More than 660,000 people have been displaced from their homes in conflict zones around the world since March, despite the United Nations' call for a ceasefire to combat the outbreak of the new Corona virus, according to an international relief organization yesterday, while the epidemic prompted Oxfam to reduce the number of its employees. And closing offices around the world.
In detail, the Norwegian Refugee Council confirmed that its figures show that armed conflicts continued during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite the closures imposed in most parts of the world.
This came despite the call by the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, on March 23, for a global ceasefire due to the epidemic.
The Norwegian Council reported that 661,000 people were displaced in 19 countries, most of them in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"At a time when health experts are recommending that we adhere to our homes, gunmen are forcing thousands to leave their homes to move into a situation that places them particularly vulnerable," said Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
"Not only does this harm those compelled to flee, but it also undermines our joint efforts to combat the virus," he added.
The Norwegian organization accused the UN Security Council of failing to take a leadership position in promoting peace talks.
"While people are displaced and killed, influential UN Security Council members, such as children, are quarreling in a sandpit," Egeland said.
He called on world leaders to "rise to the level of the situation" and jointly urged the warring parties to give up their weapons and unite to protect all societies from "Covid-19". "The time is not right for child custody policies," he added.
The council stated that it appealed to the members of the UN Security Council to send a "clear call" to the warring parties to stop the hostilities and "settle their differences through dialogue and allow a systematic response to the epidemic."
He explained that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone, confrontations between armed groups and the army have forced 482,000 people to flee their homes. Lake Chad also saw an increase in displacement, with Chad and Niger being the most affected, according to the council.
He added that more than 10 thousand people were displaced during the same period in Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Syria, Somalia and Burma.
In the same context, the international organization Oxfam announced that it would close 18 of its offices around the world, and reduce its workforce by a third due to the financial pressures caused by the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic.
The organization concerned with relief, development and anti-poverty said in a statement last Wednesday that the crisis forced it to accelerate its restructuring plans that had started in 2018.
Closing procedures in a number of countries forced the charitable organization to close its centers and cancel fundraising events, which negatively affected their financial resources.
The belt-tightening also follows a previous drop in donations, which began after the revelation of sexual assaults on some of the organization's Haitian staff in 2010.
Oxfam, a consortium of about 20 organizations, will close its offices in 90 countries, including Afghanistan, Haiti, Cuba and Egypt, and will cut between 1,450 and 5,000 jobs.
But the organization will maintain its presence in 48 countries.
Oxfam said rationalization would allow it to focus on countries better, as its work could have a greater impact.
"We had been planning this for a while, but now we are speeding up key decisions in light of the consequences of the global epidemic," said Chima Vera, CEO of Oxfam. He added, "This reorganization will take time to finish," noting that the organization has a "deep sense of responsibility" towards the countries concerned with the reduction.
But Vera pledged to "do our best to ensure that the people we work with are able to look to the future with confidence."
"This includes continuing work with partners and allies in countries where there will be no Oxfam offices to support social movements, and to influence governments and the private sector for positive change," he added.
In New York, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said the day before yesterday that the United States has returned at least 1,000 migrant children who have been separated from their families to Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras since the beginning of March, despite the risk of violence and discrimination that was exacerbated by the Corona pandemic. .
And UNICEF said that Mexico also returned at least 447 migrant children to Guatemala and Honduras during the same period. She warned that children who were returned by the United States to Mexico faced additional risks because of their possible HIV infection.
"(Covid-19) is making it worse," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Four. Discrimination and attacks have now been added to existing threats, such as gang violence, that initially prompted these children to leave. ”
"This means that many returning children are at double risk and at greater risk than they were in their communities when they left," she added in a statement.
UNICEF said it was making efforts throughout the region to support local child protection systems that were overburdened.
UNICEF said it has reports that communities in Guatemala and Honduras are preventing entry to returning migrants, including children, and threatening them with violence.
According to Reuters reports, Guatemala's indigenous Maya towns threatened to burn or execute the homes of some returning migrants, after tests had shown that more than 100 people who had been expelled by the United States were infected with the Coruna virus.
Oxfam will close its offices in 90 countries, and will cut between 1,450 and 5,000 jobs.