Pakistan flood victims’ anger hurting aid effort, says ICRC
A girl who is a flood victim stands in a line as she waits to receive an evening meal at a relief camp in Nowshera in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday. (Reuters)
Published: Sep 3, 2010 00:45 Updated: Sep 3, 2010 00:59
GENEVA: Desperate Pakistani flood victims have at times turned aggressive toward relief workers, hampering the already-struggling aid effort in the country, a top official with the international Red Cross said Thursday.
Jacques de Maio, head of operations for South Asia at the International Committee of the Red Cross, said aid workers have had to abandon distribution of relief goods twice in the past eight days after being confronted by angry mobs.
“We have detected this trend where we reach areas where the people are so in need, so resentful of not getting enough aid, that they turn understandably aggressive,” de Maio told reporters in Geneva.
He told of a “sense of urgency, and a sense of anxiety and disarray” among flood victims that was partly caused by resentment whipped up by anti-Western militants and negative media reports.
The floods have swamped wide swathes of Pakistan and left 8 million people in need of aid. The ICRC, helped by local Pakistan Red Crescent volunteers, said by mid-October it hopes to reach 1.4 million among the worst hit by the floods.
De Maio said there was a false perception that aid isn’t getting through, though he acknowledged that needs still far outstrip supply.
Still, the neutral group, which operates in disaster and conflict zones around the world, has so far stayed away from some regions controlled by anti-government militants because of concerns about staff safety.
“There are huge parts of areas where we would like to work, where we cannot go precisely because these safety requirements are not met,” he said.
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ALAWI FRANCIS
Sep 3, 2010 23:22
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