\nNEW YORK: Although to outside observers the Middle East might appear to be experiencing a period of renewed, active diplomacy, including a host of new peace initiatives, \u201cour teams on the ground see no difference,\u201d according to Fabrizio Carboni, regional director of the International Committee of the Red Cross for Near and Middle East.<\/p>\n
\nDuring a virtual briefing in New York, he painted a bleak picture of a region that continues to struggle with protracted conflicts, collapsing economies and dire financial predicaments, on top of efforts to battle a COVID-19 pandemic that continues to rage amid vaccine scarcity in many countries. Only 5 percent of Syrians have had their first dose of a vaccine, and 2 percent of Yemenis, for example.<\/p>\n
\nThis amid \u201cdonor fatigue,\u201d said Carboni, as conflicts proliferate elsewhere in the world, including Afghanistan and Ethiopia, and donor nations divert resources that would previously have gone to help people in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cFor the time being, we are $8 million short of what we need for a full slate of humanitarian activities in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,\u201d Carboni said, by way of an example.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIn Iraq, we are short of $20 million. And even if these countries are not in the top headlines on a daily basis, the families (there) continue to suffer and need massive help.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAdding to the difficulty of funding humanitarian work in some parts of the region is the fact that \u201cwe are moving from true emergency, like distributing food, to another phase \u2014 let\u2019s call it \u2018early recovery\u2019 \u2014 where we need to work on systems to allow people to be autonomous and get back on their feet. And this is a more complex activity to finance and it costs a lot because of the size of the destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe destruction caused by a decade of conflict in Syria is reminiscent of that caused in Europe during the Second World War, according to Carboni.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cEvery time I go back to Syria I always have the feeling that the conflict ended the day before,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is this permanent state of \u2018Year Zero\u2019 and it\u2019s really heartbreaking.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAnd the financial crisis hitting Syria today is an additional layer of vulnerability and complexity, and it is hitting very, very hard the average Syrian.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nWarning that the freezing winter temperatures are making conditions even harsher for displaced Syrians, both internally and as refugees, Carboni in particular highlighted the plight of children as the worst-affected by the crisis. The situation in northeast Syria represents \u201cone of the largest child-protection crises in the world today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\nAt the Al-Hol camp, for example, which the official recently visited, he said the vast majority of residents are children under the age of 12. Many of them were separated from their families during transfers to other camps. These children need to be reunited with their families, repatriated alongside them, or have alternative care provided for them, Carboni added.<\/p>\n
\nThe packed Al-Hol camp is home to more than 60,000 women and children, many of them the wives and children of defeated Daesh fighters. The majority of states where they originally came from, including the UK, refuse to repatriate them.<\/p>\n
\nCarboni called for \u201ccollective action to have a long-term view for those populations who are still stranded in northeast Syria in a legal limbo.\u201d He encouraged all states to repatriate their citizens and \u201cdo it lawfully, according to standards and principles, including support to returning children and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHe added: \u201cFamily unity should be the norm during repatriation. Keeping families together is usually in the child\u2019s best interest and it\u2019s what international law requires, unless otherwise justified by a rigorous assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nReferring to the political process, Carboni lamented the lack of will to make sacrifices for the sake of peace.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cPeace agreements are about compromise,\u201d he said. \u201cMy fear around Syria, but also generally speaking, is that parties to the conflict try to find a painless solution.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOftentimes, there is a political price to pay when you decide to make peace. You always need a form of political courage; giving in on something. What we see in Syria (is) there is no will to make this compromise. That\u2019s why the situation is frozen, rotting, and the ones who are paying the price are Syrians.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIn Yemen, where \u201call basic services are down,\u201d seven years of conflict have come on top of other chronic challenges facing the nation that have nothing to do with war, such as climate change and an education crisis, Carboni said.<\/p>\n
\nIn the absence of basic healthcare, with 24 million people in need of assistance and three-quarters of the population living in near-famine conditions, what is needed is for \u201cstates with influence to help reach an agreement to shut down this conflict and to allow the people of Yemen to focus on rehabilitating their country and the existential challenges it is facing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\nTurning to the COVID-19 crisis, Carboni said that while the pandemic is the major threat facing the West, it is just one additional layer of vulnerability in places such as Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, where people are trying to cope simultaneously with multiple crises.<\/p>\n
\nPreventive measures such as social distancing become an absurd demand at overcrowded refugee camps and shelters, he pointed out. Sheltering at home is out of the question for Yemenis, who have to venture out every day to find food for their families. Frequently washing hands might sound a simple precaution for people in Western nations, but for those in Tikrit, Mosul, Hodeida or Aden, water is often not so readily available, he said.<\/p>\n
\nReaching vulnerable populations with vaccines remains an \u201can absolute necessity\u201d in efforts to end the global pandemic, Carboni added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Permanent \u2018Year Zero\u2019: Red Cross chief paints bleak picture of Mid-East conflict zones NEW YORK: Although to outside observers the Middle East might appear to be experiencing a period of renewed, active diplomacy, including a host of new peace initiatives, \u201cour teams on the ground see no difference,\u201d according to Fabrizio Carboni, regional director of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}