| UN News Center - New York | 
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July 20, 2011, Mogadishu, Somalia - Women rush to a feeding center after the soldiers of the Transitional Federal Government could not contain the crowd in Badbado, a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IPDs). Famine has been declared in two regions of southern Somalia - southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle. The United Nations indicates that 3.7 million people across the country, that's nearly half of the Somali population, are now in crisis and in urgent need of assistance.
UN Photo/Stuart Price
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Number of famine-displaced Somalis seeking aid in Mogadishu swells to 100,000
Up to 100,000 internally displaced people have arrived in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, over the last two months in search of food, water, shelter and other vital humanitarian assistance after fleeing famine-hit areas, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.  Severe drought has plunged communities in the southern region of Somalia into famine and sent thousands fleeing both to Mogadishu and to neighboring Ethiopia and Kenya.
UN World Food Programme (WFP) airlifts to Somalia will bring, among other supplies, ready-to-use therapeutic food destined specifically for severely malnourished children. To enable people to carry the food and water they are able to obtain, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it will begin distributing 4,000 assistance packages for 24,000 people in the coming week, including jerry cans, buckets, pots, plates, bowls, cups and other utensils. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has launched, along with the Kenyan Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO), a vaccination campaign targeting more than 200,000 children. The UN and partner aid agencies are seeking approximately $1.6 billion in aid to assist millions affected by the crisis in Somalia and the wider Horn of Africa region. Read more
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UN report calls for prosecution of perpetrators of mass rape in DR Congo
A United Nations investigation into mass rapes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) seven months ago identifies the rapists as Congolese army soldiers, demands their prosecution and asks the government to protect the victims from reprisals from the perpetrators.  | |
Rape victims receive treatment at the Panzi hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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The probe by the UN mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says of the incidents in the villages of Bushani and Kalambahiro in North Kivu province in the country's east that it "can confirm that men in uniform identified by various sources as soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) submitted 47 women, including one minor, to sexual violence, including rape, abducted two civilians, and inflicted cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment on 12 other civilians." The report highlights what it called the lack of significant progress of judicial investigations into the incidents, which were initiated by Congolese authorities with the support of MONUSCO, and said this was due to the limited resources available to the Congolese justice system and to the lack of clear information from the FARDC. Read more
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UN relief chief sounds alarm over dwindling aid stocks in Southern Kordofan
The United Nations humanitarian chief has voiced concern at the dwindling stocks of aid for people caught up in the recent fighting engulfing Sudan's region of Southern Kordofan, warning the consequences will be grave unless aid workers are allowed in to replenish supplies.
 "Children, elderly people and mothers risk hunger," said Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, in a statement.
Thousands of people have been displaced from their homes and an unknown number of others killed since fighting erupted in early June between Sudanese government forces and those of the northern wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, which fought the long-running civil war that ended in 2005.
"Humanitarian partners, who were in these areas before the conflict erupted, have distributed emergency aid including food and basic medicines to over 70,000 people in mountainous areas of Southern Kordofan state," Amos said.
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Norway: Security Council deplores deadly terrorist attacks
 Security Council members have strongly condemned the twin terrorist attacks in Norway that have killed more than 90 people, including many young people, and left numerous others injured.
In a statement on July 23, the Council deplored the attacks and voiced its deep sympathies for the victims and their families, and to both the people and government of Norway.
"The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed," the statement stressed.
The statement echoes the comments made by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who also condemned the attacks and expressed his condolences.
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UN mission to Tripoli finds areas in urgent need of humanitarian aid United Nations humanitarian agencies said that they have identified areas of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, where residents urgently need humanitarian assistance, including medical treatment for injuries caused by the ongoing conflict in the North African country.  "Although the mission observed aspects of normalcy in Tripoli, members identified pockets of vulnerability where people need urgent humanitarian assistance," said the acting UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya, Laurence Hart, on July 25 following the conclusion of the mission.
The assessment mission, the fourth to Tripoli since the beginning of the crisis, was intended to further look into the needs of internally displaced persons and other vulnerable groups, and to ensure that they received assistance. The mission also assessed the humanitarian impact of the conflict on civilians. The health sector is under strain, having lost thousands of foreign workers at the beginning of the conflict, according to the press release issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Medical supplies, including vaccines, are rapidly running low, and the mission received reports of heavy psychosocial impact of the conflict, mainly on children and women. Read more
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Week in Review
UNAMID Organizes DDR Outreach Activity in North Darfur
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MINUSTAH Conducts Emergency Response Training Exercise
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July 21, 2011, Gressier, Haiti - A simulated injured victim is assisted by UN peacekeepers of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) during the emergency response training exercise. UN Photo/Victoria Hazou
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