SOMALIA: “Children on the Verge of Death Left Behind to Save Those Who Had a Chance”

Tens of thousands of starving Somalis have made their way to the government- held part of Mogadishu in search of food, but many parents have made the anguished decision to leave a child too weak to make the journey behind in hope of saving the others.

Eleven Million at Risk in Horn of Africa

"I have never seen anything like it. Many mothers have lost three or four children. It's a tragedy out here," Austin Kennan, regional director for the Horn of Africa for Concern Worldwide, told IPS from within the crisis zone.

EAST AFRICA: Millions Stare Death in the Face Amidst Ravaging Drought

While Kenya struggles to cope with the influx of refuges fleeing the drought in Somalia, it is estimated that about 1,300 people arrive daily at the Dadaab refugee camp, the country is facing its own crisis of malnutrition and starvation.

Somalia to Dadaab: The Journey from Hell

The lorry sways slowly from side to side along a dirt track as it ambles towards its place of rest. The red straw bags, clothes and empty yellow water bottles tied to the rear end of the open cargo hold tower above the pensive faces peering over colourfully painted steel panels.

U.S. Warns of Dark Path Ahead Without Cooperation in Sudan

As South Sudan was admitted as the 193rd member of the United Nations on Thursday, officials in Washington said the hard work in the fragile new country has just begun.

OP-ED: Foreign Policy Goes Gaga

Lady Gaga and Alice Walker don't have much in common. One dresses in red meat; the other doesn't even eat the stuff. One writes lyrics like "I want your ugly, I want your disease, I want your everything as long as it's free." The other writes "The Color Purple".

UN: Somalia Is ‘Worst Humanitarian Disaster’

The head of the United Nations refugee agency has described the situation in drought-hit Somalia as the "worst humanitarian disaster" in the world, after meeting with those affected at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya.

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.