While the humanitarian situation in Somalia has improved slightly, there remain significant humanitarian concerns across the country. After two decades of fighting, tens of thousands of people have been separated from their families. The whereabouts of at least 12,000 people are unknown. Despite the passing of time, some Somalis are as determined as ever to find their loved ones.
Female detainees are often the sole providers for their families so their detention results in great hardship for their loved ones. However in Paraguay an innovative income generating project is helping the detainees and their families better cope mentally, economically and socially.
Less than one month on from signing a peace accord (the Libreville agreement), thousands are living with uncertainty in the Central African Republic. There is a risk of fighting breaking out and many remain displaced, unsure whether to return home.
One year on, the conflict in Mali continues. The result, an unsettled life for much of the civilian population. More than two hundred and fifty thousand have been internally displaced and almost as many have become refugees in neighbouring countries, since last year. Many fled their homes with only the clothes they were wearing, leaving their lives behind.
As the crisis persists in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in partnership with the Red Cross Society of the DRC, has since 19 November registered more than 300 unaccompanied children. They became separated from their families during the fighting that has rocked the area since mid-November. Very young children have been found next to their parents'' lifeless bodies or wandering alone by the side of the road. To date, around 150 children have been reunited with their families. Efforts are under way to reunite others with their loved ones before the holiday season.
As the violence intensifies and spreads in Syria, some 250,000 people have fled into Jordan, according to Jordanian official sources. About 45,000 Syrians have found shelter in Al Zaatari refugee camp, 15 km from the Syrian border.
Life for refugees in camps in South Sudan is precarious as they face serious shortages of clean drinkable water. These camps close to the Sudanese border are home to thousands of families sheltering from the ongoing fighting in Sudan.
Benghazi, May 2012. As he steps onto the tarmac at the airport of his hometown for the first time in 43 years, Abdussalem Al-Naji is overwhelmed by emotion. He is greeted by his brothers, cousins and friends, as well as numerous children born to his relatives in his absence. That morning, Abdussalem was still in his flat in Dattwil, a small, quiet town in the Swiss canton of Aargau.
Geneva (ICRC) - At the end of his three-day visit to Mali and Niger on Wednesday 24 October, ICRC president Peter Maurer warned that military deployments and renewed hostilities in the region would inevitably have humanitarian consequences for the population.
Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), is currently visiting Niger and Mali assessing humanitarian needs. During an ICRC food distribution to around 580 displaced families in Niamey (Niger), the ICRC President met people exhausted and weakened by successive food shortages and the fighting in northern Mali.
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