Next time a detractor calls the UN slow and ineffective, he or she should take a good look at how various UN agencies have sprang to action in Chad. From the UN News Center.
More than 5,500 Chadians who fled fighting in their capital, N’Djamena, earlier this month and have been living in temporary sites in north-eastern Cameroon have now been relocated to a newly equipped camp in the village of Maltam, according to United Nations humanitarian officials.
Another 10,000 refugees are expected to be transferred to the camp from the town of Kousseri, which at one point was hosting some 30,000 Chadians — who left their homeland due to fighting between Government forces and armed opposition groups — in two temporary sites, as well as in local schools, churches and private homes.
Read the entire article. It is a remarkable display of how a bureaucracy can be marshaled to deliver critical services to a vulnerable population in one of the most remote regions on earth. Not only has UNHCR taken on the burden of relocating many thousands of distressed Chadians, but the World Food program is airlifting food so noone suffers malnutrition and and UNICEF is vaccinating the newly displaced with measles and polio vaccinations. This, I would say, is a good example of UN efficacy.