Tuesday, December 20, 2011

UAE’s humanitarian role in Somalia hailed


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20 December 2011
ABU DHABI - Senior UAE Foreign Ministry officials, members of diplomatic corps and resident representatives of UN agencies accredited to the UAE gathered here on Monday to discuss an emergency plan to address the painful humanitarian situation in Somalia.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, told the expanded meeting, which was hosted by the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) in coordination with the Foreign Ministry’s Department for Foreign and Humanitarian Assistance, that he was confident of the distinguished and humanitarian role the UAE is playing at the regional and international levels and its ability to shoulder responsibilities and support any efforts aimed at alleviating the suffering of any people enduring an ordeal like the one the Somali people is experiencing now.
He said that such humanitarian situations were not alien to the UAE which had always been in the forefront of giving a helping hand to disaster-stricken people, refugees and countries hit by humanitarian catastrophes.
UNHCR representatives and a number of experts gave elaborate presentations on the dimension of the Somali humanitarian, social and economic crisis and adequate mechanisms to tackle it as soon as possible. Speaking at the meeting, Director General of ECSSR Dr Jamal Al Suwaidi expressed the ECSSR’s willing and readiness to put all its research resources at the UN disposal to help in chalking out appropriate strategic crisis management plans for Somalia.
“The ECSSR researchers and experts are conducting in-depth analytical surveys and researches to diagnose the most shocking humanitarian crises the Arab and foreign people are facing in environmental, economic and social domains.
He asserted that think-tanks, humanitarian organisations and civil society worldwide should come forward and carry their humanitarian, legal and ethical obligations and plan urgent and future programmes to lift suffering of afflicted people. 

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