Briefs
FrontLines - March 2010
Chile Recovering
from Massive
Quake, Tsunami
The powerful 8.8 magnitude
earthquake and the
resulting tsunami that struck
Chile Feb. 27 have left about
500 dead and 500,000 in
need of emergency housing.
USAID has given $10 million
in assistance, including
satellite phones to restore
communications, water treatment
units, and some relief
supplies. The aid includes
$8.6 million for a U.S. Air
Force emergency health unit
that began operating March 9.
Haiti, struck by a 7.0 quake
Jan. 12 that killed close to
250,000 people, is the poorest
country in Latin America and
the focus of a massive international
relief effort. Chile,
which had a much smaller loss
of life, is one of the wealthiest
countries in the region and has
significant capacity to care for
its stricken regions on its own.
The Chilean government,
which was planning to provide
temporary housing for
the homeless, reported
March 8 it would need to
spend $4.8 billion in reconstruction
of bridges, hospitals,
roads, and ports.
Looting in quake-hit areas
ended after Chile’s army
restored control in Concepcion
and other cities.
Haiti Director Dei
Tells of Quake
Relief
When the earthquake
struck Haiti Jan. 12, USAID’s
Haiti director, Carleene Dei,
had just taken over as head of
130 people working to assist
the Western Hemisphere’s poorest
country.
The number of U.S. government
employees ballooned to
600 as rescue teams and relief
workers raced in. Two months
later, Dei told FrontLines, many
of the rescue workers were gone,
as were some of her own team.
“We are trying to recruit people
we lost,” said Dei. “We have
12 vacancies.”
Dei works with the Office of
the Response Coordinator led by
Ambassador Lewis Lucke who
was assigned to coordinate “a
huge presence” of U.S. assistance
workers from the military,
the Disaster Assistance Response
Team, the mission, and other
U.S. agencies, she said.
“We are doing anything you
can imagine,” she said. “We
started with water and fuel and
getting the port and airport functioning.
Then road clearance and
food distribution. Emergency
medical care—trauma, operations,
mostly orthopedic.
“We have a massive health
program—all NGOs. It was primary
health care and AIDS
before the quake.”
Some U.S. and other emergency
teams are still there. Haitians
also are getting care at
hospitals that were upgraded by
U.S. assistance such as a University
of Florida medical unit
by the airport. A number of
NGOs also upgraded and
expanded services using private
donations by U.S. citizens. And
departing relief medical teams
left behind surgical equipment
and supplies.
The Obama administration
was expected to ask Congress
for supplemental funding to continue
the relief work, build shelters
before the May rains begin,
and begin reconstruction.
The U.S. government had
spent $755 million as of March
12, of which $470 million was
spent by USAID and the rest by
the U.S. military.
Nepal Forms Security
Force with
Ex-combatants
The Nepal Cabinet agreed
March 2 to form a new national
security force, the National
Forest Conservation Corps,
which could accommodate
up to 6,000 of the 19,602
Maoist ex-combatants living in
cantonments since 2007.
The idea for the Corps—
which would be mobilized
for wildlife protection and
conservation in and around
Nepal’s National Parks—was
developed in discussions
between USAID’s director in
Nepal, Dr. Kevin A. Rushing,
and Minister of Forest and Soil
Conservation Dipak Bohara,
The People’s Liberation
Army combatants (Maoists) will
leave the cantonments and serve
in constructive activities. They
have been in the cantonments
since a 2006 peace agreement
ended a 10-year insurgency.
Clinton Says
Honduras Aid
to Resume
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica—
Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton said March 3
that U.S. aid to Honduras that
had been suspended after a coup
last year would be restored, the
Associated Press reported.
At a regional meeting in
Costa Rica, Clinton urged Latin
American leaders to recognize
the new Honduran government
which was elected to replace
one installed by a coup. She
called for Honduras to be readmitted
into the Organization
of American States and said she had notified Congress that
U.S. aid to Honduras would be
restored.
Somalia Militants
Ban Aid Group
Somalia’s main militant
group ordered aid workers from
the U.N. World Food Program
(WFP) to leave the country,
CNN reported March 1.
The militant Al-Shabaab
group released a statement Feb.
28 accusing WFP of distributing
expired food and undermining
local farmers, said Peter
Smerdon, a WFP spokesman.
The United Nations says
about half the population—or
nearly 4 million Somalis—is
starving. The United States is
the principal supplier of food to
the WFP, which had suspended
work in southern Somalia in
January, saying rising attacks
and unacceptable demands
from armed groups had made
it impossible to work in the
region.
The group continues to
deliver food to other parts of the
country, including the volatile
capital, Mogadishu.
Thousands Flee
Nigeria After Attacks
JOS, Nigeria—Nearly 3,000
people fled Plateau state for
neighboring Bauchi state after
at least 200 people, mainly
Christians, were slaughtered
over the March 6 weekend, aid
officials said, according to the
Associated Press.
In January, more than 300
people were killed, most of
them Muslims. Nigeria is almost
evenly split between Muslims in
the north and the predominantly
Christian south. Thousands
have perished in Africa’s most
populous country in the last
decade due to religious and
political frictions.
Global Foreign Aid
Hits $107B but
Falls Short
Many of the world’s rich
donor countries will fail to keep
promises they made five years
ago to increase assistance to the
developing world, according
to a new analysis by the
official organization charged
with monitoring aid—the
Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development
(OECD)—reported the
Financial Times Feb. 16.
The group said that its rich
member countries will give
$107 billion in aid this year,
measured in 2004 dollars.
But promises made in 2005
at the Gleneagles summit of
the Group of Eight countries
implied a pledge of almost
$130 billion by this time.
The United States, Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand
appear on track to meet their
various targets. But France,
Germany, Austria, Portugal,
Greece, Italy, and Japan seem
likely to fall well short, the
OECD said.
130,000 in
Mozambique Flee
Flooding
MAPUTO, Mozambique—
Mozambican authorities say
about 800 people are trapped
by rising floodwaters and in
need of rescue, the Associated
Press reported March 11.
Three districts in the central
Zambezi valley have been cut
off due to worsening floods.
The government is evacuating
approximately 130,000
people living on the banks of
three main rivers in central
Mozambique, after the flood
alert level was raised to “red.”
From news reports and other
sources.
★
FrontLines is published
by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
To have FrontLines delivered
to you via postal mail, please subscribe.
Material should be submitted
by mail to Editor, FrontLines, USAID,
RRB, Suite 6.10, Washington, DC 20523-6100;
by FAX to 202-216-3035; or by e-mail to frontlines@usaid.gov
To view PDF files, download
the Adobe
Acrobat Reader.
Back to Top ^
|
