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08 Feb 2010 12:50:00 GMT
Cold weather causes problems for Yemen's displaced women and children
This blog is written by Najwa Mekki, Communications Officer for UNICEF in the Middle East and North Africa. From 22-28 January she visited Amran, north of Yemen's capital city Sana'a, where she met with some of the women and children displaced by conflict in the country's troubled north.

Ever since the raging conflict has driven her from her home in Saada to the city of Amran, Fatma has been praying day and night for the fighting to end so that she could be reunited with her two married daughters who stayed behind, one of them a mother of 10.

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27 Jan 2010 15:30:00 GMT
Iraq is Not Yesterday's War for the Millions of Displaced
The international communitys new preferred narrative about Iraq is that the violence has been greatly reduced; the U.S. is drawing down its military; the humanitarian situation has stabilized; and now it is up to the Iraqi Government, assisted by UN development actors, to rebuild the country.

While it is true that there is less violence in most parts of Iraq today than there was two years ago, the levels of targeted violence and civilian death remain much higher than before the U.S. invasion. This weeks bombing in Baghdad underscored what we all know: Iraq continues to have a security problem. This is also evidenced by the simple fact that international UN staff cannot access areas outside of the green zone without U.S. military escort. For all practical purposes, the UN today has no new access to the vulnerable communities they serve than they did in 2007. Iraqi NGOs themselves continue to work clandestinely. Last week five Iraqi aid workers were killed point blank in their offices.

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16 Dec 2009 15:41:00 GMT
Yemen conflict: Adapting to life in the camps
Open trucks carrying hundreds of new displaced people are arriving everyday. It's my seventh week inside this overcrowded tarpaulin city which has doubled in size and has now exceeded it's capacity with nearly 15, 000 internally displaced people living there.

Amna Ali, surrounded by her five children, arrived a few days ago clutching only what she could carry - a few personal belongings rescued after her village came under attack. Amna and her family fled deep into Saudi Arabia to escape the fighting before finally taking refuge in the Al Mazarakh camp. They are slowly adapting to a new life as people displaced in their own homeland. Amna and her family are one of the hundreds of families that Oxfam is helping by improving hygiene and sanitation facilities in the Al Mazarakh camp.

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30 Nov 2009 15:46:00 GMT
West Bank Bedouins say they are facing drought and discrimination
Rows of houses stand sentry on the parched, barren hill. A water tower rises from their midst, irrigating lush greenery. But beyond this West Bank settlement's perimeter fence is a tiny Bedouin campsite where people are desperate for water.

Here at Umm Al Kher in the South Hebron Hills, there has been no rainfall for many months. Grey rock and dry, rugged earth spread off in every direction and the shepherds struggle to find pasture for their flocks. But the recent drought is exacerbating a man-made water crisis.

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19 Nov 2009 15:30:00 GMT
Yemen conflict: People living in limbo
Written by Oxfam's field staff member in Yemen.

It's my third week as an Oxfam engineer inside this makeshift city set deep in the mountains of Northern Yemen. This is the Al Mazarakh camp in Haradh - home to 950 families, or nearly 6,000 people, displaced by the ongoing fighting between Al Huthi rebels and government forces in the region. I have come to this place to provide urgently needed assistance for people who have been displaced by the conflict.

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