Top stories from DAWNS Digest.
Pakistan Boots Save the Children’s Foreign Staff
Pakistan announced that it expelled all Save the Children foreign staff, likely for their alleged role in helping the US hunt bin Laden. “Pakistan is expelling foreign staff of the Save the Children aid group, an agency official said on Thursday, a decision apparently linked to government suspicion the charity helped U.S. spies hunting Osama bin Laden. The Interior Ministry had told the aid group that its six foreign employees had to be out of Pakistan within two weeks, said Ghulam Qadri, the group’s director for programme planning and communications. The ministry gave no reason for the decision, he said. Interior Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment. Save the Children and other aid groups have come under government suspicion because of media reports they had come into contact with a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, who helped the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hunt down bin Laden.“ (Reuters http://reut.rs/RQZXPy)
Heavy Flooding Devastates in the Sahel
Unrelenting rains are causing severe damage and exacerbating an already challenging humanitarian situation. A collection of stories:
21,000 people are homeless following flooding in Burkina Faso. (AFP http://bit.ly/QpxtiT)
Flooding in north Cameroon has left 25,000 people homeless. (IFRC http://bit.ly/RHmwu6)
Floodwaters in Niger he waters have claimed 52 lives and affected nearly 400,000 persons nationwide. Video from UNICEF. http://bit.ly/P0ukVk