"A year of disasters around the world sparked an unprecedented outpouring of aid, but richer nations still are not giving enough money to tackle lingering humanitarian crises, the United Nations' humanitarian chief says.
Jan Egeland said, for example, that as many people died in Congo every eight months as in last year's Indian Ocean tsunami.
He also criticised political leaders for failing to take action to end the wars that created humanitarian crises or invest in disaster prevention to ease the impact of earthquakes, hurricanes and floods.
The work of UN and other relief workers in conflict-wracked eastern Congo, in the Darfur region of western Sudan, and in northern Uganda had become "an alibi for lack of political and security action", Egeland said." [Emphasis added]
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"The United Nations will this week launch a major air operation to ferry food and other supplies to earthquake survivors high in Pakistan's mountains in frantic bid to beat the problems of winter.
Britain has supplied three Chinook transport helicopters that will fly up to 200 tonnes of supplies a day into the mountains from Tuesday for five days, said senior U.N. official Pat Duggan." [LINK]
"The United Nations Foundation Board announced today a commitment of $1 million to United Nations Earthquake relief initiatives in South Asia. This commitment will help support the UN's immediate response in the affected countries of Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan, build critical communications and logistics capacities, and support the UN's aid coordination role." [Read more]
"UNICEF warned Sunday that lost and orphaned children were among the most vulnerable survivors of the earthquake in South Asia and would need urgent help to survive in the cold and mountainous areas.
They would need assistance to find surviving relatives and eventually to overcome the trauma of the disaster, David Bull, executive director of the UN's Children Fund in Britain, told the BBC World Service.
"We know that children in an earthquake situation are vulnerable to injury, cold, hunger, distress, illness, exploitation and the loss of their active education, separation from their families," he said." [Read more]
"Following a massive earthquake in Pakistan that affected also Afghanistan and India, the United Nations is working with the governments of those countries on an emergency response." [More]