'Death better than this'...
Syria war: Hunger stalks besieged Madaya
Sat, 08 Oct 2016 - Aid workers tell the BBC what they saw in Madaya when they entered the city to deliver humanitarian supplies for the first time in almost six months.
In the basement of a house in the rebel-held Syrian town of Madaya is what people there call a medical centre. It is, actually, just a room with a bed, where the sick come for some help. But for many of the cases brought in, there is not much that can be done, aid groups say, with what little equipment there is in a precarious state and insufficient medicine available. In the dim and crowded surroundings, aid workers who went there recently met a woman whose daughter spent four days without eating. This, the mother told them, was because the girl's body no longer tolerated rice. Residents, under siege since June 2015, said rice had been the only food available there for months. Some children could no longer walk straight, the workers heard, because they lacked vitamins. Others had stopped growing. Elderly people looked fragile and much older than their years.
The 40,000 residents of Madaya, in the mountains 15 miles (25km) north-west of Damascus, are surrounded by the Syrian army and allied fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement. Most of their food provision is dependant on infrequent humanitarian deliveries. Relief finally came last week, when a convoy of 71 trucks brought food, medical supplies and hygiene kits for Madaya and three other besieged cities: nearby rebel-held Zabadani, and government-controlled Foah and Kefraya, in Idlib province, to the north. It was the first time aid was allowed in in almost six months. Ingy Sedky, an aid worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross, which was part of the convoy, said she found people looking pale and weak.
A convoy heads to deliver food and humanitarian supplies to the Syrian besieged town of Madaya, near Damascus
Children complained of severe headaches, she added, caused probably by the lack of food. "They need more protein, vegetables, fruits," Ms Sedky told the BBC from the capital, Damascus. "There is no meat or milk. They are eating only rice." There was international outrage earlier this year after the UN said there were credible reports of people dying of starvation in Madaya. Children, UN staff were told, were collecting grass with which to make soup, despite several having been hurt by landmines that encircle the city. A report by the group Physicians for Human Rights said 65 people died of malnutrition and starvation in Madaya between the start of the siege and July this year.
Things this time were not as dire, said Mirna Yacoub, deputy representative for the UN's children's charity Unicef in Syria, who was also part of the aid convoy. "There wasn't the level of acute malnutrition, starvation, like in January," she said, speaking also from Damascus. "But they are malnourished, there is a severe lack of vitamins. They don't have protein." Not only the young were weak. Miscarriages increased, Ms Yacoub added, because women were unable to keep their pregnancies. Caesareans were also more common because of the poor health of pregnant women - some were so weak they could not go through normal labour. "They are really suffering. And I really don't know how they're performing C-sections there," she said. "The operation theatre is just a room, they lack equipments and medicine."
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Record 65.6 million people displaced worldwide...
UN Refugee agency: Record 65.6 million people displaced worldwide
Mon, 19 Jun 2017 : There are now more people displaced in the world than the number of people living in the UK.
A record 65.6 million people are either refugees, asylum seekers or internally displaced across the globe, the UN refugee agency said. The estimated figure for the end of 2016 is an increase of 300,000 on 2015, according to its annual report. It is a smaller increase than 2014-15, when the figure rose by five million. But the UN high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi said it was still a disheartening failure of international diplomacy. "The world seems to have become unable to make peace," Mr Grandi said. "So you will see old conflicts that continue to linger, and new conflicts erupting, and both produce displacement… forced displacement is a symbol for wars that never end."
Syrians fleeing conflict account for 12 million of the world's displaced people
Mr Grandi also warned of the burden being placed on many of the world's poorest states, as some 84% of the world's displaced people are living in poor and middle income countries. "How am I to ask countries with far less resources, in Africa, in the Middle East, in Asia, to take millions of refugees if the richer countries are refusing to do so?" he said. The UN said it hoped Monday's record breaking numbers of displaced would encourage wealthy countries to think again: not just to accept more refugees, but to invest in peace promotion, and reconstruction.
More than 95,000 South Sudanese people have entered Sudan this year, the UN has said
The world's displaced people - in numbers
There are 65.6 million displaced people in the world - more people than live in the UK. Of these:
22.5 million are refugees
40.3 million are displaced in their own country
2.8 million are seeking asylum
Where do the refugees come from?
Syria: 5.5 million*
Afghanistan: 2.5 million
South Sudan: 1.4 million
Who is hosting the refugees?
Turkey: 2.9 million
Pakistan: 1.4 million
Lebanon: 1 million
Iran: 979,4000
Uganda: 940,800
Ethiopia: 791,600
*Another 6.3 million Syrians are internally displaced
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-40321287