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August 10, 2011 | Larissa Dalton | Tagged as: Libya, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Humanitarian Response

Some headlines you may have missed from Libya, Sudan, Afghanistan and Haiti -- this is this week on the Web:

UNHCR reported on Tuesday that an estimated 74,000 people are displaced south and east of Libyan capital Tripoli because of ongoing conflict in Libya. We are glad to see that Iman al-Obeidi was moved to a UNHCR facility in Romania after being forced to leave Qatar last week. In March, al-Obedi said she was raped by troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

At the border region of Sudan-Southern Sudan, people continue to flee the South. There, aid workers face obstacles such as rainy weather, impassable roads and harassment from soldiers, according to The Guardian. UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards said on Tuesday that up to 100,000 people have been displaced in the current round of fighting.

As more than 100,000 troops prepare to pull out of Afghanistan, Sectretary of Defense Robert Gates says that the military will continue to support and train Afghan security forces. "In short, there will be no rush to the exits," Gates said. Al Jazeera's Roseliand Jordan reports on the differences between public and military opinion, and the key to long-term stability.

Lisa Armstrong of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting has been researching rape and sexual violence in Haiti and tries to hear from the men themselves. After much poking around, Armstrong arranged to meet and sat down with Pierre.

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 06/20/2011 - 03:13.

A way to finance world refugee initiatives

I suggest the whole world come together i.e.every person in the world contribute $2.00 per week gathered through the tax agencies of all countries in the world, only of course from those individuals receiving first world wages, not from those who are earning the equivalent of a bowl of rice, or those receiving less than the basic wage in their countries. We could call it a world relief of suffering tax. Consider this , even if we only have 2 billion people receiving the equivalent of first world wages, this would mean we would have collectively as a world 4billion dollars per week to use to distribute to all programmes throughtout the world that will help all people to get out of poverty. I don't suggest giving the money to governments but to approved NGO's that could put forward to the organising body, which programmes should be funded. Firstly of course we should be making sure all people of the world are fed, provided with clean water, clothed and sheltered, concurrently with this a percentage of the money collected should be alloted to funding small businesses, particularly for women, but not necessarily exclussive to women, and a small percentage should be invested in ethical businesses to increase the profit of the Relief of World Suffering organisation. Out of the money collected in each country a small percentage should be put exclussively towards the suffering in that particular country e.g. in Australia money could go to various indigenous programmes, and to those who are homeless and on the street etc. I put forward this idea as it seems a lot of the problems currently being suffered by the people of the world could be overcome with cash, of course if you personally object to contributing $2 per week you could elect not to contribute, other wise it is a deduction from your pay. Collectively we could all be billionaires, and all collectively be part of the solution to the issues of world suffering. Hunger, thrist, bad housing , no opportunities for work, education etc. are some of the reasons people become refugees, besides of course war and oppression, these issues too might be solved through better education, which also needs serious funding. I know money won't solve everything but it will certainly go a long way to getting rid of the feelings of total inadequacy being felt collectively by the world at the moment. What do you reckon?