The News Line: News
Tuesday, 31 July 2007
EIGHT MILLION IRAQIS NEED EMERGENCY AID!
The violence in Iraq is overshadowing a humanitarian crisis, with eight million Iraqis, nearly one in three, in need of emergency aid, says a report released yesterday.
The report is by international agency Oxfam and NCCI, a network of aid organisations working in Iraq.
The report ‘Rising to the Humanitarian Challenge in Iraq’ says the puppet Iraqi government and ‘other influential governments’ should do more to meet basic needs for water, sanitation, food and shelter.
According to the report:
• Four million Iraqis (15 per cent) regularly cannot buy enough to eat.
• 70 per cent are without adequate water supplies, compared to 50 per cent in 2003.
• 28 per cent of children are malnourished, compared to 19 per cent before the 2003 invasion.
• 92 per cent of Iraqi children suffer learning problems, mostly due to the climate of fear.
• More than two million people, mostly women and children, have been displaced inside Iraq.
l A further two million Iraqis have become refugees, mainly in Syria and Jordan.
Jeremy Hobbs, director of Oxfam International, said: ‘Malnutrition amongst children has dramatically increased and basic services, ruined by years of war and sanctions, cannot meet the needs of the Iraqi people.’
He added: ‘The Iraqi government must commit to helping Iraq’s poorest citizens, including the internally displaced, by extending food parcel distribution and cash payments to the vulnerable.
‘Western donors must work through Iraqi and international aid organisations and develop more flexible systems to ensure these organisations operate effectively and efficiently.
‘The fighting and weak Iraqi institutions mean there are severe limits on what humanitarian work can be carried out. Nevertheless more can and should be done to help the Iraqi people.’
Oxfam said in a statement that ‘ending the conflict must be a top priority for everyone involved in Iraq.’
Meanwhile, it added: ‘The Iraqi government should immediately extend its food parcel distribution programme, increase emergency cash payments and support local aid organisations.
‘The government should also take a more decentralised approach and allow local authorities to deliver aid.
‘Foreign governments, including the US and UK, should support Iraqi ministries in implementing these policies.’
Meanwhile the US agency overseeing reconstruction in Iraq said that economic mismanagement and corruption In Iraq is the equivalent to ‘a second insurgency’.
The chief auditor assigned by Congress, Stuart Bowen, said the Iraqi government was failing to take responsibility for projects worth billions of dollars.
Bowen was appointed to audit $44bn (£22bn) allocated since 2003, after reports of widespread fraud and waste.
Bowen stated yesterday that corruption was endemic and described it as ‘an enemy of democracy’.
He added: ‘We have performed 95 audits that have found instances of programmatic weakness and waste, and we’ve got 57 ongoing cases right now, criminal cases, looking at fraud.’
Last year, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s government only spent 22 per cent of its budget on vital rebuilding projects, while spending 99 per cent of the allocation for salaries, he said.
The Iraqi parliament is about to take the whole of August off as a holiday despite both reports highlighting the plight of many Iraqis.
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