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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Operation Murambatsvina - Countrywide evictions of urban poor - Index of articles
UN
Secretary-General remains deeply concerned about humanitarian situation
in Zimbabwe
United Nations
October 31, 2005
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/sgsm10195.doc.htm
The following
statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan:
The Secretary-General
remains deeply concerned by the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe.
The United Nations continues to receive reports that tens of thousands
of people are still homeless and in need of assistance, months after
the eviction campaign began in May 2005.
He is particularly
dismayed to learn that the Government of Zimbabwe’s Ad-Hoc Inter-Ministerial
Cabinet Committee has rejected offers of UN assistance. In an official
communication, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and
Urban Development stated that there is no longer a compelling need
to provide temporary shelter as there is no humanitarian crisis.
The Minister, in the same communication, also claims that Government
interventions have addressed the most urgent shelter needs.
The above statements
directly contradict the report by the Secretary-General’s Special
Envoy on Human Settlements Issues in Zimbabwe, Anna Tibaijuka, as
well as the most recent reports from the United Nations and the
humanitarian community. A large number of vulnerable groups, including
the recent evictees as well as other vulnerable populations, remain
in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, including shelter.
Furthermore, there is no clear evidence that subsequent Government
efforts have significantly benefited these groups.
The Secretary-General
notes the Government’s decision to decline assistance comes despite
extensive consultations on relief efforts that ensued in the past
months between the United Nations and the Government. Meanwhile,
the impending rainy season threatens to worsen the living conditions
of the affected population.
The Secretary-General
is disturbed by the continued suffering and makes a strong appeal
to the Government of Zimbabwe to ensure that those who are out in
the open, without shelter and without means of sustaining their
livelihoods, are provided with humanitarian assistance in collaboration
with the United Nations and the humanitarian community in order
to avert a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation.
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