|
POST-ELECTION
VIOLENCE IN KENYA LEADS TO INCREASED ACTIVITY BY UN AGENCIES AND OTHER
HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS:
08/01/08
(MaximsNews Network)
|
|
UNITED
NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / - 08
January 2007 -- Aid
continued to flow into Kenya from UN agencies and their partners despite the
ebbing of the post-election unrest that displaced hundreds of thousands of
Kenyans.
The UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that while the
situation in the country is reported to be slowly returning to normal, aid
workers agree that many Kenyans will feel the effects of the crisis for some
time to come.
The
Government of Kenya reports that up to 255,000 people have been internally
displaced as a result of the violence that erupted last week after President
Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner in the recent election. Some 350 have
reportedly also been killed.
The UN
Country Team in Kenya, which is working with the Kenya Red Cross Society,
national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and faith-based
groups, have accelerated their response in recent days as security has begun to
improve.
The
first seven of 11 trucks from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) – with enough
food to feed 38,000 people for two weeks – arrived in the western town of
Eldoret from the port city of Mombasa, where they had been stranded during the
first days of the crisis.
“Trucks
with assistance are moving, distributions are taking place and assessments are
underway,” Peter Smerdon of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) told reporters
in the capital Nairobi today.
To date,
WFP has drawn on its stocks from other operations in Kenya to provide 670 tonnes
of food in Eldoret, while a similar amount has been stockpiled in Nairobi to be
used to feed the hungry in the slums. Another 40 tonnes have been sent to the
western port town of Kisumu, where the agency and its partners are planning to
assist some 3,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Meanwhile,
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is making available immediate
non-food items for up to 100,000 people. Today it is shifting 24 tonnes of
blankets and soap from its warehouses in north-eastern Kenya to Nairobi for
delivery to displaced Kenyans.
In
addition, staff at the agency’s Nairobi warehouse are preparing family kits
containing items such as plastic sheeting for shelter, blankets, mats, mosquito
nets and soap that will be distributed this week.
The
Nairobi-based UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) is supporting
humanitarian agencies in addressing the immediate shelter needs of the
displaced. It is also working to establish the extent of the destruction and
loss of housing, land and property following last week’s events.
The UN
Children’s Fund (UNICEF), for its part, has voiced concern that endemic
chronic malnutrition, which affects 30 per cent of Kenyan children, could worsen
during the current crisis. The agency, in partnership with Médecins sans
frontiers-Switzerland, is currently working to establish the nutritional needs
of the displaced families and to ensure that children’s needs were protected.
UNICEF
will be distributing 4,000 family kits today and an additional 4,000 in the
coming days. It will also be handing out education kits to displaced families.
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
~~~~~
MaximsNews.com, An Independent Voice from the
U.N., provides commentary and analysis from
leading world figures: King Abdullah II
(Jordan), HRH Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein
(Jordan), Sir Brian Urquhart, Hans Blix, Amb.
Richard Holbrooke, Anwar Ibrahim, Bianca Jagger,
Dr. Nafis Sadik, Shashi Tharoor, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Noeleen Heyzer,
Masood Haider, Kerry
Kennedy, Ian Williams, Stephen Schlesinger, Sen.
Timothy E. Wirth, Marc Morial, Amb. Jayantha
Dhanapala (Sri Lanka), Amb. Pierre Schori
(Sweden), Amb. William H. Luers, Susan Roosevelt
Weld, Rory Kennedy, Mehri
Madarshahi, Hazel Henderson, Donald Wheeler, J. Michael Adams, Gloria Feldt,
Jeffrey Laurenti, Ashley
Bommer, Rory
O'Connor, Genevieve Stamper, Max Stamper and
others.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MaximsNews®
LLC
NEWS NETWORK FOR THE
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
MaximsNews Network® LLC is a Global News Network reaching over 30,000 in the International Community. It is associated with MediaChannel.org and Globalvision News Network, global news and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 135 countries.
Established in 1999.
The views expressed are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of MaximsNews®
LLC.
MaximsNews.com
U.N. ® LLC www.MaximsNews.com
| MaximsNews@MaximsNews.com |
Please
contact us about Republishing:
Syndication@MaximsNews.com ©Copyrights 1999 - 2007, MaximsNews® LLC. All rights
reserved.
|
