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Tag ‘internally displaced persons’

In Doolow, South Somalia

Sunday, July 24th, 2011


Doolow is the last stop for Somalis running from hunger and conflict to neighbouring Ethiopia. The local community is itself hard-hit by the drought. What I saw there was grim but I also took some positive notes from my visit.

The first encouraging sign was the local chieftain sitting down with our partner organisation Coopi and taking an active part in the process of distributing food supplies to fellow Somalis arriving from the worst-hit regions of their country. Read the full entry

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Hospitality over guns – part 2: Hosted by the rebels

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

I brought back many stories from Yemen, but this is a scene I will never forget. We are together with High Commissioner Guterres, facing the senior Al Houthi rebel commanders in the house of a local sheikh. Young boys with stern faces and big guns sit in the back of the room, but their presence soon fades in the background as hospitality radiates from every word and every gesture of our Houthi hosts.

We came here, to the outskirts of Sa’ada, just beyond the checkpoint that marks the entry into Houthi-controlled territory, to appeal for access of humanitarian workers to the internally displaced and other affected Yemeni who live there. Read the full entry

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Travelling to the razor edge

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

My first trip in 2011 is to Yemen, a weak link in a belt of fragile states that spans from Pakistan and Afghanistan to Sudan and Somalia. As I arrived here, the first news that hit was of the kidnapping of three Bulgarians in Darfur – a stark reminder of the problems these countries present.

I arrived in Yemen together with Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for refugees, because we both believe the country deserves much more attention than it receives. Long gone are the days when people came to Yemen because of its incredible historic heritage – traced back to 1,000 years BC. Today, the only window through which the world looks at Yemen, is terrorism. Read the full entry

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