Problem

Lucky delivery: A south Sudan refugee mother takes a meal after successfully delivering her newborn at Nzjaipi health center III. A number of expecting mothers in limbo due to inadequate health facilities at refugee transit and sattlement sites in Adjumani.  Charles Akena/IRIN

irinnews.org

GULU-NAIROBI, 27 January 2014 (IRIN) - Disease burden is growing among people who fled their homes following the outbreak of conflict in South Sudan.

The mid-December eruption of fighting between army forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those supporting former vice-president Riek Machar has adversely impacted the already weak health system.

“Even before this crisis, South Sudan’s health system was extremely fragile - 80 percent of the health services were provided by international organizations," Raphael Gorgeu, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) head of mission for South Sudan, told IRIN in an email. “So for MSF, the current conflict exacerbates an already dire situation.”

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worldbank.org - Habiba Gitay / Sofia Bettencourt
January 10, 2014

Typhoon Haiyan, the Category 5 super storm that devastated parts of the Philippines and killed thousands late last year, continues to remind us, tragically, of how vulnerable we are to weather-related disasters.

As the images of destruction and desperation continue to circle the globe, we’re also reminded that those most at risk when natural disaster strikes are the world’s poor – people who have little money to help them recover and who lack food security, access to clean water, sanitation and health services.

Over the last year, as one major extreme weather event after another wreaked havoc and claimed lives in the developing world, terms such as "resilience" and "loss and damage" have become part and parcel of our efforts here at the World Bank Group – and for good reason.

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voanews.com - by Jeff Seldin - January 22, 2014

WASHINGTON — The Washington-based group Freedom House said the cause of freedom around the globe took another hit in 2013, as the group released its Freedom in the World 2014 report Thursday. The authors warned of serious setbacks in some of the world’s more influential countries.

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CLICK HERE - Report - Freedom in the World 2014

A resident stands on the roof of his home that is submerged in heavy flooding brought by tropical depression ''Agaton'', in Butuan city on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao January 21, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Erik De Castro

reuters.com - by Erik de Castro - January 21, 2014

(Reuters) - Emergency workers evacuated thousands of people across the southern Philippines on Tuesday, including many already made homeless by a typhoon in November, after three days of rain flooded towns and farmland.

Hundreds of survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall, were forced to flee by tropical depression "Agaton" after emergency shelters were damaged or destroyed on the eastern central island of Samar.

Tents collapsed under the weight of the rain and emergency plastic sheets have been torn away, humanitarian agency Oxfam said.

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