workers on the ground endure in an attempt to guarantee that right. (You'll no doubt remember that earlier this month, 10 UN peacekeepers were killed in Sudan.) In Somalia WFP workers also have had to deal with a festering insurgency lead by the Union of Islamic Courts and clan-based militias and piracy off the horn of Africa that threatens 80 percent of aid delivery. Despite those difficulties, WFP workers had been engaged in a campaign to deliver aid to 2 million Somalis (that work has been temporarily suspended due to this abduction).

UNESCO is joining the United Nations in their effort to aid those affected by the August 15 earthquake in Peru which left some 500 people dead. UNESCO will provide assistance to Peru's Ministry of Education to assess the situation of schools in communities stricken by the earthquake, also working with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). More

One month after floods devastated Bangladesh, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is still providing food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities and shelter to those affected.

UNICEF has also deployed 10 mobile water treatment plants for communities needing safe water in concert with the country’s Department of Public Health and Engineering. The agency said in its latest update, released yesterday, that deaths resulting from diarrhoea have been avoided to date – despite 15,000 reported cases – thanks to the availability of oral rehydration salts to treat dehydration.

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The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has announced that approximately $85 million will be used to fund programs in 15 countries for under-funded emergencies. "While each of these allocations represents but a fraction of the overall requirements in the individual emergencies, as a whole they help us pursue principled humanitarian action in which those who require aid the most are identified based strictly on need and assisted accordingly," said Margareta Wahlstrom, Acting United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator. More

"The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has completed construction of the first of the 227 mother-and-child health centres it is building in Indonesia's tsunami-devastated Aceh province and earthquake-hit Nias Island." More

"Prompted by the magnitude and growing number of emergencies in recent years, WFP has launched a new humanitarian response "Network", with strategic hubs in Africa, Europe, MiddleEast, Asia and Latin America. The Network is designed to meet the escalating challenges of sudden humanitarian emergencies which can sometimes strike almost simultaneously." More