http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/KKAA-7KB2CU?OpenDocument&RSS20=18-P

(New York, 10 October 2008): The Lord's Resistance Army appears to have resumed its brutal activities in several countries. The number of those who have fled their homes due to attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in both the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and South Sudan has now increased to 23,000, a total that continues to rise. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that up to 150 Congolese are still crossing daily from the DRC into the Yambio region of South Sudan, to the villages of Sakure, 15 kilometres south of Yambio, and Gangura, 30 kilometres south-west of Yambio. According to UNICEF, the LRA abducted at least 90 children in the course of raids on villages in the DRC on 17 and 25 September. Because the LRA also pillaged and burned families' homes, many of those who have fled have been deprived of everything.

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The displaced include approximately 5,000 Congolese in Yambio, South Sudan, and 17,000 in the Dungu area of north eastern DRC. The United Nations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are working to assist those displaced in DRC, and in South Sudan the UN, NGOs, and the South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SSRRC) are together assisting the displaced. Attacks also took place in the south of the Central African Republic earlier in the summer.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VDUX-7K9SKS?OpenDocument&RSS20=18-P

Much more needs to be done and much greater funding made available to mitigate the devastating toll of natural disasters in an age when climate change threatens to increase both their frequency and severity, according to a United Nations report released today.
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"A major scaling-up of efforts and resources is needed," he says, warning that despite increased commitment governments are still not on track to achieve the goals set in the Hyogo Framework for Action, the 10-year programme adopted in January 2005 which calls for investing heavily in disaster preparedness and strengthening the capacity of disaster-prone countries to address the risks.

Such measures range across the whole spectrum of natural disasters, from establishing early warning systems for those that can be anticipated, such as tsunamis and cyclones, to enforcing stringent building codes in earthquake-prone regions, especially for schools and hospitals. Hospital safety was the theme of this year's International Disaster Reduction Day, observed earlier this week.