Displaying items by tag: relief work

Troops and police officers have been sent to the British Virgin Islands, where 100 ‘very serious’ prisoners escaped from jail after hurricane Irma. Boris Johnson said the military presence there is ratcheting up now, with a thousand troops, increasing very soon to 1,250. RAF medics from RAF Brize Norton, along with British Army Engineers and Royal Marines, were deployed to Princess Alexandra Hospital in Anguilla. The Government has faced claims that the UK has done less to evacuate its citizens than other nations, and did not have the correct equipment in place to deal with hurricanes. The former attorney general of Anguilla described UK’s £32 million aid as a ‘drop in the Caribbean Sea’. Pray that during Boris Johnson’s visit to the islands, his discussions with governors and inspection of damage will help the government to evaluate the situation correctly, give survivors the appropriate resources, and start planning future responses to similar events.

The Rohingya Muslims have lived for centuries in the majority Buddhist Myanmar. On 24 August the media reported clashes between Rohingya militants and Buddhist security forces in Rakhine state. Within two weeks the clashes escalated to a military operation, causing 15,000 Rohingya to flee daily to Bangladesh. The situation is becoming a humanitarian crisis in overstretched border camps, and 400,000 Rohingya are trapped in conflict zones where military ‘clearance operations’ continue. UN aid agencies are blocked from delivering food, water and medicine and humanitarian workers reported looting in warehouses stocking vital emergency supplies. Bishop Desmond Tutu has joined others criticising president Aung San Suu Kyi due to the ‘clearance’ actions of the army. In 2015, during a similar mass migration of Rohingya fleeing by boat from Myanmar, an estimated 25,000 were taken by human traffickers and many died at sea. This time an aid group rescuing refugees from the Mediterranean Sea is redirecting its ship to the Bay of Bengal. Pray for a greater international response. See also