Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Amsterdam (Agenzia Fides) – “This Summer of humanitarian disasters” is draining the resources of international aid agencies; very soon they will be unable to address the needs of people affected by the consequences of conflict and bloodshed. The warning, raised by Cordaid (Dutch partner of Caritas) and immediately endorsed by the Rome based Caritas Internationalis, refers to “millions of people in Syria, Gaza, South Sudan and in other areas of conflict waiting for aid”, at the present time when major networks of humanitarian intervention such as the Red Cross, Doctors without Frontiers and United Nations Organization aid agencies are unable to meet the enormous demand for help.
“Besides the crises in Syria, Gaza and Iraq” the appeal states , “there are the forgotten civil wars in Central Africa and in South Sudan”. Caritas Netherlands has itself been forced to change the destination of funds towards meeting new emergencies redirecting to refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon resources originally assigned for the Central African Republic.
Humanitarian director at Caritas Internationalis Albert de Haan confirms the growing difficulty to find funds, particularly for situations of conflicts obscured by the dynamics of the global media system : “We are receiving less funds” de Haan says in the brief report examined by Fides “to supply aid in Mali, Niger and other African countries suffering because of situations of war. We are also active on the fronts of ‘forgotten’ conflicts in which the media have loss interest, such as Myanmar and the drought in Sahel. For these regions too we lack the resources to provide the aid we want to give”. The Caritas Internationalis humanitarian director concludes “drastic government cuts in resources for development and emergencies, are now causing a great deal of pain”. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 1/9/2014).
