United Nations: A United Nations mission has recommended that humanitarian workers
be allowed to start operations in Umm Qasr after it carried out a security
assessment of the Southern Iraqi port earlier this week.
Secretary General Kofi had withdrawn all humanitarian workers from Iraq ahead of the
military action but limited aid was being provided with the help of local
staff.
Deputy Secretary General Lousie Frechette told the Security Council on April 3 that
about 3,000 UN national staff is doing its best to provide assistance to
Iraqis.
The members of the Council later expressed concern over the difficulty in reaching
relief to needy people in a country where 60 per cent of the population depends
entirely on food aid.
Frechette told the Council that while there isn't a critical situation at present,
there still remains the danger of so. In a closed-door briefing to the Council, she
said there had been firm indications or pledges of some $ 1.2 billion
in response to the $ 2.2 billion emergency appeal launched last week by the UN, the
world body's spokesman said.
Frechette noted there were water and electricity shortages in cities, including in
Basra where shortages were upto 50 per cent, and Baghdad, spokesman Fred Eckhard
said.
She also told the Council that water and sanitation supplies, including water
treatment and hygiene items, are needed. Disruption of potable water supplies
increased the likelihood of epidemics, and medicine was required to treat them.
Hospitals were starting to run out of certain supplies.
PTI
