IOM provides assistance to internally displaced persons, stranded migrants and third-country refugees inside Syria as well as Syrian refugees, Iraqi and Lebanese returnees and vulnerable host communities in the neighbouring countries of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.

IOM Regional Response to the Syria Crisis Situation Report - 16 May 2013

Food security levels are generally better than a year earlier in East Africa and the Sahel, with most areas facing either IPC phase 1 ‘minimal’ or phase 2 ‘stressed’ conditions, thanks to favorable agro-climatic conditions in 2012.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

• 1.5 million refugees are placing unprecedented strain on communities, infrastructure and services in host countries. Humanitarian actors are focused on alleviating the burden on host Governments and mitigating tensions between refugee and local communities.

MAFRAQ, Jordan [ACTED News] – The Zaatari refugee camp, set up more than 10 months ago to host Syrian refugees in the North of Jordan, has reached a population of approximately 120,000 persons. With support from UNICEF, ACTED has been conducting hygiene promotion activities since the camp’s opening and ACTED is constantly improving its intervention and the involvement of refugees in its daily activities.

This map illustrates satellite-detected shelters and other buildings at the Al Zaatari refugee camp in Mafraq Governorate, Jordan. As of 4 May 2013 a total of 28,243 shelters were detected as well as 1,662 infrastructure and support buildings within the 530.95 hectares of the camp. An initial analysis of the camp by UNOSAT using an image from 15 November 2012 found 5,138 shelters. This indicates that between 15 November 2012 and 4 May 2013 shelters in the camp increased by 450%.

Just before 2 a.m. and nearly half a world away, I watched a guilty verdict from Guatemala scroll by tweet by tweet on my phone. Former President Efrain Rios Montt was convicted on May 10 of genocide and crimes against humanity and given 80 years in prison. As the news came through, I felt a satisfied chill—decades after the murder of 200,000 Guatemalans and the rape of 100,000 women, mostly Mayans, justice has actually come in our lifetime.

Last September a bomb landed on a mosque in the once-gorgeous city of Aleppo in Syria. Its dome crashed into an adjacent home, where 42-year-old Mariam was preparing dinner for her nine children. The collision caused the sizzling oil on the stovetop to splatter all over then five-year-old Fatimah, who was standing in the kitchen with her mother.

The burn was so severe that if she does not undergo surgery soon, she will lose her left hand.