Publications: Disabled Refugees, Donors, Humanitarian Assistance/Yemen, Refugees/Egypt & Israel, Security/Somalia, UN Human Rights via Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog
Fatal Insecurity: Attacks on Aid Workers and Rights Defenders in Somalia (Amnesty International, Nov. 2008) [text]
- Available in English and French.
Humanitarian Response Index 2008 (Development Assistance Research Associates, Nov. 2008) [access]
- Overview and summaries available.
Invisible Civilians: The Challenge of Humanitarian Access in Yemen’s Forgotten War (HRW, Nov. 2008) [text]...
Some people trying to flee the war and poverty in Somalia and Ethiopia did not make it out with their lives. The aid agency Medicins Sans Frontieres say 60 corpses have washed onto a Yemen beach in recent days.The people who try to flee, sell all they have to smugglers to give them passage out of the country. If the smugglers fear that they are about to get caught, they spill the people overboard. As this Reuters story from News Australia reports, the smuggling route across the gulf of Arden is a very dangerous one. November 3rd, News AustraliaIn one of two incidents that caused the deaths, smugglers tipped the refugees into the sea at night after noticing lights on land and fearing they would be spotted by the coastguard, MSF quoted survivors as saying."They forced us into the sea, even... 
from the BBC Twenty-nine bodies have been found washed up on the beaches of Yemen, Medecins Sans Frontieres says.The medical charity says the people died attempting to cross the sea from Somalia in an effort to escape the country's extreme poverty and warfare.Survivors said the smugglers who transported them stopped the boats off the Yemeni coast and forced them to swim to the shore at gunpoint.On Tuesday, the UN warned that the number of Somalis fleeing was rising.The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said that 59 boats brought more than 1,700 people to Yemen last month - almost triple the number for the same period last year.So far this year, the agency says more than 24,000 people have made the perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden.'Children overboard'According to a 23-year-old Somali... 
from the Yemen Times This profiles the widowed in the country of Yemen. Widows in that country face a tough challenge as many have lack of skills or may be illiterate. - KaleEvery day is a challenge for Jamila, a 45-year-old Yemeni widow who lives with her five children and her elderly sick parents in a very small room on Siteen Street in Sana’a.Rarely eating three meals a day, the entire family lives in extremely poor sanitation conditions. Jamila has made one corner of the room a bathroom while the other serves as a makeshift kitchen with a small kerosene stove and a few plates.The occasional aid (food or clothing) she receives from neighbors or local charity organizations is never enough. She forced her three children to leave school to work as shoemakers, while she works as house... 
from The Seattle Times By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDYMore than 20,000 Africans have crossed the Gulf of Aden to Yemen this year, paying brutal smugglers who cram them into boats and often throw the weakest overboard, an aid group said Thursday.The number of migrants who reached Yemen has doubled from the same period last year, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders. About 400 migrants have been confirmed dead or missing through the end of May."Smugglers operating in the Gulf of Aden are notorious for their brutality and take advantage of the extreme vulnerability of the refugees and migrants," the group said in a report. "Abuses are the rule, not the exception."Migrants from the Horn of Africa - particularly from Somalia, where ongoing violence has killed... 
from Saba NetYemen and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed on Wednesday three project documents. One of these projects will be implemented at the national level, while the other two will be implemented at the regional level.According to UNDP's press release, the three project documents were signed by Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Abdul-Karim al-Arhani and UNDP Yemen Resident Representative Dr. Selva Ramachandran who was quoted as saying: "it is time to move towards building an even more concrete partnership with our counterparts in the Republic of Yemen. Signing these three documents is a major step forward towards scaling up of activities to assist Yemen to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)".The first project document is entitled:... 
from Reuters Alert Net The UN World Food Programme (WFP) office in Yemen has said food price hikes have increased the number of people living below a US$2-a-day poverty line, and hampered achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).Mohammed el-Kouhene, a WFP representative in Yemen, told IRIN that over the past three months an estimated 6 percent of Yemenis had dropped below the poverty line as a result of price hikes and drought."It is very difficult to give an up-to-date figure. The situation is certainly worse than what was mentioned three months ago, not only because of food price rises but also drought... especially in rural areas. We need to have assessments done to find out what the real situation is on the ground," he said.El-Kouhene said the price hikes resulted in a... 
from the Yemen Timesrecent proliferation of malaria is threatening nine districts in Hajjah governorate with a combined population of nearly 590,000. Most of those infected are children, pregnant women and the elderly. Even worse, these nine districts are suffering a medical supply shortage.Bani Qais and Aslam are two of the most malaria-affected districts, followed by Khubran, Aflah Al-Sham, Qufl Shamar, Abs, Mustaba, Kashur and Kuaidina. According to the 2004 general census, these districts are densely populated.“Malaria is spreading in Hajjah. We’re usually able to discover infected cases year-round. The disease is responsible for numerous deaths, particularly in areas with harsh topography where citizens have no easy access to hospitals or health care facilities," noted Taha Yahya... 
from the International Herald TribuneSANAA: Ali Abdu, a slim boy of 14, just wants to go home to his family in the Yemeni mountains. His dream of making money in Saudi Arabia ended in a hospital bed."First I worked as a goatherd, then in a car-wash for three months. Then I was hit by a car and spent 29 days in hospital," he mutters. "After that I gave myself up so I could come back."Abdu is one of thousands of children, mostly boys, who U.N. officials say are trafficked from impoverished Yemeni villages to Saudi Arabia and other rich Gulf countries to work illegally as beggars, camel jockeys, domestic servants or labourers.The murky cross-border business is run by gangs who recruit boys directly from their families or from the army of child workers already seeking survival on Yemeni city... 
from The Yemen TimesAlmigdad Dahesh Mojalli Dahesh95@yahoo.comAlthough Yemen is on track to meet the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal of universal primary school enrollment, more work still must be done to keep Yemeni children in school after they enroll.As of 2006, 75 percent of Yemeni children were enrolled in primary school, according to UNICEF’s December 2007 Children’s Progress report.Over the past few years, Yemen’s Education Ministry has constructed as many schools as possible nationwide. As Education Minister Abdulsalam Al-Jawfi explains, “The number of schools built annually increased from 200 to 1,200. There are 16,000 schools in Yemen, 80 percent of which contain primary education classes.”However, according to the minister, the dropout rate increased 10... 
from The Yemen TimesSANA’A, Jan. 23 — The World Bank presented its 2008 World Development Report on Wednesday, which featured plans for more investment in the agriculture sector of Yemen’s economy.This year’s world development report and subsequent presentation focused on agriculture’s role in relieving poverty. It explained that though 75 percent of the world’s poor live in agriculturally-based developing countries, only 4 percent of international aid goes to agriculture.On a national level, 84 percent of Yemen’s citizens are impoverished rural-dwellers, and 52 percent of rural households in Yemen live by subsistence farming, meaning they grow only enough food for their own consumption, according to the report.Alain de Janvry of the University of California at Berkeley, a... 
from The Yemen ObserverWritten By: Eman al-JaradyHadheah, a woman in her seventies, is used to begging on the streets for money to support her children. Divorced while pregnant with her fifth child, she was left to raise her children without help from their father or her extended family. “When we got divorced, the father refused to take responsibility for the children, so I was forced to take care of them which caused a lot of problems for me,” she said. Hadheah’s family also refused to be of any assistance. To make things more difficult, she has no formal education, making it difficult for her to find work. “I knocked at different doors, but no one cared. So I found myself in the streets begging and saving money for my children. It was especially difficult for me to beg in the... 
from the Yemen TimesFatima Al-Ajel fatimafnfr@yahoo.comDespite the fact that they live in a conservative society that considers marriage one of its main priorities, many Yemeni men over the age of 27 delay marriage indefinitely, for which there are many reasons within Yemeni society.Fahed Omer, an educated 30-year-old man, lives in a tribal community where the marriage age is very young. However, like many youth in his neighborhood, Omer can’t marry due to his poor economic situation and the expense of the marriage requirements, which forces many youths to delay marriage.Essentially, poverty and inability to provide material goods are the main reasons increasing the marriage age for Yemeni men, who already have begun thinking about the huge requirements of marriage – both before and...