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Situation still dire as malnutrition and death rates remain high

In September 2011, Cambodia experienced its worst flooding in more than a decade. Over 1.7 million people were affected; about 50,000 households were forced to flee the rising waters and 247 people lost their lives.

The flooding also contaminated safe drinking water supplies, leaving families at high risk of severe diarrhoea and other diseases. Simultaneously, in many areas health centres were flooded, exacerbating the spread of disease.

The tide of water also destroyed the rice crops of many small-scale and subsistence farmers, who rely on their fields for survival.

Media Release for Thursday 15th March 2012

Campaigners around the world will today (Thursday 15th March) mark one year of violence in Syria by calling on Russia to back UN Security Council action to end the crisis.

Christian Aid has sent £20,000 to help provide food and shelter for thousands of Burmese refugees made homeless after fire swept through their camp on Friday.

The blaze at Umpiem Mai camp, Tak Province, Thailand destroyed 350 homes, two mosques and two primary schools.

Sally Thompson, Deputy Director of the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), a Christian Aid partner organisation, said a third of the camp was destroyed.

‘Some 2,500 refugees lost everything, including their monthly food ration that had been distributed just a day earlier,’ she said.

Christian Aid is responding quickly to assist those living in the stricken Sahel region as more than seven million people across five west African countries face the spectre of famine within months.

Niger, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania are all facing a chronic malnutrition crisis but the prospect of a full-blown emergency has prompted the governments of all five countries to declare states of emergency.

With seven million people across five west African countries facing the spectre of famine within months, Christian Aid is stepping up its early response plans to assist those living in the stricken Sahel region.

Niger, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania all facing a chronic malnutrition crises but the prospect of a full-blown emergency has prompted the governments of all five countries to declare states of emergency and call for international assistance.

Christian Aid has released £50,000 to partner organisations in India after more than 6000 Indian villagers were forced from their homes and 48 were killed by Cyclone Thane.

The storm swept through the east-Indian coastal state of Tamil Nadu on December 30 uprooting trees, destroying roads and buildings and bringing down power lines.