BUDAPEST/VIENNA , 29 July 2015 (IRIN) - Hundreds of migrants sit in the underpasses in front of Budapest’s Keleti station on a balmy Sunday morning. Every couple of hours, a few dozen rouse themselves and look up at the departures board, waiting for the platform number for the Vienna train to appear above.

The stakes are high.

Last Monday, more than 200 undocumented migrants, mainly from Syria and Afghanistan, were ordered off the train at the Austrian border. Some of the group, which included 27 children, subsequently applied for asylum. Others were charged with staying in Austria illegally and given written orders to leave.

The first challenge is to get on the train.

The Hungarian police have stopped thousands of migrants at Keleti station in the last month alone. Policing is sporadic, however, and it is still possible to evade capture in the rush that follows a train pulling in. On this occasion, the police play cat and mouse with some of the migrants. A young African man is prevented from boarding and marched off.

The train is crowded and the migrants sit tensely in the intersections between carriages, rubbing shoulders with relaxed backpackers. The train stops for five minutes at Hegyeshalom, at the Austrian border. Three policemen amble up and down the platform. They don’t board. The train continues on to Vienna without incident. This group has been lucky.

Fazal, a young man of around 20 travelling with a group of five other Pakistanis, shows IRIN his ticket. The destination reads Traiskirchen, the location of one of Austria’s two initial reception centres for asylum seekers, 15 miles south of Vienna.

Fazal clearly has other plans: “How many hours until Munich?” – the city in southern Germany that is the ultimate destination of the train - he asks. “We don’t talk now. Only off the train,” an older member of his party says, pulling him away.

Regional tensions

Relations between Austria and Hungary have been tense in recent months. Hungary has been overloaded by an influx of asylum seekers crossing its border with Serbia along the so-called Western Balkan route from Greece. In June, Hungary threatened to stop accepting migrants returned to the country under the Dublin Regulation, which stipulates that asylum seekers must be processed by the first country that registers them. It was widely reported that the Hungarian ambassador to Vienna was then summoned to the Austrian interior ministry. The following day Hungary withdrew the threat.

In a public show of solidarity two weeks later, the Austrian, Serbian and Hungarian interior ministries announced plans for a joint border force to stem the flow of migrants into the European Union from the Balkans. Karl-Heinz Grundboeck, a spokesperson from Austria’s interior ministry told IRIN that the cooperation was going well. “We have 80 police officers from Austria supporting the border authorities,” he said.

Ruth Schoeffl, a spokeswoman for the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, in Austria, said that the increasing popularity of the Balkans route had inevitably increased arrivals to Austria, which unlike Hungary is not a transit country, but a preferred destination for many.

“Last year, Austria had 28,000 new asylum applications and this same level had already been reached in the first half of 2015,” she told IRIN. “The authorities are talking about 70,000 for the whole year. In 2013, it was 17,500.”

No room

More than 4,000 migrants are crammed into the reception centre in Traiskirchen, which has beds for just 2,300 and is accommodating others in tents. The overcrowding is apparent even from outside the camp complex, where hundreds of Afghans and Syrians line the pavement. “The conditions here are very bad,” says a Syrian man. “Everyone who arrives now is sleeping outside. Some don’t even get tents and have to sleep under trees. When I came to Europe, I thought it would be better.”

Journalists are not generally allowed inside the camp. “They say it’s because they don't want the refugees to be photographed,” Anna Radl, a spokesperson with the charity Caritas, which provides support to migrants and refugees, tells IRIN. “But we’re not allowed to go into the camp to talk to them either.”

An asylum seeker family resting under a makeshift tent at Traiskirchen reception centre. More than 1,000 residents are now sleeping there without proper shelter.

Dennis, a refugee from Guinea who arrived in Austria 13 years ago, collects donated clothes to give to Traiskirchen’s residents. “When I first stepped into Traiskirchen, I cried, because it was so different for refugees when I arrived in Austria,” he told IRIN.

Such is the severity of the overcrowding at Traiskirchen that the town’s mayor Andreas Babler organised a protest march to the interior ministry building in June. He has urged the Austrian government to reduce the number of asylum seekers at the centre and called the interior ministry’s tent solution “unlawful”.

While many locals are resentful that the town has to house the camp – some pelted residents and activists recently with eggs – others have been donating clothes and toiletries to Caritas for distribution to the asylum seekers.

"People in Traiskirchen are really open, and especially want to help now that there is such a difficult situation there," says Radl.

Sharing

Austria’s system of shared responsibility for asylum seekers requires the federal government to register initial applications and then leaves it up to the regional authorities to find accommodation for them while their cases are processed. But many regional authorities have been reluctant to do so, leaving more and more asylum seekers to languish at the initial reception centres at Traiskirchen and Thalham in Upper Austria.

“To be very frank, it is not the federal government that is to blame for the lack of places,” said Grundboeck. “What is not working is the transfer [to regional accommodation].”

To relieve the pressure on Traiskirchen in particular, the Austrian government has negotiated a deal with neighbouring Slovakia to accommodate 500 asylum seekers at a former university building in Gabcikovo until their applications are processed. The first 50 asylum seekers arrived in Slovakia in July, with 200 more to follow in August and the remaining 250 in September. Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner has spoken of trying to extend this existing two-year plan.

“[We] need temporary solutions (right away) while we work on long-term ones,” said Schoeffl of UNHCR. “But we hope that the government of Austria, which is a wealthy country, will look at using hotels or other buildings. We would rather have people in proper buildings.”

dn/ks/ag

A group of migrants arrived in Kent yesterday, after a harrowing journey through the Eurotunnel – with many injured and traumatised.

Most people required on-the-spot first aid after risking their lives to get to the UK.

There was also a need for basic supplies, such as blankets, as most arrived here with few or no belongings.

Crushed to death

According to news reports, there were around 1,500 attempts to cross into the UK from Calais on the night of Tuesday 28 July.

This journey ended in death for one Sudanese man, aged 25-30, who was crushed by a truck as it left a ferry.

He is now the ninth person to die trying to get into the tunnel since June.

‘Dangerous and traumatic’

A small group of people did make it through the Eurotunnel into Kent last night, where they received some support from British Red Cross. This was at the request of the Home Office and Kent County Council.

The vast majority of people we saw were asylum seekers, who had fled danger and persecution from countries such as Syria and Afghanistan.

Rhys Cutler, who works for us in Kent and Sussex, said: “We have been supporting a number of vulnerable asylum seekers, for many of whom crossing the Channel Tunnel has only been the last stage of a dangerous and traumatic journey.

“Many of the individuals our team met had suffered injuries and emotional trauma. It was humbling to see how gratefully the basic items and support we provided were received.”

Desperate need of help

Alex Fraser, head of refugee support, added: “We’re here to support people in crisis – whoever and wherever they are. And these people are arriving in the UK with absolutely nothing.

"We're the Red Cross. If we don’t help, who will?”

Kabul, Afghanistan | AFP | Thursday 7/30/2015 - 05:20 GMT

by Anuj CHOPRA

The Taliban on Thursday distanced itself from peace talks that had been expected this week with the Afghan government, while making no comment on Kabul's reported death of their leader Mullah Omar.

Afghanistan on Wednesday said Omar died two years ago in Pakistan, in the first such official confirmation from Kabul after unnamed government and militant sources reported the demise of the reclusive warrior-cleric.

The insurgents have not officially confirmed his death, and the claim -- just two days before a fresh round of talks were expected -- cast doubt over the tenuous peace process.

"Media outlets are circulating reports that peace talks will take place very soon... either in the country of China or Pakistan," the Taliban said in an English-language statement posted on their website on Thursday.

"(Our) political office... are not aware of any such process," added the statement, which prompted no immediate reaction from the Afghan government.

The statement marked the first comment from the group, which has waged an almost 14-year insurgency against Afghan and foreign forces, since Kabul's dramatic announcement on Wednesday citing "credible information".

Mullah Omar has not been seen publicly since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban government in Kabul.

Haseeb Sediqi, the spokesman for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, told AFP that Omar died in hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi "under mysterious circumstances".

Rumours of Omar's ill-health and even death have regularly surfaced in the past, but the White House added weight to Kabul's latest assertion, calling reports of his demise "credible".

• 'Existential crisis' -

Omar's death would mark a significant blow to the Taliban, which is riven by internal divisions and threatened by the rise of the Islamic State group, the Middle East jihadist outfit that is making steady inroads in Afghanistan.

Afghan officials sat down with Taliban cadres earlier this month in Murree, a holiday town in the hills north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad, for their first face-to-face talks aimed at ending the bloody insurgency.

They agreed to meet again in the coming weeks, drawing international praise, and Afghan officials pledged to press for a ceasefire in the second round, expected to kick off on Friday.

"The talks have... certainly lost their momentum," said Michael Kugelman, Afghanistan expert at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

"Announcement of Omar's death will spark an existential crisis for the Taliban, and the last thing that will be on its mind are peace talks. It will need to focus on its survival, not talks," Kugelman told AFP.

A statement from the Afghan presidential palace on Wednesday, however, said grounds for the discussions are more solid now than before, and implored all insurgents to join the peace process.

But many of the insurgents' ground commanders have openly questioned the legitimacy of the Taliban negotiators, exposing dangerous faultlines within the movement.

The split within the Taliban over the peace process has been worsened by the emergence of a local branch of the Islamic State group, which last year declared a "caliphate" across large areas of Iraq and Syria under its control.

The Taliban warned IS recently against expanding in the region, but this has not stopped some fighters, inspired by the group's success, defecting to swear allegiance to IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi instead of the invisible Mullah Omar.

bur-ac/as

© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse

Rumi Consultancy/World Bank

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The rebuilding of a canal has brought life back to a rural neighborhood in Balkh Province, reviving arable land as well as allowing residents to supplement their income by growing their own vegetables.

• The reconstruction sub-project was made possible through the National Solidarity Program, the government’s flagship program for rural development.

• The National Solidarity Program is implemented by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development and receives funding from a number of donors, including the World Bank and the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF).

Kod-e Barq, Balkh Province – Children are happily playing in the cold water of the canal. Even though the protection walls around it are about a meter high, Ahmad Jamshid, 7, and Abdul Basit, 9, spend most of their free time near this canal. At certain locations the canal walls are built lower so that people could fill their buckets with water for domestic use. “Now that the canal is paved, we can easily fill our buckets and carry the water home,” chorus the boys.

This is Kod-e Barq intersection, located in Dehdadi district, Balkh Province, where the recently paved 963-meter long canal, built alongside the road, begins. The canal crosses the village of Tokhta and ends near the entry gate of Kod-e Barq neighborhood.

" Now that they can grow vegetables in their yards, they are able to save the money they would otherwise have spent in the market to buy those vegetables. "
Mohammad Ayaz Ayubi
resident, Kod-e Barq

The small locality of Kod-e Barq was established 40 years ago to house workers of the Kod-e Barq fertilizer factory and their families. Although there are no big fields here, residents can grow vegetables in their own little yards—thanks to the water from the canal. “The canal has been a big help in people’s daily lives as well as a noteworthy financial support to them,” says Amir Shah Ayubi, treasurer of the Kod-e Barq Community Development Council (CDC).

Work on paving the mud canal and turning it into a proper canal began in February 2014 and took a year to complete. This sub-project was built with contributions from the locals and a grant from the National Solidarity Program (NSP). Implemented by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development since 2003, the NSP receives funding from a number of donors, including the World Bank and the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF).

Like the Kod-e Barq CDC, the NSP has established over 33,400 Community Development Councils across the country, democratically elected through secret ballot and mandated with governance responsibilities. The CDCs are proving to be an effective mechanism nationwide for ensuring equitable development, representing the rights and needs of over 18 million rural community members.

The NSP and its 31 Facilitating Partners have worked through the CDCs to identify and implement some 86,000 small-scale reconstruction and development activities in the areas of water supply and sanitation, rural roads, irrigation, power, health, and education, as well as generated over 52 million paid-for-labor days for skilled and unskilled laborers.

In Kod-e Barq, the NSP provided 3 million Afghanis towards the canal’s rebuilding cost, while residents of Tokhta village and Kod-e Barq contributed over 300,000 Afghanis. Currently, 938 families are benefiting from the canal, says Homayon Ajam, NSP Provincial Manager in Balkh Province.

Mohammad Anwar, 57, a resident of Kod-e Barq, is pleased that the canal has been rebuilt. “Previously, when the canal was still unpaved, most of the water was absorbed into the ground instead of running into the adjoining streams,” says Anwar. “Moreover, it took the water two to three hours to reach the neighborhood. However, now that the canal has been paved water can reach us as quickly as 20 to 30 minutes. The water brought by this canal has already irrigated all the greenery here.”

Revival of arable land

The canal has not only revived the greenery surrounding the neighborhood, but it has also brought arable land back to life. Fields that had lain uncultivated due to water shortage now grow wheat for Kod-e Barq. Residents are glad to see their lands growing crops again, which has had a positive impact on the local economy.

“Now that they can grow vegetables in their yards, they are able to save the money they would otherwise have spent in the market to buy those vegetables,” points out Mohammad Ayaz Ayubi, a resident. Like his neighbors, he has planted tomatoes, onions, chives, okras, and eggplants in a field of about 500 square meters across from his house.

Paving and covering the canal in sections has also helped keep its water clean and prevent flooding. “Previously, it was difficult to keep the water clean. Its coverings were not good enough to protect the water efficiently,” says Mohammad Qasim, 25, a shopkeeper in the Kod-e Barq intersection. “Moreover, the canal would often overflow and flood the shops, and cause damage because there were no embankments to hold back the water. Thanks to the reconstruction, the problem has been completely solved.”

Although hundreds of families are using its water daily, the canal does not dry up since water loss into the ground is decreased. The pure, clean water has brought a new life to the town of Kod-e Barq. Now, residents are experiencing the joy of watching little plots covered with vegetables, flowers and greenery everywhere, a luxury that a short while ago seemed quite impossible to have in this small place.

Kabul, Afghanistan, July 27, 2015 – The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) PROMOTE program launched the Jawana women’s leadership skills course with a ceremony at the Geology Faculty of Kabul University. One hundred Afghan women, between the ages of 18 and 30, attended the ceremony. Guests included representatives from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, the Ministry of Higher Education, the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs & Disabled, USAID, university students, members of women’s civil society organizations, women and human rights activists and community representatives.

The young women, who have either a high school diploma, vocational school or university degree, are participating in a series of mentoring and practical activities, in order to develop the knowledge and skills that will lead to senior positions in government, the private sector and civil society.

“This program will empower young women,” said Dilbar Nazari, Afghan Minister of Women’s Affairs. “They are honing their skills and building confidence in their ability to make informed decisions that lead to sustained social change in their homes, communities, and country.” The program is conducted in close partnership with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Ministry of Higher Education.

Program participants were selected through an open and transparent process by a Participant Selection Committee comprised of eight professional men and women from government, civil society, public and private sectors. In the next two months, the program will be offered to over 800 women from Kabul, Jalalabad, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif and Kandahar. By 2019, 18,000 high-achieving, young educated women representing all 34 provinces will have participated and honed their leadership skills.

“USAID is partnering with the Government of Afghanistan, the private sector and civil society to achieve what technology, ingenuity and progress have now made possible: An Afghanistan where the most vulnerable are lifting themselves up and contributing to a stable, resilient democratic society,” said Lida Hedayat, USAID PROMOTE Women’s Leadership Development Deputy Chief of Party.

PROMOTE is the largest USAID women’s leadership program in the world. It will provide 75,000 young educated women the opportunity to acquire the skills they need to advance in Afghan society.

By Alain Rodriguez, Caritas Europa

Wars, conflicts and persecution worldwide are pushing millions of people to take to the road with the hope of finding a better life somewhere else. They come to Europe from Eritrea, Iraq, Syria, Burma, Afghanistan and many other places where life is more about survival than anything else.

Show your solidarity with Greece

Tens of thousands of migrants and refugees keep arriving to the Greek islands of Kos, Lesvos and Chios. Struggling with a worsening economic crisis the Greek authorities can’t offer them adequate access to shelter and health. As a result, people are setting up improvised camps in parks and other public spaces with nothing more to do than wait and dream of a better future.

Amir* is 35 year old and fled Syria after he received pressure to join the military. He escaped the country and says, “I walked over 1200km. I walked to Turkey and then to the coast where I joined a group of 14 people on a small boat to cross over to this island.”

According to the latest UNHCR Global Trends report, the world is witnessing a strong escalation in the number of people forced to flee their homes. In 2014, 59.5 million people were forced to leave their homes. They were 51.2 million a year earlier and 37,5 million ten years ago. Compared to 2013 this increase has been the highest ever recorded in a single year.

Many of them, like Amir, are arriving in Greece, a country whose economy is devastated and which has recently been obliged by the Eurozone members to go further down the path of austerity. This happened despite widespread opposition against these measures and many warnings from international organisations, including Caritas Europa, that austerity offers no solution and will just worsen the situation.

“The situation here is very bad. Greeks are so badly hit by the crisis that they are completely overwhelmed by their own problems and cannot cope with helping others,” says Maristella Tsamatropoulou, communications officer at Caritas Europa. “This applies to the state too. There are no resources, neither economic nor human, to offer any institutionalised, organised help to migrants and asylum seekers. Migrants and refugees are left to their own devices and just receive a little help from some concerned citizens and NGOs.”

Caritas in Athens has a refugee centre where there’s a soup kitchen and where migrants and refugees can seek material, language classes, psychological and legal help. A programme is planned for September which will give support to migrants on the islands of Chios, Lesvos and Kos.

More than 70,000 refugees have arrived in Greece in 2015. The Deputy Minister of Immigration, Tasia Christodoulopoulou, estimates that by the end of the year the number of refugees in Greece will reach up to 100,000. Maristella has witnessed the arrival of hundreds of people in a couple of days in the island of Kos. Along with Chios and Lesvos, Kos is one of the Greek islands where most migrants and refugees are arriving. Over 10,000 of them have arrived to Kos this year.

“The migrants arrive, go to the police to get identified and wait where they can,” said Maristella. The identification process is necessary for migrants and refugees to be allowed to travel further to Athens from where they potentially can get to any other country on the continent. This process takes at least 10 days.

Amir says, “I have been here for 10 days or so. I am waiting for the police to finalise the process of identifying me and give me the papers I need to move to Athens. From there, I want to continue to Germany or Sweden.”

In the Meantime, he stays in an abandoned hotel with other refugees and migrants. They live in poor hygienic conditions with no electricity and no security. “It’s hard here. But I have very little money and have to spend it wisely. I still don’t know what will happen next so I have to be cautious,” says Amir. “I had a good life in Syria, before the war. I was working in a hospital as a medical assistant. I had a good salary. Wonderful friends and my family. Now I have nothing left.”

*Name changed to protect identity

• 24 July marked one year since a child was last paralyzed by wild poliovirus in Nigeria. Final laboratory results on all specimens for the full 12 month period are expected by September 2015, which, if clear for poliovirus, may lead to Nigeria being removed from the list of polio-endemic countries. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative commends the hard work of the Nigerian government, partners, religious and community leaders, and health workers for such strong progress towards stopping polio. Yet the job is not yet finished, and it is crucial that commitment from all stakeholders is maintained. Read more

• Despite the deteriorating security situation in Yemen, a humanitarian pause enabled 50 000 children to be reached with the oral polio vaccine during the final week of Ramadan.

Above-average temperatures and rainfall lead to flooding in Central Asia

[Extract]

Central Asia Weather Hazards

1. High temperatures during the first half of July have led to mudflows and flooding, damaging infrastructure and displacing populations across eastern Tajikistan.

2. Above-average rainfall has triggered flash floods and river and lake inundation in several provinces of Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Locally heavy rainfall is forecast in the region, continuing the risk of floods and other adverse ground impacts in the region.

Temperature: During the last week, above-average temperatures prevailed throughout much of eastern Kazakhstan, with the largest anomalies (5° C or more) observed in the Almaty and East Kazakhstan provinces.
High temperatures during the first half of July have led to mudflows and flooding, which has also resulted in damaged infrastructure and displacing populations across eastern Tajikistan. During the next week, the GFS model indicates that normal to above-normal temperatures will persist across eastern Kazakhstan with below-normal temperatures expected throughout Afghanistan, Tajikistan and southern Pakistan.

Precipitation: Since early July, average to above-average rains in western Kazakhstan has gradually decreased moisture deficits and has led to an improvement in ground conditions in the region. Further south, heavy rainfall associated with the Indian monsoon has triggered numerous floods, affecting thousands of people and damaging infrastructure throughout parts of the Badakhshan province of eastern Afghanistan, as well as several provinces in Pakistan. During the next week, the GFS model suggests a continuation of locally heavy rainfall throughout eastern Tajikistan, eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, sustaining the risk of floods by the end of July.

GEVGELIJA, FYR Macedonia, July 30 (UNHCR) – Exhausted refugees walking with nothing but a backpack along railway tracks, some with confused small children clinging onto their chests; pregnant women making their way through scorching temperatures, fighting fatigue, blisters, and above all sorrow. This was the view from Lenche Zdrakin's window.

She witnessed these scenes for the first time two years ago, when foreigners began to stream by her house, a few metres from the railway tracks that connect the south and north of her home country, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Lenche, 48, an administration and finance manager of a local TV station, lives with her husband and two sons in the town of Veles, located right in the middle of what is called the "Balkan route", which has been used for two years by an ever increasing number of refugees on an agonizing odyssey from Greece, through FYR Macedonia and Serbia, to Hungary – the gateway to their desired destinations in northern and western EU states.

Once Lenche started to talk to the unlikely travellers and learned about the reasons why they had left war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and the circumstances surrounding their long, perilous journeys, her human instinct immediately told her that she had to help.

"Seeing them crash in front of my home, seeing them faint, seeing their frozen legs with wounds, I did what I had to do. If anyone was in my position, they would do the same. Human life does not have a price."

She and her family first provided them with water, tea and some food. As the groups grew bigger, Lenche had to buy extra bread and even gave them all the food her family had preserved for the winter. As the temperatures rose in the springtime and water became a necessity, Lenche also started buying water. When it became too expensive to go on buying bread for refugees every day, she started to bake it herself.

Even after all this, she soon realized that everything she did was too little. "Every day I was thinking how I would get through the next day and how I could help them. I was trying to keep the budget low and to be practical," she explained.

It took a year and a half until her compatriots, organizations and media learned about Lenche's selfless humanitarian work, and soon her house became a humanitarian hub in Veles. Locals now call it the "House of Hope".

It spawned a civic initiative which grew quickly, via social media, into a nationwide one.

"I instantly felt relieved, since help was coming from everywhere," she says. "In a short while, the hallway in my house became a storage room."

UNHCR staff also learned about Lenche's efforts and visited her to offer assistance. "They saw that I needed help and soon enough, essential goods such as water, biscuits and hygienic packages were delivered to my house," she says.

Through the national Red Cross, UNHCR also secured the daily delivery of bread from the local bakery to Lenche's house.

To find a response to the daily influx of up to 1,000 refugees that is dramatically overstretching the Balkan state's reception capacities, in June the parliament in FYR Macedonia changed the asylum law, granting people who intend to seek asylum 72 hours upon entering the country to move legally, use public means of transport, and apply for asylum.

Refugees are no longer forced to hide and walk at night using dangerous routes, on the highway and along the railway tracks, exposed to criminal gangs and train accidents, which claimed 28 lives in the six months from last November.

The refugees no longer pass by Lenche's house, but that has not changed her sincere motivation to help people in need. Almost every day she travels from her home to the town of Gevgelija, 110km away, on the border with Greece, the first stop for the refugees entering FYR Macedonia. She walks through a sea of exhausted, hungry and thirsty refugees resting at the Gevgelija train station, sharing water, food, clothes, hygienic items and diapers for the babies.

"After everything we've been through, this woman is like an angel to us," one of the refugees says, thanking her for a bottle of water.

But Lenche sees nothing extraordinary in her deeds "All of us could do that. Sometimes, money is not necessary to help someone. Sometimes, it's just about waving at them or offering them a smile to give them strength."

Story by Ljubinka Brashnarska and Neven Crvenković

In this issue:

• Nigeria: One Year Without Wild Poliovirus

• Pakistan: Getting Back on Track

• Afghanistan: Intensifying Eradication Activities

Afghanistan - Afghanistan has been affected by over 30 natural disaster incidents in the past month, killing and injuring several people, displacing hundreds of families and damaging homes and farmland in 17 provinces.

IOM has rapidly responded to these incidents, assessing damage and needs in the affected communities and delivering aid in coordination with the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) and other humanitarian partners.

Unseasonal snowmelts and heavy rains have raised river levels across the region, resulting in floods and landslides. During July, IOM recorded flooding, but also landslides and riverbank erosion, which damaged and destroyed over 2,300 homes and affected over 8,300 people. There have been 232 incidents since the beginning of the year.

IOM has participated in joint assessments of 40 communities hit by floods and landslides, and carried out 19 aid distributions, assisting over 6,000 people. Affected families are provided with basic household supplies, clothing, blankets, solar lighting kits and emergency shelter based on their needs.

“Needs are greatest in the immediate aftermath of a disaster,” said IOM Afghanistan Humanitarian Assistance Programme Manager Gul Mohammad Ahmadi. “We try to respond as quickly as possible, even in remote and difficult to access areas, to ensure that people who have lost their homes and possessions get immediate help.”

An incident in Badakhshan province earlier this month highlights the scale of the destruction that can be caused by flooding in a matter of hours.

On 6 July, a massive flood triggered by melting snow swept through Ayonak village in Badakhshan. Over 100 homes were damaged and destroyed, and 283 families were forced to flee to nearby villages.

The day following the flood, an IOM team was in Ayonak meeting with the community and determining their immediate needs, as floodwaters continued to rush past homes and over roads. Trucks carrying assistance of the affected households arrived soon after, providing families with the basic provisions they need to survive, as they work to rebuild lost homes and livelihoods.

“Our crops and animals are our only source of income, and they were washed away by this flood,” said a community elder from Ayonak. “Without the items we received [from IOM] we would have almost nothing, but we also need help rebuilding our homes and livelihoods.”

Flood incidents continue to affect provinces throughout Afghanistan. Most recently, IOM distributed assistance for 85 families (520 individuals) displaced by a flood in Koyak village, Badakhshan on 29 July.

In addition to responding to natural disasters when they occur, IOM also works with disaster-prone communities to strengthen awareness and resilience. This includes developing community disaster management plans, mapping local hazards and establishing early warning systems, as well as the construction of flood protection walls.

Twenty-one flood walls have been constructed in 14 provinces over the past two years. These walls are now protecting thousands of people, homes, livestock and crops.

Support for IOM’s natural disaster response and risk reduction activities in Afghanistan is currently provided by the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Government of Japan.

For more information, please contact Matt Graydon at IOM Kabul, Tel. +93 794 100 546, Email: mgraydon@iom.int

By Will Carter July 23, 2015

I'm an aid worker and researcher, and most of my work involves figuring out how to get to the most vulnerable persons with the right assistance, at the right time, in the right way.

In conflict zones, the most vulnerable people are usually in areas that are dangerous and remote, not necessarily in the centre of fighting, but often in areas inaccessible to state welfare and international aid. Usually this is because an armed group controls or contests the area or road, which brings challenges for front-line aid organisations attempting to reach those in need. But there are other challenges too.

In Afghanistan, ‘pockets of exclusion’ are not just geographic, they’re social as well. Widows are one such group who desperately need support. To better inform the aid community, to drive discussion, and to improve the collective response for widows’ welfare in Afghanistan, I spent a month photographing and documenting their situation, speaking with them and others about their experiences.

Read the Full article

Kabul, Afghanistan | AFP | Thursday 7/30/2015 - 14:33 GMT

by Anuj CHOPRA

The Afghan Taliban named Mullah Akhtar Mansour as their new chief Friday, a historic power transition that raises hopes a more moderate leadership will pave the way for peace talks despite divisions within insurgent ranks.

The Taliban also announced his deputies -- Sirajuddin Haqqani, who leads the Taliban-allied Haqqani network and has a $10 million US bounty on his head, and Haibatullah Akhundzada, former head of the Taliban courts.

The appointment of Mansour, seen as a pragmatist and a proponent of peace talks, comes a day after the Taliban confirmed the death of their near-mythical leader Mullah Omar, who led the fractious group for some 20 years.

The Taliban's first handover of power comes at a time when the US-led Afghan government has been trying to jumpstart talks aimed at ending the 14-year insurgency.

Mansour, a longtime trusted deputy of Omar, takes charge as the movement faces growing internal divisions and is threatened by the rise of the Islamic State group, the Middle East jihadist outfit that is making inroads in Afghanistan.

"After (Omar's) death the leadership council and Islamic scholars of the country, after long consultations, appointed his close and trusted friend and his former deputy Mullah Akhtar Mansour as the leader," the Taliban said in a Pashto-language statement posted on their website.

"When Mullah Omar was alive, Mullah Mansour was considered a trustworthy and appropriate person to take this heavy responsibility."

A Taliban official said that after the group's ruling council had chosen a successor for Omar, the decision was supposed to be ratified by a college of religious clerics.

Omar's son Mullah Yakoub was favoured to take over by some commanders, sources said, but at 26 was considered too young and inexperienced for such a key role.

Mansour, who was named the new Amir-ul-Momineen –- "commander of the faithful" -– faced staunch internal resistance from some members of the Taliban's ruling council, the Quetta Shura, who accuse Pakistan of hijacking the movement.

"Mansour is considered a man of Pakistan... and a majority of Shura members are against him," a member of the Quetta Shura told AFP from an undisclosed location in northwestern Pakistan.

"The announcement (of his leadership) was made in a hurry. Several Shura members including three founder members of the Taliban opposed him."

Mansour faces powerful rivals within the Taliban who are strongly opposed to peace talks with the Afghan government, with some insurgents also unhappy at the thought he may have deceived them for over a year about Omar's death.

"His selection will only widen the rift within the Taliban," Kabul-based military analyst Jawed Kohistani told AFP.

• 'Moderate, pro-peace, pro-talks' -

But the internal opposition is unlikely to prevent Mansour from proceeding with peace talks launched in the Pakistani hill station of Murree earlier this month.

"Mullah Mansour is one of the founders of the Taliban movement and he is a moderate, pro-peace, pro-talks person," Abdul Hakim Mujahid, a former Taliban official and a member of the Afghan High Peace Council, told AFP.

"I believe that under him the peace process will be strengthened and the Taliban will become part of political process in Afghanistan."

The confirmation of Omar's death ends years of speculation about the fate of the leader, who was not seen in public since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban from power.

Mark Toner, the US State Department's deputy spokesman, said Omar's death was "clearly a moment of opportunity and we would encourage the Taliban to use this time of opportunity to make genuine peace with the Afghan government".

His death, however, initially cast doubt on the fragile peace process aimed at ending the long war, forcing the postponement of a second round of talks that had been expected in Pakistan on Friday.

Even before Omar's death was confirmed, the Taliban distanced themselves from the negotiations, saying their political office was "not aware" of the process.

The two sides had agreed to meet again in the coming weeks, drawing international praise, and Afghan officials had pledged to press for a ceasefire in the second round.

But so far the embryonic talks have not stopped the militants pressing ahead with their summer offensive, which is shaping up to be one of the bloodiest in recent years.

The Taliban have ramped up attacks on military and government targets since the NATO combat mission ended in December.

And on the ground many Taliban commanders have openly questioned the legitimacy of the negotiators, exposing dangerous faultlines within the movement.

The split over the peace process has been worsened by the emergence of a local branch of the Islamic State group, which last year declared a "caliphate" across large areas of Iraq and Syria under its control.

The Taliban warned IS recently against expanding in the region, but this has not stopped some fighters, inspired by the group's success, from defecting.

bur-ac/kb

© 1994-2015 Agence France-Presse

Geneva, Monday 03 August 2015

1. Brief description of the emergency and impact

Since the beginning of 2015 a mass influx of asylum seekers could be noticed in Hungary. The number of asylum seekers has constantly risen from a few thousand in 2014 to approximately 83,000 until July 2015. Migrants are arriving from countries of armed conflict, deep poverty, or social unrest, like Northern and Central Africa, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Almost all of them are coming through the Balkan countries of Greece, Macedonia and Serbia. Approximately 1,500 persons per day cross the border. Government authorities are scaling up their capacities, but are unable to handle all the needs. A total of 200,000 migrants are expected to arrive in Hungary by the end of this year.

Migrants who cross the Hungarian-Serbian border are first taken to the centre in Röszke or Kiskunhalas by the police, where they are registered before being transferred to other migration and asylum facilities in Hungary. During these few hours they are given food, water and can take some rest. About 10% are under the age of 14, one third is under 18, and there are also many pregnant women among those registered. Reception centres are operating to stretched capacities of 300-400 %. Migrants on their way to the centres, or to Western European countries such as Austria, Germany, Sweden and others are staying on railway stations, parks, underpasses, trying to find some rest after long journeys.

The EU Commissioner for Migration discussed the crisis with Hungarian officials in Budapest and said: "Hungary is under pressure. We were talking so far about Italy and Greece. Now we have added Hungary.”

July 2015 – Trends

• Deteriorated situations
  Cameroon, Chad, Egypt, Kashmir, Turkey, Yemen

• Improved situations
  Colombia

August 2015 – Watchlist

• Conflict risk alerts
  Turkey, Yemen

-Conflict resolution opportunities
Iran, South Sudan

Jean-François Corty, director of humanitarian organisation Médecins du Monde, wants more to be done by Europe to help the migrants in France

Women and children are turning up in large numbers at migrant camps in Calais for the first time and authorities are not doing enough to shelter and protect them, a senior aid worker has warned.

Read the full article

Recommendations to the Security Council

Central African Republic (CAR)

The ex-Seleka coalition and associated armed groups are listed for recruitment and use, killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and attacks on schools and/or hospitals. The antiBalaka is listed for recruitment and use, killing and maiming, and rape and other forms of sexual violence.

On 28 April, the Council renewed MINUSCA’s mandate pursuant to SCR 2217 (2015). In August, the Secretary-General’s (SG) report on MINUSCA’s progress is due. The Security Council should:
In expression of concern over the continuous trend of violations, urge MINUSCA to include attacks or threats of attacks on schools in the protection of civilian assessment in determining where to send patrols;

Urge MINUSCA and the UN Country Team (UNCT) to take steps to ensure that armed groups’ 5 May 2015 commitment to release children and end child recruitment is implemented immediately, including through the signature of time-bound Action Plans with the UN; and furthermore, ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to the implementation and monitoring of Action Plans;

Urge the Transitional Authorities, in collaboration with UNICEF, to accelerate the finalization and implementation of a strategy to identify, release, and reintegrate all children associated with armed forces and groups, and support its rapid implementation; such strategy should be community-based and take into account the challenge presented by children recruited and used within their own communities; implementation of the strategy should be led by UNICEF to improve coordination and ensure that programs conform to international best practice standards, for which training of DDR actors will be necessary;

Urge Member States to significantly increase funding for child DDR, psychosocial programming and education in CAR to allow the Government, MINUSCA and the UNCT to ensure prompt release, recovery and reintegration of all children associated with armed forces and groups.
France is the lead country on CAR. Lithuania chairs the 2127 Sanctions Committee and Jordan is the Vice-Chair.

(extract)

With a cost of 56 million and 647 thousand Afs including 10% community contribution 26 public utility projects of the National Solidarity Program of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (NSP/MRRD) were recently completed in various villages of ten districts of Baghlan province.

These projects include gravelling of rural road, construction of retaining wall, community center, two suspension bridges, culverts and excavation of safe drinking water wells. Approximately, 3000 rural families have benefitted the facilities of these development projects.

KABUL 4 August 2015 - The Ministry of Public Health, WHO, UNICEF and partners celebrated World Breastfeeding Week at an event held in Kabul today to raise public awareness on the importance of breastfeeding for the health of children and mothers. World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year during the first week of August in more than 170 countries to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world.

“During the last decade Afghanistan has gained significant achievements with respect to children’s health and nutrition. However, these achievements are not enough and there is much more to be done for the improvement of health services and prosperity of the country,” said Dr Firozuddin Feroz, Minister of Public Health. “We should do our best to increase the awareness of mothers and families on the importance of breastfeeding for the health, growth and well-being of their children. We are going to work together with other relevant partners to increase public awareness in this regard.”

This year’s World Breastfeeding Week theme “Breastfeeding and Work: Let’s Make it Work” aims to support women to combine breastfeeding and work. Whether a woman is working in the formal, non-formal or home setting, it is necessary that she is empowered in claiming her and her baby’s right to breastfeed.

“Balancing work and family life is necessary for the realization of women’s rights and having a healthy workforce. Everyone benefits from enhancing mother-friendly workplaces and maternity protection,” said WHO Country Representative Dr Richard Peeperkorn. “Of all the known life-saving interventions for infants, breastfeeding has the most impact and is the most cost-effective. Exclusive breastfeeding and adequate complementary feeding are key interventions for improving child survival, reducing deaths among children under five years of age by about 20 percent.”

UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan, Akhil Iyer, noted that we can help millions of working mothers give their babies the best possible start in life by supporting stronger workplace policies that promote breastfeeding. “Apart from the benefits to the baby and mothers, there are benefits to the employers, as well, with reduced absenteeism, greater staff retention and increased staff loyalty. Working mothers who breastfeed tend to take less time off because their children are less likely to be sick; and workplaces that have accommodating policies for their working mothers have seen a drop in women quitting, which saves employers’ recruitment and training costs.”

According to the National Nutrition Survey of Afghanistan, 69 percent of Afghan children are breastfed within one hour of birth and 58 percent of children are exclusively breastfed up to six months. Every year more than 100,000 children under the age of five die, of which 48,000 lose their lives because of malnutrition. Globally every year more than 3 million children under the age of five die of malnutrition.

Breastfeeding in the first hour of birth can reduce infant and child mortality by 22 percent and exclusive breastfeeding for six months has been shown to decrease child mortality by 13 percent. Breastfeeding is the best way to provide infants with the nutrients they need. WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding starting within one hour after birth until a baby is six months old. Nutritious complementary foods should then be added while continuing to breastfeed for up to two years or beyond.

MoPH: Mohammad Ismail “Kawusi”, +93 79 288 8855, mi_kawusi@yahoo.com

WHO: Sini Ramo, +93 78 220 0354, ramos@who.int

(New York, 5 August 2015) United Nations humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien today released US$70 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for chronically underfunded aid operations to help millions of people forced from their homes by violence and instability.

“With almost 60 million people forcibly displaced around the world, we face a crisis on a scale not seen in generations,” said Stephen O’Brien, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. “These funds from CERF’s Underfunded Emergencies window will help sustain life-saving relief in some of the world’s most protracted and chronically under-funded emergencies.”

Some US$21 million from the CERF allocation will allow humanitarian partners in Sudan and Chad to sustain basic services and protection activities for millions of people from Sudan’s Darfur region where the crisis has entered its thirteenth year.

In the Horn of Africa – home to some of the most vulnerable communities facing recurrent cycles of conflict and climatic shocks – humanitarian agencies in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia will receive $33 million. In Somalia, over 730,000 people continue to require emergency food and nutrition assistance, a dire situation now further compounded by the needs of people fleeing conflict in Yemen.

US$8 million will help relief agencies provide assistance, including emergency shelter and improved access to healthcare, for neglected communities and displaced people in Myanmar and Bangladesh. Another $8 million will help sustain humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, where a lack of adequate funding has forced relief agencies to reduce their operations at a time when needs are increasing because of intensified fighting.

This second round brings the total allocations from the CERF’s Underfunded Emergencies window in 2015 to $168.5 million.

“These CERF grants are a last resort for aid operations and represent a life-line for some of world’s most vulnerable populations,” said USG O’Brien. “But the urgent needs of millions of children, women and men continue to increase and funding shortfalls deny them the aid, protection and dignity they deserve, no less than the rest of us. I urge donors to support relief efforts in these protracted and all but forgotten crises. Additional funding sources continue to be urgently needed, which we can immediately cash in to programmes with trusted partners to deliver on the ground – now!”

CERF pools donor contributions into a single fund so money is available to start or continue urgent relief work anywhere in the world. Since its inception in 2006, 125 UN Member States and dozens of private-sector donors and regional governments have contributed to the Fund. Since 2006, CERF has allocated more than US$4.1 billion to support humanitarian operations in 95 countries and territories.