SUDAN: Southern Kordofan – A State of Ghost Towns

While humanitarian organisations try to bury the corpses scattered across Southern Kordofan, aid to the thousands of people displaced by the fighting is slow as the country's humanitarian commission has prohibited most aid organisations from working in the area.

UNICEF Leads ‘Back to School’ Initiative in Cote d’Ivoire

When the five-month-old political standoff in Cote d'Ivoire came to an end in early April, the strife-torn West African nation was expected to return to normal - later than sooner.

Mental Health Work in Humanitarian Crises

When the devastating ‘Boxing Day' tsunami hit Sri Lanka in December 2004, claiming over 35,000 lives and rendering 1.5 million people homeless, the World Health Organization (WHO) was confronted by a second disaster soon after it arrived to begin relief efforts in early January.

HAITI: Behind the Closed Doors of Port-au-Prince “Reconstruction”

Almost 17 months after the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince and three other cities, reconstruction of the capital's downtown appears stalled, and over 800,000 people still live in tents – some 30,000 of them right across from the collapsed National Palace.

Armed Conflicts Claim Unprecedented Number of Civilians

Afghanistan, once described as the graveyard of empires, is ranked number one as the country with the most "significant rise" in civilian deaths last year, turning it into a veritable killing field, according to a new report by the London-based Minority Rights Group International (MRG).

MEDIA: Uniting in the Face Of “Unnatural” Disasters

"In my opinion, there is no such thing as a natural disaster," says Sylvia Richardson, a volunteer broadcaster, mother of two, assistant librarian, and the new vice president of the North American region of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC).

Developing Nations Protest Move to Slash U.N. Budget

The Group of 77 (G77), the largest single coalition of developing countries, has issued a strong letter of protest against a proposal to cut some 155 million dollars from the U.N.'s 2012-2013 biennium budget beginning next January.

U.S.: 2011 Foreign Aid Cuts Not as Great as Feared

While the State Department's overall 2011 international affairs budget was cut sharply from President Barack Obama's initial request, humanitarian and development groups are expressing some relief at the final result given the current political climate.

U.N. Chief Proposes Budget-Cutting Austerity Drive

Armed with a sharp knife, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is on an austerity drive seeking deep cuts, amounting to about 155 million dollars, in the U.N.'s 2012-2013 budget, which comes into effect next January.

Agencies Grappling With Liberia Refugee Crisis

The yard at Peter Saye's is full: of kids, of cooking pots, of chickens, goats, and piles of belongings. Women carry firewood and stir coals, plait hair and snap at the children scampering around in the dust. There are nearly 100 refugees sheltering here from the violence across the border in Côte d'Ivoire.

U.N. Staff Killed in Afghanistan Quran Protests

Afghan officials say at least 11 people have been killed at a United Nations operational centre in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif when protests over the burning of the Quran by an American preacher turned violent.

Women Turn Spotlight on Haiti’s Silent Rape Epidemic

Some 14 months after Haiti's earthquake, activists say there is an ongoing epidemic of rape and gender-based violence (GBV) in the country's more than 1,000 squalid displaced persons camps, where nearly a million people are still awaiting permanent housing.

LIBERIA-COTE D’IVOIRE: Border Villages Sharing the Little They Have

This Butuo man only knows one phrase in French: Viens manger. Come eat. That's what they said to him years ago, when he was one of hundreds of thousands who fled to Côte d'Ivoire to escape the brutal 14-year civil war in Liberia.

U.N. Body Authorises Military Intervention in Libya

As Libyan leader Muammar el-Gaddafi's fighter planes and helicopters continue to mercilessly pound civilians and rebel groups inside Libya, the U.N.'s most powerful political body voted to militarily intervene in the besieged North African country in an attempt to prevent and neutralise the attacks.

Japan Nuke Disaster Could Be Worse Than Chernobyl

A global nuclear disaster potentially worse than Chernobyl may be under way in Japan as hundreds of tonnes of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel are open to the sky, and may be on fire and emitting radioactive particles into the atmosphere.

BANGLADESH-LIBYA: Garment Industry Pledges to Employ Evacuated Labourers

Bangladesh's garment factories and overseas recruiting agencies have pledged to employ a substantial number of Bangladeshi expatriates returning from politically volatile Libya, following the violent crackdown on opposition forces by Muammar Gaddafi's regime there.

Japan Races to Cool Stricken Reactors

Workers battling to contain the crisis at Japan's quake- stricken Fukushima nuclear plant were briefly moved to a bunker because of a rise in radiation levels, local media have reported.

Aid Agencies Rush to Japan’s Humanitarian Front

Day five of Japan's post-earthquake, post-tsunami life dawned dismally Tuesday, with soaring radiation levels from the Fukushima Daiichi power plants and a relentlessly rising death toll in the four worst-affected prefectures.

U.S. Nuke Plant Safety Questioned in Wake of Japanese Disaster

As Japan continues to battle the threat of nuclear meltdown in the wake of Friday's devastating earthquake, lawmakers, environmental activists and the nuclear industry in the United States are squaring up for a heated contest over the future of atomic energy in this country.

Second Blast at Japan Nuclear Plant

A second explosion has rocked Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex, sending a plume of smoke into the air and touching off fresh concerns of a radioactive leak in the quake and tsunami-hit country.

Q&A: Needing Surgery Shouldn’t Be a Death Sentence

Surgery saves the lives of millions of people around the world, but only a tiny percentage of them live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where a shortage of skills, supplies and infrastructure can turn easily treatable accidents and illnesses into lifelong disabilities and even death.