REFUGEE CHILDREN WINNERS IN FC BARCELONA, MANCHESTER CITY FOOTBALL GAME

Refugee children were the winners in last week's highly anticipated match-up between top football teams Manchester City and FC Barcelona, with the latter's members sporting jerseys emblazoned with the logo of a campaign backed by the United Nations refugee agency.

The MÉS campaign – an alliance between the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), FC Barcelona and Nike – was launched last year to raise money for sports and education projects for young and vulnerable refugees.

More than 94,000 fans turned out for the 19 August pre-season 44th Joan Gamper Trophy, named after the founder of the Spanish team.

By wearing the jerseys, FC Barcelona players, who lost to Manchester City, of the English Premier League, 1-0, sought to raise awareness of the plight of the 42 million forcibly displaced people around the world, more than half of whom were receiving protection of assistance from UNHCR at the end of last year.

The club's partnership with the UN agency "is what makes us different from our competitors," said FC Barcelona President Joan Laporta. "It means commitment and solidarity, and Barcelona's solidarity is now a reality."

Only 1,899 – corresponding to the year the team was founded – of the new jerseys will be produced, and those worn by the players in last week's game will be auctioned off next month to raise more funds for UNHCR projects worldwide.

Last year, FC Barcelona signed a three-year agreement to assist UNHCR's campaign to reach its goal of providing education, sport and technology to all refugee children by 2010.
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UN CONTINUES PROVIDING HUMANITARIAN AID TO SOMALIA

The United Nations is continuing its efforts to ameliorate the dire humanitarian situation in Somalia, rushing food and other vital items to the war-wracked Horn of Africa nation.

To prevent the spread of malaria in south-central Somalia, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is distributing enough mosquito nets to benefit nearly 30,000 households.

The agency also delivered 'Plumpy Doz' – a peanut paste containing skim milk, sugar, vitamins and minerals – to some 5,000 children between 6-36 months of age in the Wanla Weyne district to prevent malnutrition.

For its part, the World Food Programme (WFP) and its local partners have wrapped up a supplementary feeding operation in Gaalkacyo, Galdobog and Jariiban districts for nearly 17,000 under-five children.

In northern Somalia, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other agencies have launched an awareness campaigns for hundreds of people in the port city of Bossaso seeking to make the perilous boat journey across the Gulf of Aden to begin new lives in Yemen. Brochures detailing the dangers of the trip were distributed this week.

WFP also delivered 280 metric tonnes of food for more than 19,000 people in northern areas.

Escalating violence and a deteriorating humanitarian situation have driven thousands of Somalis from their homes, with many seeking refuge in neighbouring nations.

Earlier this week, a WFP compound in Wajiid, in southern Somalia, was attacked by armed gunmen, marking the fourth time that that the world body's offices in the Horn of Africa nation have been deliberately targeted.

The UN has repeatedly called on all parties in Somalia to ensure the safety of humanitarian aid workers, who are tending to the needs of some 3.2 million people, or 40 per cent of the population, made vulnerable by the combined effects of conflict, drought, high food prices and the collapse of the local currency.

UN VOICES SHOCK AT REPORTS OF NEGLECT FROM SURVIVORS OF MEDITERRANEAN BOAT TRAGEDY

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says it is shocked by the accounts heard from five Eritreans who are allegedly the sole survivors of a boat tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea in which some 75 others are feared to have perished.

According to the survivors, around 80 people -- mostly from Eritrea -- set out over 20 days ago in a small boat from the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in an attempt to reach Italy. They then became stranded at sea without fuel, food or water.

"As thirst and hunger set in people started dying, one by one, as the boat drifted in the sea," UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic told reporters today in Geneva. "As passengers died, the survivors threw them into the sea."

A fishing boat came across the five survivors and offered them some bread and water, but then left them, he added. The stranded boat was then found off the island of Lampedusa on 20 August by Italian authorities who took the five to Italy for treatment.

"We are shocked by the accounts we heard," said Mr. Mahecic. "It gives UNHCR cause for concern that these people report being passed by many vessels without any assistance being offered. This is contrary to the long-standing maritime tradition of rescue at sea which has been under threat and is increasingly being eroded."

He added that the agency would be very concerned if the hardening of government policies towards boat people has the effect of discouraging ship masters from continuing to honour their international maritime obligations.

Italian authorities are reportedly searching for the bodies of the remaining migrants.

Iraq: Stop Killings for Homosexual Conduct

The 67-page report, "‘They Want Us Exterminated': Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq," documents a wide-reaching campaign of extrajudicial executions, kidnappings, and torture of gay men that began in early 2009. The killings began in the vast Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, a stronghold of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, and spread to many cities across Iraq. Mahdi Army spokesmen have promoted fears about the "third sex" and the "feminization" of Iraq men, and suggested that militia action was the remedy. Some people told Human Rights Watch that Iraqi security forces have colluded and joined in the killing.
"Iraq's leaders are supposed to defend all Iraqis, not abandon them to armed agents of hate," said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "Turning a blind eye to torture and murder threatens the rights and life of every Iraqi."

Silence and stigma surrounding sexuality and gender in Iraq make placing a precise figure on the number killed almost impossible, but indications are that hundreds of men may have died.
One man told Human Rights Watch that militiamen kidnapped and killed his partner of 10 years in April: "It was late one night, and they came to take my partner at his parents' home. Four armed men barged into the house, masked and wearing black. They asked for him by name; they insulted him and took him in front of his parents. ... He was found in the neighborhood the day after. They had thrown his corpse in the garbage. His genitals were cut off and a piece of his throat was ripped out."

The killers invade homes and pick people up in the street, witnesses and survivors said, interrogating them before murdering them to extract names of other potential victims. They practice grotesque tortures, including gluing men's anuses shut as punishment. Human Rights Watch spoke to doctors who said that hospitals and morgues have received dozens of mutilated bodies, living and dead.

"Murder and torture are no way to enforce morality," said Rasha Moumneh, Middle East and North Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "These killings point to the continuing and lethal failure of Iraq's post-occupation authorities to establish the rule of law and protect their citizens."

Consensual homosexual conduct between adults is not a criminal offense under Iraqi law. Although many militias in Iraq claim to be enforcers of Islamic law, the Human Rights Watch report also shows how the killings - committed without evidence or trial, on the basis of prejudice and whim - violate standards in Sharia law for legality, proof, and privacy.
International human rights law forbids all forms of torture and inhuman treatment and guarantees the right to life, including the right to effective state protection. In its 1994 decision in the landmark case of Toonen v. Australia, the United Nations Human Rights Committee held that the protections against unequal treatment in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) extend to sexual orientation as a protected status.

The report also documents how fears that Iraqi men's masculinity is under threat propel the killings as much as prejudices about sexuality. Many men told Human Rights Watch that their parents or brothers have threatened them with honor killings because their "unmanly" behavior threatens the reputation of the family or tribe. In a provision left over from the Saddam Hussein era, Iraqi law allows mitigated penalties for crimes committed "with honorable motives." This exception encourages gender-based violence.

Many Iraqis who fear being attacked have sought safety in surrounding countries, but those countries are no safe haven, the report says. Consensual homosexual conduct is criminalized in most of these countries, and prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity fosters violence and discrimination in all of them. Human Rights Watch urges the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), as well as governments that accept Iraqi refugees, to offer rapid resettlement to these endangered people.
Accounts from the report (all names are aliases, to protect the speakers)

"[The killers'] measuring rod to judge people is who they have sex with. It is not by their conscience, it is not by their conduct or their values, it is who they have sex with. The cheapest thing in Iraq is a human being, a human life. It is cheaper than an animal, than a pair of used-up batteries you buy on the street. Especially people like us. ... I can't believe I'm here talking to you because it's all just been repressed, repressed, repressed. For years it's been like that - if I walk down the street, I would feel everyone pointing at me. I feel as if I'm dying all the time. And now this, in the last month - I don't understand what we did to deserve this. They want us exterminated. All the violence and all this hatred: the people who are suffering from it don't deserve it."- Hamid, in Iraq, April 24, 2009

"We've been hearing about this, about gay men being killed, for more than a month. It's like background noise now, every day. The stories started spreading in February about this campaign against gay people by the Mahdi Army: everyone was talking about it, I was hearing about it from my straight friends. In a coffee shop in Karada, on the streets in Harithiya [Baghdad neighborhoods], they were talking about it. I didn't worry at first. My friends and I, we look extremely masculine, there is nothing visibly "feminine" about us. None of us ever, ever believed this would happen to us. But then at the end of March we heard on the street that 30 men had been killed already."- Idris, in Iraq, April 24, 2009

"They did many things to us, the Mahdi Army. ... They kidnapped [my partner] for six days. He will not talk about what they did to him. There were bruises on his side as if he was dragged on the street. They did things to him he can't describe, even to me. They wrote in the dust on the windshield of his car: ‘Death to the people of Lot and to collaborators.' They sent us veiled threats in text messages: ‘You are on the list.' They sent him a piece of paper in an envelope, to his home: there were three bullets wrapped in plastic, of different size. The note said, ‘Which one do you want in your heart?' ... I want to be a regular person, lead a normal life, walk around the city, drink coffee on the street. But because of who I am, I can't. There is no way out."- Mohammad, in Iraq, April 21, 2009

"At 10 a.m., [Ministry of Interior officers] cuffed my hands behind my back. Then they tied a rope around my legs, and they hung me upside down from a hook in the ceiling, from morning till sunset. I passed out. I was stripped down to my underwear while I hung upside down. They cut me down that night, but they gave me no water or food. Next day, they told me to put my clothes back on and they took me to the investigating officer. He said, ‘You like that? We're going to do that to you more and more, until you confess.' Confess to what? I asked. ‘To the work you do, to the organization you belong to, and that you are a tanta' [queen]. For days, there were severe beatings, and constant humiliation and insults. ... It was the same form of abuse every day. They beat me all over my body; when they had me hanging upside down, they used me like a punching bag. ... They used electric prods all over my body. Then they raped me. Over three days. The first day, 15 of them raped me; the second day, six; the third day, four. There was a bag on my head every time."- Nuri, on April 15 and 27, 2009

FEATURE: PAKISTANI HOST FAMILIES PLAY CRUCIAL ROLE IN UN AID EFFORTS

Their names may not make headlines or their faces grace television screens, but to United Nations officials and hundreds of thousands of their fellow Pakistanis, people such as Haji Akbar and Shahzaman are the true heroes of what is one of the largest displacement crises in the world today.

They are among those who have opened up their homes in an unprecedented show of generosity to accommodate men, women and children uprooted by the military operation conducted by Government forces against militants in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

At the height of the crisis just a couple of months ago, the vast majority of the more than 2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) were either sheltering in schools and other public buildings, with host families or in rental accommodations.

"The everyday people of Pakistan are the real heroes of this current crisis in Pakistan," according to Martin Mogwanja, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan.

"They are opening the doors of their often modest homes, sharing what they have, no matter how little, no matter how it strains their often modest budgets. True humanitarians, they set an inspiring example of extraordinary generosity for the whole world."

Haji Akbar did not know any of the men, women and children who arrived at his doorstep one morning in April, or how long they would be staying. But that did not deter the farmer in Swabi district from helping them in their time of need.

"I was extremely happy that I was being able to provide [a] service to my brothers and sisters," says Akbar, whose family of 14 hosted 60 displaced people for two and a half months.

"It was for the first time in my life that I received so many guests at one time to live in my house," he told the UN News Centre, on the eve of the first annual World Humanitarian Day, to be observed on 19 August.

"I invited them to stay with me and when they came in I realized there were a lot of people to accommodate so we decided to shift to my brother's house to leave the whole house for our guests."

The displaced who were living in camps received relief supplies there. Meanwhile, the UN set up humanitarian hubs for those staying outside the camps where they could come on certain days to pick up food rations and other items.

In addition, agencies such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) provided tents – to extend living spaces and alleviate crowded conditions – as well as food rations, hygiene kits and latrines.

"There's absolutely no doubt that the fact that people were taken in by host families helped to save lives," says Ariane Rummery, spokesperson for UNHCR in Pakistan. "To accommodate over 2 million people in camps would have been much tougher."

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes had a chance to see the "host-community phenomenon" first-hand when he visited areas of NWFP last month, including the village of Jamal Garhi, in Mardan district, where there were as many displaced people as residents, and in one case, one family was hosting some 95 displaced people.

"I think that's not untypical," he said following the visit, adding that it has been "a remarkably generous response – partly for traditional, cultural reasons – by the local population in parts of North West Frontier Province."

Mardan resident Shahzaman and his family of 15 accommodated 30 relatives in their five-room house for two and a half months.

"In these testing times, if we will not provide them shelter where should they go? They were in trouble… they were not a burden to us. We felt proud to host them," says Shahzaman.

He and his family did receive some UN assistance to cope with the influx but it was still not easy. "With very limited resources, we had to cut most of our own needs. There were budgetary constraints in hosting such a large number of guests.

"I am a low-paid government servant, so this was a big challenge for us," he adds.

The Pakistani Government estimates that some 890,000 displaced persons have returned since mid-July to their villages in the districts of Buner and Swat – among the areas hardest hit by the military operations.

For many of the host families, the experiences shared over the past several months are ones they will not soon forget.

"Our families made friendships and when they were leaving we were very sad," says Akbar. "Two and a half months in the same place is a lot of time… we miss them."
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UN RELOCATES FIRST BATCH OF SOMALI REFUGEES FROM OVERCROWDED KENYAN CAMP

The first of nearly 13,000 Somali refugees have been moved out of an overcrowded Kenyan camp by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency reported today.

Just over 300 refugees arrived on 15 August after a three-day road journey at Kakuma camp, in Kenya's north-west, from the Dabaab complex, whose three sites house a total of 289,500 refugees.

Another convoy carrying 520 refugees left the congested Dabaab camps for Kakuma yesterday.

The relocation of Somali refugees "is part of a multi-phase plan to alleviate the chronic overcrowding in the 18-year-old Dabaab refugee camps, which currently host more than three times the population they were initially designed to accommodate," UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic told reporters today in Geneva.

The moves will wrap up by the end of October before the start of the rainy season, he added.

Upon arriving in Kakuma, refugees were given blankets, sleeping mats and kitchen sets before being transferred to their new accommodations.

Escalating violence and a deteriorating humanitarian situation have driven thousands of Somalis from their homes, with many seeking refuge in neighbouring nations. Since the start of this year, more than 43,000 Somali refugees have arrived in Dabaab.

Mr. Mahecic also voiced concern over the prolonged clashes in Somalia, where a World Food Programme (WFP) compound was attacked over the weekend, the fourth time in two months that UN offices in the Horn of Africa nation have been deliberately targeted.

"The continued abductions, killing and intimidation of aid workers and the pillaging of humanitarian facilities and supplies are making it increasingly difficult to reach and access the needy population," he said.

The security situation is also thwarting the delivery of aid to 1.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia, where more than 3 million people are in dire need of assistance, the spokesperson emphasized.

UNHCR helps and protects over 500,000 refugees in Kenya, Yemen, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Uganda.
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UNITED STATES VOWS SUPPORT FOR UN EFFORTS AGAINST SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN DR CONGO

The United States stands alongside the United Nations ready to face down the use of rape as a weapon of war in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a local UN-backed radio station during her visit to the strife-torn nation.

"Unfortunately, we have seen in the late 20th century and now in this century a terrible trend of using sexual and gender-based violence as a tool of war to intimidate and demoralize populations and to force them to flee their homes," Mrs. Clinton said in an interview with Radio Okapi.

She stressed that any bid to halt the scourge in the region has to "start with making sure that the military of the DRC does not engage in sexual and gender-based violence."

Mrs. Clinton also underscored in her interview with the radio station supported by the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC (MONUC) the importance of ending impunity for military offenders, as well as cutting off funds to militias operating in the area and resolving the region's underlying political tensions.

In his most recent report to the Security Council on sexual violence in armed conflict, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that at least 200,000 cases of such abuse had been recorded in eastern DRC since 1996.

"But sexual violence is a problem across the country as it is in many countries and there have to be stronger laws against domestic violence [and] against criminal rape that happens on the streets of Kinshasa or any other city," said Mrs. Clinton.

The Secretary of State called for robust prosecution, law enforcement and judiciary measures to "make it clear that this is unacceptable, that there is no excuse for it."

The human rights record of the Congolese Government is "in desperate need of improvement," she added.

"The United States, other countries as well as the United Nations stand ready to assist the Government in taking actions to both promote human rights and to punish violators of human rights and women's rights, but there needs to be much more action and greater commitment from the Government."

Mrs. Clinton is slated to meet victims of sexual violence when she visits a camp for displaced persons in the eastern province of North Kivu, where 400 cases of rape are currently registered every month, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
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TOP UN ENVOY CONDEMNS 'ABHORRENT' BOMBINGS IN BAGHDAD AND MOSUL

A top United Nations official has strongly condemned the recent bombings that targeted worshipers in two of Iraq's major cities, leaving dozens of innocent civilians dead or injured.

At least 36 people were reportedly killed or wounded as a result of the car bomb that exploded on Friday outside a mosque in the northern city of Mosul as well as several explosions that struck the capital, Baghdad.

Ad Melkert, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Representative for Iraq, described the bombings as "an abhorrent crime targeting worshipers while they prayed and others as they embarked on their mid-Shaaban pilgrimage."

The mission said UN agencies are working with local officials and the Iraq Red Crescent Organization to deliver humanitarian relief to families affected by the bombings. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has provided basic household supplies to some 50 families whose homes were badly damaged.

Mr. Melkert, who heads the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), urged local authorities to ensure access for the ongoing humanitarian effort.

The attacks come just over a week after bombings at five Shi'a mosques across Baghdad which drew strong condemnation from the Secretary-General.

"Attacks against places of worship cannot be justified by any political or religious cause," Mr. Ban said in a statement following the 31 July attacks. "These attacks appear to be aimed at provoking sectarian strife and undermining stability in Iraq."

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BAN WELCOMES SUMMIT BETWEEN LEADERS OF DR CONGO AND RWANDA

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed yesterday's summit between the leaders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, the first official bilateral meeting since the neighbouring African nations broke off official ties more than one decade ago.

DRC President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame met in the city of Goma, in eastern DRC, in their first direct talks since 1996.

"The Secretary-General commends both leaders' commitment to promote peace and stability in the Great Lakes region," according to a statement issued by his spokesperson.

He also praised the joint military offensive launched early this year against the "destabilizing and threatening presence" in eastern DRC of the notorious ethnic Hutu militia known as the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR), which continues to perpetrate widespread killings and rapes of Congolese civilians.

In today's statement, Mr. Ban said he is encouraged by the two presidents' pledge to consolidate their relationship's renewal through future meetings in the capitals of their respective countries.

"Security and development go hand in hand, and the Secretary-General hopes that the normalization of the relations between the DRC and Rwanda will contribute to the well-being of the people of both countries."

Civilians are bearing the brunt of attempts to dismantle armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with the rebels carrying out vicious reprisals and some Government soldiers committing serious human rights abuses, the senior United Nations official to the country told the Security Council last month.

"We take these concerns very seriously and have addressed them with the Government at various levels," said Alan Doss, the Secretary-General's Special Representative and head of the UN mission in the DRC (MONUC).

He told the Council of the deployment of more MONUC resources and personnel to the affected provinces, such as North Kivu, continuing efforts to combat sexual and gender-based violence, and increased pressure on the Government to take action against undisciplined soldiers.

MONUC has set up nearly three dozen military bases in the embattled North Kivu province, many in remote areas where operations are ongoing against the FDLR. "These bases have allowed for close monitoring of the operations and rapid intervention in a number of instances."

But Mr. Doss warned that the Mission's resources are being stretched thin as it waits for reinforcements to arrive following the Security Council's recent authorization of additional troops to deal with the strife in the DRC's east.

The FDLR has been retaliating against civilians and attacking villages in North Kivu, committing rape and other human rights abuses which have forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, according to reports from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The group has been operating in eastern DRC since the end of the 1994 Rwandan genocide that left around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead.
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TANZANIA NATURALIZES FIRST BATCH OF BURUNDIAN REFUGEES, REPORTS UN

After living in Tanzania for over three decades, thousands of Burundian refugees have been granted citizenship by the host Government, in the first large-scale naturalization of its kind in Africa, the United Nations refugee agency said today.

This week, 3,568 out of over 160,000 Burundian refugees were granted citizenship, a decision marking "a major milestone in a programme that will bring to a close one of the world's most protracted refugee situations," Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva.

Early last year, some 218,000 Burundians who fled violence in their country in 1972 were given the choice by Tanzanian authorities to either return home or to apply for citizenship.

At the peak of the crisis in Burundi in the 1990s, almost half a million people escaped clashes, sheltering in camps along the Tanzanian border. The peace process in Burundi has paved the way for the return of one of the continent's longest-staying refugee populations, with over 400,000 Burundians having returned from Tanzania since 2004.

UNHCR advocated on behalf of the refugees with both the Burundian and Tanzanian Governments, helping them make their decisions on whether to return or stay.

Ultimately, 162,000 refugees opted to apply for citizenship, with the first batch of applicants naturalized on 4 August. Tanzania has reaffirmed its commitment to wrapping up the process by the end of this year, Mr. Mahecic said.

Meanwhile, 45,000 Burundians who decided to return home have already reached Burundi with assistance from UNHCR, with an additional 9,000 refugees set to return in the coming months.

"UNHCR will continue to support the Tanzanian Government in the transition phases of the integration of the newly naturalized" through such community projects as road rehabilitation, school construction and repair, and improvement of health services, the agency's spokesperson said.

The entire repatriation scheme is funded through UNHCR's $28 million Supplementary Appeal for 2008-2009, launched last February, which is facing an $8 million funding gap.
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THOUSANDS OF CONGOLESE DISPLACED IN LATEST ATTACKS BY UGANDAN REBEL GROUP – UN

Some 12,500 people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been uprooted from their homes in the past month by attacks by the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the United Nations refugee agency reported today.

"The humanitarian situation in this remote part of the DRC remains dramatic," Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva.

He said that last month the LRA launched an "unprecedented" 55 attacks against civilians in the Faradje area in north-eastern Orientale province. Villages in the Dungu district of Haut-Uele province were also targeted.

According to the agency, 1,273 people have been killed by the LRA since September 2007 and 655 children and 1,427 adults have been abducted.

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) tell UNHCR that many women have been raped by the rebels and their households looted and torched. More than 226,000 people have been displaced in Haut-Uele alone and another 42,000 in Bas-Uele, according to UN estimates.

"Most of the IDPs are unable to return home because of the ongoing assaults," said Mr. Mahecic. "They sleep in public buildings such as schools and churches. Some have been able to find shelter with friends, relatives or host families willing to share their meagre food stocks.

"According to our local partners, regular medical supplies are low, hospitals lack basic equipment and drinking water is in chronically short supply," he added.

While UNHCR and other aid agencies have been able to reach some 45 per cent of the displaced and provide basic assistance such as food, blankets, sleeping mats and cooking sets, the agency said that insecurity is preventing larger scale deliveries of humanitarian assistance.

"Ongoing insecurity and poor, impassable roads remain the main obstacles to our work. Some of the areas where the IDPs have gathered are accessible only by air," Mr. Mahecic noted.

UNHCR also reported that the recent displacement is spilling over into neighbouring Sudan. Out of 21,000 refugees in South Sudan, 16,500 arrived since last November from Orientale province, most of them fleeing LRA attacks in Faradje.
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MILITARY CHIEFS OF UN PEACEKEEPING FORCES IN AFRICA CALL FOR MORE TROOPS, EQUIPMENT

The military chiefs of the United Nations' largest and most complex peacekeeping operations urged Member States today to provide the troops and equipment necessary to carry out their missions in the war-ravaged regions of Darfur in western Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

"We have had a challenging time to meet all our mandated tasks because of the issue of deployment and lack of capabilities," General Martin Luther Agwai, Force Commander of the joint African Union-UN mission in Darfur (UNAMID), told reporters in New York.

The Security Council authorized the deployment of UNAMID to quell fighting and protect civilians in Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 people have been killed and some 2.7 million others forced from their homes since fighting erupted in 2003, pitting Government forces and allied Janjaweed militiamen against rebel groups.

UNAMID has stabilized the situation in Darfur, despite having less than 70 per cent of the authorized number of troops under the 2007 Security Council resolution setting up the force, said Gen. Agwai.

In addition, "we have been able to be one of the best sources of authenticated information of what is happening in Darfur," he said. "We have come a long way, but there are still a lot of challenges, no doubt about it."

At current strength UNAMID is unable to provide full-time security to all of the makeshift camps sheltering the millions of people who have fled the violence engulfing the region over the years.

"We have not been able to have a 24/7 protection coverage in most of the IDP [internally displaced persons] camps," said Gen. Agwai. "We have prioritized the most vulnerable and volatile camps."

He noted that some of the IDP camps have 90,000 to 100,000 people taking refuge in tents and makeshift shelters.

"The bigger the camps the more volatile and problematic they are and those are the ones with a 24/7 UNAMID presence," he said, including patrols that protect women when out collecting firewood.

With full deployment the mission would be more mobile and have a further reach, "instead of [looking like] very small ink spots on blotting paper. [We currently have] 32 spots, but we're beginning to expand and spread."

Gen. Agwai expected 92 per cent deployment by the end of the year, but stressed that there is little "point having boots without capabilities. Ethiopia has now pledged five [attack] helicopters to the mission … [but] to the best of my knowledge nobody has pledged one utility helicopter to the mission."

As a sign of UNAMID contributing to an increasing sense of security in the region, Gen. Agwai said that the incidence of rapes and assaults has been cut. "The number of people dying because of the crisis is down. The figure is now ranging from about 120 to 150 deaths in a month and not hundreds or thousands in a month as in the past."

The UN peacekeeping mission in DRC, known as MONUC, is effectively engaged in three separate military operations, said the operations Force Commander, Lieutenant-General Babacar Gaye.

MONUC is supporting the Congolese army (FARDC) in an offensive against the notorious Ugandan rebel militia, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) on one front; a group of remnant armed groups in Ituri province in northeastern DRC; and a Rwandan rebel force, known as the FDLR, in North and South Kivu.

"Our mission is so far the largest peacekeeping mission deployed around the world and we are facing all the challenges that peacekeeping have to face today," Lt.-Gen. Gaye told the press briefing. "This means the use of force, the protection of civilians and so on and so forth."

The latest bout of fighting between DRC troops and the rebel FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) and their local allies uprooted a further 35,000 people in South Kivu last month, bringing the total displaced there since January to 536,000, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). More than 1.8 million people are now internally displaced in the DRC's east.

Lt.-Gen. Gaye stressed the drastic need for extra troops on the ground to implement MONUC's protection mandate. "Everything is on track but unfortunately the first boots are still expected."

He said that MONUC is slated to soon receive a Bangladeshi battalion, an Egyptian battalion, a Jordanian special force company, an Egyptian special force company and a Bangladeshi engineer company.

"Unfortunately, we are yet to have the 18 helicopters that have been authorized by the [Security] Council," he added.
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CLASHES IN SOMALIA FORCING MORE REFUGEES ACROSS GULF OF ADEN – UN AGENCY

Fleeing escalating violence in the capital, Mogadishu, and central Somalia, thousands of Somalis are making the perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden to begin new lives in Yemen, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.

Some 12,000 Somalis – out of 232,000 people who have escaped clashes that broke out in early May between Government forces and the Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam militant groups – have reached the northern port town of Bossaso since early May, and most of them are hoping that smugglers will transport them to Yemen.

Partners of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report that Bossaso is already very crowded and that smugglers are already collecting cash from refugees trying to reach Yemen.

"As the sea is already very dangerous because of the prevailing conditions, the majority of the people are expected to camp in Bossaso and wait for September, when winds are more favourable," UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva today.

Last year, over 50,000 people reached Yemen's shores, marking a 70 per cent increase from 2007. During the first half of 2009 alone, more than 30,000 people have made the "dangerous journey" to Yemen, Mr. Redmond noted.

In 2008, over 1,000 people died, either being thrown overboard or forced to disembark from boats too far from the shore by smugglers, as they attempted to make landfall in Yemen, he added.

So far this year, nearly 300 people have lost their lives or are missing as they tried to cross the Gulf of Aden, according to UNHCR.

"The smuggling phenomenon places increasing strain on Yemen's limited resources and poses more challenges to the Government's efforts to balance its obligations under international law with the need to protect the country from illegal entry," Mr. Redmond said.

New arrivals are picked up by UNHCR's partner agencies and taken to reception centres where they are registered and given food, shelter, medical assistance and other basic assistance while they recover from their journey.

"The Government of Yemen recognizes Somalis as refugees on a prima facie basis," the agency's spokesperson said, adding that the refugees can choose to shelter at the Kharaz camp two hours west of the Yemeni capital, Aden, where they receive legal and physical protection and help.

Already 13,000 refugees, mostly from Somalia, have made Kharaz camp home temporarily, while tens of thousands of other refugees have chosen to stay in urban areas around Yemen.

Somalia is one of the world's biggest refugee-producing countries, and UNHCR is providing protection and assistance to nearly 500,000 Somali refugees in nearby countries while also reaching out to 1.3 million people displaced within Somalia.
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GROWING INSECURITY IN SOMALI CAPITAL HAMPERING AID ACCESS, UN WARNS

Aid workers are finding it increasingly difficult to gain access and provide assistance to residents of the Somali capital because of the worsening conflict there, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.

This week's scheduled distribution of 4,000 aid kits in Mogadishu and surrounding areas had to be postponed because of security concerns, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Ron Redmond told journalists in Geneva.

The looting by militants of UN facilities in Baidoa and Wajid yesterday has meant assistance efforts in those areas have also ground to a halt.

"We again appeal to the warring parties in Somalia to respect basic international humanitarian and human rights principles and to guarantee the safety and security of the civilian population as well as for the humanitarian workers trying to help the victims," Mr. Redmond said.

The UN's top humanitarian official, John Holmes, warned yesterday that aid workers in Somalia – and many other countries – are coming under increasingly violent attack.

An estimated 223,000 residents have now left Mogadishu since early May, when the Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam militant groups launched attacks against Government forces in the capital. In the past fortnight alone, about 20,000 people have fled their homes.

The newly displaced join another 400,000 Somalis packed into the Afgooye corridor, a congested strip of land that runs southwest from Mogadishu and is packed with makeshift shelters.

Mr. Redmond said non-governmental organizations (NGOs) trying to operate in the Afgooye area say they are overstretched and unable to cope with the latest influx.

"There is a lack of adequate shelter, sanitation facilities and clean drinking water. The situation has grown worse following recent torrential rains. The lack of sufficient latrines poses a major health risk."

The widespread insecurity means aid workers are struggling to deliver humanitarian assistance from the port of Mogadishu to the Afgooye corridor.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that it is especially concerned about deadly outbreaks of acute watery diarrhoea, which is on the rise again around Mogadishu after two years of decline.

WHO is working with its NGO partners to provide cholera kits, oral rehydration sachets, aqua tabs and chlorine, and transport communication sets in a bid to contain the outbreaks of diarrhoea and cholera.

Two of Mogadishu's four functioning hospitals are admitting only war-wounded patients and trauma patients for emergency surgery, which is adding to the burden for other facilities.

In the Bakool region, which is home to at least 300,000 people, several health facilities – including a hospital in the town of Xudur – have had to be closed because of insecurity and hostility towards aid workers.

A spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP) said that the agency was committed to helping Somalis and was continuing its operations, despite yesterday's attack by looters.
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BENIN: UN AGENCIES INCREASE ASSISTANCE IN WAKE OF FLOODS

United Nations humanitarian agencies have stepped up their relief efforts in the West African country of Benin, where more than 20,000 people have been displaced or affected and numerous farms destroyed by floods.

Mosquito nets, water purification tablets, blankets, tents and mats are being distributed and assistance is being provided with water and sanitation and with maternal health care in the wake of the floods.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is providing 3,000 chlorine tablets for water treatment and 1,000 mosquito nets, and is also funding a health awareness campaign and water and sanitation activities, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told journalists today.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has also donated blankets, nets, mats and tents, while the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) plans to spend up to $100,000 on health care.

A UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team is in the country to help local authorities deal with the floods, which follow some of the heaviest rainfall in Benin – beset by floods every wet season – in recent years. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is also spending $100,000 to coordinate the overall relief effort.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was also monitoring the situation, particularly to ensure that widespread outbreaks of meningitis do not occur.

The bands of rain have moved northwards across Benin in recent days, with flood waters subsiding in the southern cities of Cotonou and Porto Novo and heavy rains and high rains in the north.
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UN INVESTIGATING CASE OF ASYLUM-SEEKERS SENT BACK TO LIBYA BY ITALY

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is looking into the cases of dozens of asylum-seekers who were returned to Libya by Italian authorities after they were intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea.

Based on its interviews in Libyan detention centres with 82 people intercepted on 1 July some 30 miles from the Italian island of Lampedusa, UNHCR staff said that it does not appear that the Italian Navy made any attempt to determine their nationality or their reason for fleeing.

Of those trying to reach Italy, 76 were from Eritrea, including nine women and at least six children. "Based on UNHCR's assessment of the situation in Eritrea and our interviews with the people themselves, it is clear that a significant number from this group are in need of international protection," agency spokesperson Ron Redmond said today.

UNHCR staff also heard disturbing accounts of force being used by Italian personnel during their transfer to the vessel carrying them back to Libya, with six Eritreans requiring medical attention as a result. Those attempting to flee to Italy also said that personal items, including vital documents, were seized by the Italian Navy and have yet to be returned.

"Those interviewed spoke of their distress after four days at sea and said that the Italian Navy did not offer them any food during the 12-hour operation to return them to Libya," Mr. Redmond said.

Due to these serious allegations, UNHCR has sent a letter to the Italian Government requesting information on the treatment of people sent back to Libya and asking that international norms be requested.

In recent years, Italy has rescued thousands of people in distress in the Mediterranean Sea, providing assistance to those in need, the agency spokesperson said. But since early May, when a new push-back policy was unveiled, at least 900 people trying to reach Italy have been sent back to Libya and other countries.

"UNHCR has expressed serious concerns about the impact of this new policy which, in the absence of adequate safeguards, can prevent access to asylum and undermines the international principle of non-refoulement," Mr. Redmond said.
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UPROOTED FAMILIES BEGIN RETURNING TO NORTH-WEST PAKISTAN, REPORT UN AGENCY

Around 800 people displaced by the conflict in north-west Pakistan have headed back home yesterday under a government-run programme, while another 2,500 are slated to return today, the United Nations refugee agency reported.

Returnees to the district of Swat told the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that they felt safe going back to their villages after contacting neighbours who had already safely returned on their own, the agency's spokesperson, Ron Redmond, told reporters in Geneva.

"Other internally displaced people (IDPs) reported they were not yet ready to return, citing security concerns in various areas in Swat," he stated. "Some IDPs have been displaced several times in the course of the past several months and want to avoid being uprooted yet again."

More than 2 million Pakistanis have fled the conflict between Government forces and militants in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), and the vast majority are either sheltering in schools and other public buildings, with host families or in rental accommodations.

Those that headed home yesterday were living in the Jalozai camp, which is managed by UNHCR together with its partners and provincial authorities. Unbearable heat in the camp was cited as one of the main reasons they decided to go back to their villages.

Some of the most vulnerable IDPs, including pregnant women, said they would rather remain in camps for now since they have access to health services – something that is not always available in their villages, noted Mr. Redmond.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which just completed a high-level mission to Pakistan on Friday, said one of its major concerns is ensuring that returnees have access to functional health systems. The agency's spokesperson, Paul Garwood, also cited a major gap in female health workers available to treat patients, particularly female returnees who prefer to be treated by women.

The scale of the displacement crisis continues to "exhaust the current health system's ability to meet all needs," he told reporters. The situation is being further complicated by the coming monsoon season, which will result in higher risks to displaced women and children under five, especially with regard to respiratory infections, malaria, and other water-borne diseases.

The Government's return plan – known as Naway Sahar, or 'Dawn of a New Beginning'– will focus first on repatriating displaced people currently staying in camps, and then move on to those staying with host families, renting rooms or staying in schools.

Government authorities and UN agencies, including UNHCR, signed a statement over the weekend pledging that the return process would follow the principles of voluntariness, safety and dignity.

UNHCR will help to monitor the willingness of people to return as well to implement the registration process. It will also provide assistance in cash to the Government for the transportation of vulnerable people, and distribute relief items to families which have not yet received them, especially for IDPs staying in host families and school buildings.

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BENIN: UN ACTIVATES HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE AS HEAVY FLOODS TAKE TOLL

United Nations humanitarian agencies operating in Benin are conducting rapid assessments to determine how they can best assist the thousands of people caught up in the heavy floods that have struck the West African country.

At least 20,000 people are estimated to have been displaced or otherwise affected by the floods, with the area around Cotonou, the commercial capital, and along the entire southern coastline among the hardest hit regions.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported today that it has deployed emergency staff to Benin to ensure that priority needs in health, shelter and water and sanitation are being met.

The World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) are all taking part in preliminary assessments to ascertain the most immediate needs of the population.

Benin is beset by flooding almost every year at this time because of the annual rainy season. But this year's inundations have been so severe this year that the Government has imposed a state of emergency.
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50,000TH MYANMAR REFUGEE LEAVES THAILAND FOR NEW LIFE IN US, UN REPORTS

An ethnic Karenni schoolteacher is the 50,000th refugee from Myanmar sheltering in Thailand who has left to begin a new life in the United States, marking a milestone for the world's largest resettlement operation, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee announced today.

Since 1996, Plu Reh had been living in the Ban Mai Nai Soi camp – where he had taught primary school – in northern Thailand since 1996. Along with his wife and 2-year-old daughter, he left Bangkok this morning on a 28-hour journey that will ultimately take him to Camden, New Jersey.

Before departing, he "spoke optimistically to our staff about the opportunities in the United States for a good education for his daughter and for further education for himself and his wife," UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler said.

Resettlement from the nine refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border began in 2004, but picked up pace in early 2005 when the US offered homes to the uprooted.

"For refugees around the world, return to their home country is usually the preferred option," Mr. Spindler said.

But most of the Myanmar refugees, most of whom had been for over two decades in Thailand where they are not allowed to settle permanently, do not see any chance of returning to their home country.

"So for them, resettlement in a third country is the best option," the UNHCR spokesperson said, expressing gratitude to countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden for offering refugees a chance to restart their lives.

Currently, 112,000 registered Myanmar refugees live in the nine camps, and the agency expects to resettle a further 6,000-7,000 this year.
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SPIRALING VIOLENCE CLAIMS HUNDREDS OF LIVES IN SOMALIA – UN REFUGEE AGENCY

The United Nations refugee agency today voiced its grave concern over the escalating violence and worsening displacement crisis in the Somali capital, where local hospitals report that over 250 civilians have been killed and nearly 1,000 others wounded since fighting erupted last month.

Continued fighting, which broke out on 7 May in several parts of north-west Mogadishu between Government forces and the opposition Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam, "is leaving a trail of civilian casualties, destruction and renewed displacement," William Spindler, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva.

Since violence broke out last month, the agency estimates that over 160,000 people have been driven to other parts of Somalia or to neighbouring nations, with some 26,000 uprooted between 19 and 22 June alone.

Most of the internally displaced persons (IDPs), numbering nearly 50,000, have moved to safer areas within Mogadishu or to makeshift camps on the capital's outskirts. A further 45,000 people have fled towards the so-called Afgooye corridor 30 kilometres south-east of Mogadishu, joining 400,000 other IDPs who have been displaced since 2007.

Some of the newly displaced are families who had recently returned to the capital after a period of relative peace in the first quarter of this year, Mr. Spindler said.

"Many IDPs tell stories of hardship and suffering as they try to flee the embattled Somali capital," he added, noting that most people escaping the clashes are leaving on minibuses, whose drivers are charging $250 or more, carrying 20 people on average.

According to UNHCR's local partners, a mother of six who had left Mogadishu said it took her nine days to reach Afmadow, 400 kilometres west of the capital, with transporters taking her money and leaving her family stranded along the route.

"The deteriorating security situation has sharply reduced deliveries of desperately needed humanitarian aid to the displaced in and around Mogadishu," the agency's spokesperson said, adding that UNHCR partners, which are providing emergency aid to IDPs, are facing growing security problems.

Neighbouring Kenya is seeing numbers of Somalis crossing the border increase. Since the start of the year, 38,000 new refugees – virtually all of them from Somalia – have arrived. The Dabaab camp, the largest in the world, is currently home to nearly 300,000 people, three times the number it is intended to hold.

More than $4 million has been allocated from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to alleviate overcrowding and assist Somali refugees at Kenyan camps, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today.

Last week, the Security Council voiced its concern at the situation in Somalia, reiterating its support for the Transitional Federal Government, its efforts to achieve peace, security and reconciliation in Somalia through the UN-facilitated Djibouti process, which aided the formation of the new government in February, as well as the creation of a newly-expanded Parliament and election of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
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