Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA's partner in the Bourj-el-Barajneh refugee camp for Palestinians in Beirut, Lebanon, Women's Humanitarian Organisation Director, Olfat Mahmoud, has appealed for assistance as the camp is flooded with refugees fleeing the fighting which has broken out in the Nahr-al-Bared camp in Tripoli.
The United Nations estimates that 25,000 of the 40,000 residents of the Nahr-al-Bared camp have fled, mostly to other Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Many have found their way 90 kilometers south to the Bourj-el-Barajneh camp, and there is now significant overcrowding and lack of food, clothing and blankets in Bourj-el-Barajneh as the refugees fled the fighting in Nahr-al-Bared with just the clothes they were wearing and little else.
An militant Islamist organisation known as Fatah al-Islam became established in the Nahr-al-Bared camp and the Lebanese army attacked the camp to drive them out. Fatah al-Islam is inspired by the Sunni militant group al Qaeda and Lebanese authorities say they have arrested Saudi, Algerian, Tunisian, Syrian and Lebanese members of the group. The militant organisation has little support among Lebanon's Palestinian refugee community of around 400,000.
To date, 33 Lebanese soldiers, 25 militants and 18 camp civilians have been killed and hundreds, mostly civilians, have been wounded since figting broke out on Sunday 27th May. A break in the fighting three days later allowed many civilians to flee, with most of them heading to other refugee camps such as Bourj-el-Barajneh.
If anyone wishes to donate funds to assist our partner in Bourj-el-Barajneh camp, the Women's Humanitarian Organisation, to provide help for the flleeing refugees from Tripoli, please contact Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA. Funds will be used to provide food, clothing and medicines for the visiting refugees.
For further information, or to send your support:-
Phone: 1800.888.674 (business hours)
Email: office@apheda.org.au
Contact Details
Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA
Ph: (02) 9264 9343
Fax: (02) 9261 1118
office@apheda.org.au