Attachments
As the use of explosive weapons in populated areas continues in conflict throughout the world, the dire humanitarian needs of civilians in these contexts are becoming clearer by the day. In Gaza, experts say that as many as 1.1 million people could face severe levels of starvation, death, destitution and acute malnutrition in the coming months. Civilians displaced by conflict in Sudan, spread across Ethiopia, South Sudan and elsewhere, are also facing severe hunger.
Food insecurity is but one reverberating effect of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. This issue of Fragments explores another – the long-term impacts of the devastation of healthcare services. In the case of Mosul, Iraq, where one of the deadliest and most destructive urban battles since the Second World War was waged between October 2016 and July 2017 – civilians still face diminished healthcare capacity and access to care despite seven years of efforts to rebuild healthcare infrastructure damaged and destroyed by the use of explosive weapons.
The use and impact of explosive weapons in conflict puts extra pressure on the healthcare sector at a time when the need for it is the greatest. While weapons-related injuries increase the need for healthcare, damage and destruction of infrastructure also reduces the sector’s capacity to provide it. This issue of Fragments explores how, during these times of diminished capacity, stakeholders working within the framework of the Political Declaration, in collaboration with health actors in conflict, can work in collaboration to ensure that all possible steps are taken to mitigate preventable death and impairment among civilian casualties.
All stakeholders have a responsibility to work to address the direct and reverberating effects of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas on civilians. The first meeting of endorser states to the Political Declaration, which takes place in less than a month’s time, provides an opportunity for both cooperation and forward momentum in these efforts.