2014 looms as another tough year, says UN

Valerie Amos, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, informs to media about the humanitarian strategies and requirements 2014 including Syria and the region, during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, Dec. 16, 2013. AP

MANILA, Philippines – After disasters both natural and man-made severely affected people in countries all over the world in 2013, the United Nations (UN) sees that 2014 might be the same.

“2013 was a real test of the global humanitarian system, and there is no indication that 2014 will be any different,” UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said in a press conference in New York Thursday (US Time).

“It is clear that the UN and its partners will be needed more than ever,” she said.

Amos personally visited the Philippines in November to check on the relief efforts for victims of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) in Samar and Leyte provinces.

The UN made a flash appeal for $301 million or P13 billion in aid for the survivors of Yolanda whose homes and livelihoods have been washed away.

As of January 3, 2014, the death toll was at 6,166 while the number of displaced people was 4,095,280.

Amos also cited the worsening crisis in Syria and the spiraling violence in South Sudan as additional burdens on the UN’s relief efforts.

“The world’s collective response capacity and resources are being stretched to the limit,” Amos said.

The conflict in Syria has claimed more than 100,000 people and displaced 6.5 million others since it began March 2011.

South Sudan became independent last January 2011 and has been facing a civil war between multiple factions. The UN estimates that some 800,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.

“Aid agencies continue to scale up their response activities as fast as security conditions allow but it has not been easy,” Amos said.

She cited that the UN has also been providing aid to displaced people in Somalia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Afghanistan, Haiti,