CRS: Humanitarian crisis spiraling out of control

Social justice news
August 2006

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CRS: Humanitarian crisis spiraling out of control
July 27, 2006, Baltimore, MD—Catholic Relief Services and its local partner, Caritas Lebanon, warn of a major humanitarian crisis in the hardest hit areas of Lebanon if life-saving relief supplies do not reach those in need by the end of this week. The organizations continue to urge the immediate cessation of hostilities, the lifting of the siege on the Lebanese people, and the establishment of a humanitarian corridor that would provide unfettered, safe access for the delivery of vitally needed assistance.

CRS and Caritas Lebanon have nearly 100 staff on the ground in Beirut, as well as 7,000 Lebanese volunteers working throughout the country to provide aid from 36 field offices.

The stocks of basic food and relief items such as medicines are rapidly dwindling. What remains available can only be found at greatly inflated prices. The supply of fuel is also becoming more and more of a problem. This will in itself pose a great challenge for the delivery of needed humanitarian aid if the siege of cities and towns should soon be lifted and safe passage of aid is assured. Two weeks of intensive bombing of roads and bridges further complicates the delivery of assistance to those who need it.

"Right now, this man-made humanitarian crisis is spiraling out of control," says Mark Schnellbaecher, CRS Regional Director for the Middle East, who has lived in Beirut for the last two years. "An eagerly anticipated cease-fire has not happened and no solution to the crisis has been found. Almost one quarter of Lebanon's four million people are now directly and personally affected by this conflict, either driven from their homes or trapped in them."

The situation is particularly acute in Lebanon's third largest city of Saida (Sidon), where CRS is providing displaced families with food staples, diapers, medicine, as well as cleaning supplies and blankets. Residents and the many internally displaced people who fled from the south are cut off from supplies and escape routes because access roads have been destroyed by Israeli bombing. Approximately 1,117 families have been displaced to public buildings in Saida, joining the already besieged population there, while another 400 families are being hosted in the homes of Saida residents. The internally displaced population in Saida recently jumped from 25,000 to 42,000.

Caritas Lebanon yesterday reported that the number of people it is helping in temporary shelters throughout the country has tripled to 70,000, and the organization signalled that as those numbers continue to rise, it is becoming increasingly difficult to bring adequate care to those in need, as services and infrastructure are under enormous pressure.

More than one Caritas team has indicated problems with water distribution, as the supply of water in certain centers is not sufficient for the increased need. Sanitary conditions are rapidly deteriorating at these centers. There is also a simple lack of space to house the hundreds of thousands who have been displaced by the bombing of their cities and towns.

"In each Caritas geographical sector, volunteers are trying to find new places where people can find some sort of refuge, even for small groups, as there is a severe lack of places to house people," states Schnellbaecher. "It is very fortunate that so many Lebanese families in safer parts of the country have opened their homes to displaced people."

CRS and its partners are participating in two emergency appeals totaling $8 million. This will be used to support displaced families in southern Lebanon and also Gaza. CRS has already committed $1 million in private emergency funds to this appeal to meet the increasing humanitarian needs arising from the upsurge of violence in Lebanon and the occupied territories.

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