Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection - ECHO Picture stories

Cambodia: Building back better

13 May 2013 09:35:00

The widespread floods which hit Cambodia in September 2011 were some of the worst in the history of this small country. The EU intervened quickly and extensively with € 6 million in life-saving assistance to the affected population...

Growing resilience in Karamoja, Uganda

8 May 2013 15:10:00

Over the years, Karamoja region in north-eastern Uganda has suffered severe droughts, flooding, and cyclical cattle raids. The population over time lost the capacity to cope with the frequently occurring disasters...

Providing food vouchers in Lebanon to Syrian refugees

8 May 2013 08:40:00

Lebanon, which borders with Syria’s southwest, is a common destination for Syrians fleeing the bloodshed in their country. Over 445 000 Syrians are registered, or awaiting registration, as refugees...

Burma/Myanmar: 5th Anniversary of Cyclone Nargis

2 May 2013 13:45:00

On 2 May 2008, the densely populated Irrawaddy Delta region of Burma/Myanmar was hit by Cyclone Nargis in what became the country's worst natural disaster in its history...

Repeatedly displaced by conflict, Somalis ask for self-reliance

18 Apr 2013 15:20:00

Garowe, the capital of Puntland in northern Somalia, hosts over 12,000 people who have been uprooted from their homes due to conflict or natural disasters. Many of them have been there for years; the most recent arrivals in the last year or so...

WFP/ECHO 'Hunger, Nutrition and Climate Change'

15 Apr 2013 12:00:00

As part of Ireland’s Presidency of the EU, Dublin Castle will play host to a high-level conference on ‘Hunger, Nutrition & Climate Justice’ on April 15 and 16. Speakers include the head of WFP, European Commissioners, smallholder farmers from the frontlines of climate change and many others. These photos tell the stories of the challenges faced by some of the world’s most vulnerable people as they struggle to feed their families while adapting to climate change...

South Sudan: Fighting restricts aid work

5 Apr 2013 14:15:00

In September 2012, conflict broke out in Gumuruk village, Pibor County, in South Sudan. Between 5 000 and 10 000 people living in Gumuruk fled the village but returned two months later. Their homes had been looted and sources of income destroyed. Since then, the residents of Gumuruk have struggled to rebuild their lives in the midst of constant fighting...

Thailand: Life-saving Mine Risk Education in Refugee Camps

4 Apr 2013 09:45:00

As reforms progress in Myanmar and cease-fires are holding, many of the over 127,000 refugees living in 9 camps in Thailand are considering returning to their homeland. This could potentially expose them to the life-threatening danger of mines and unexploded ordinances, which pollute the former conflict areas along the Thai-Myanmar border...

EU civil protection field exercise in Bulgaria

27 Mar 2013 15:25:00 +0100

Between 21 and 24 March an EU-funded field exercise took place in Montana, Bulgaria. Search and rescue teams from the Czech Republic, Estonia and Slovenia jointly responded to a simulated earthquake of 7,2 magnitude, followed by a tsunami...

Thailand: Fire rages through refugee camp

25 Mar 2013 15:15:00 +0100

More than 37 people were killed and some 115 injured when a fire raged through the Ban Mae Surin refugee camp in northern Thailand on Friday 22 March. It took fire services some two hours to extinguish the blaze which destroyed field offices of NGOs, a school, a clinic, two food warehouses and more than 400 homes...

Water is life

22 Mar 2013 09:35:00 +0100

Water covers 70% of the earth’s surface and is vital to sustain life. Yet, less than 1% of this is freshwater fit for human consumption...

DRC civilians crave peace and security

13 Mar 2013 11:20:00 +0100

The Great Lakes crisis, which reignited with the civil war in Burundi in 1993, has now spanned twenty years. There are 2.7 million people displaced within Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and a further 420,000 have sought refuge outside in neighbouring countries...

Eastern DRC civilians on the run again

13 Mar 2013 11:15:00 +0100

Kitchanga, in North Kivu's Masisi territory in eastern DRC, has been the theatre of violent armed confrontations between the Congolese army and one or more of the 30 armed groups in North Kivu...

Empowering the women of Liberia

08 Mar 2013 08:50:00 +0100

Nearly 10 years after the end of a 14-year war in Liberia, women’s lives have been transformed...

Tackling epidemics in Afghanistan

01 Mar 2013 10:45:00 +0100

In a country ravaged by over three decades of conflict, the public health system’s capacity to respond to emergencies is logically weak...

Fiji/Samoa: Typhoon survivors to benefit from EU humanitarian assistance

14 Feb 2013 15:15:00 +0100

Following the devastation caused by Typhoon Evan in December last year, the European Commission is committing €1.8 million to assist the people of Fiji and Samoa...

Myanmar: Displaced Rohingyas still in dire need of urgent humanitarian assistance

31 Jan 2013 10:55:00 +0100

hree months after the latest communal violence, tens of thousands of Rohingyas lingering in makeshift camps in Rakhine State are still in dire need of sufficient drinking water, food, shelter and basic sanitation...

Stairway to health for Burkinese children

31 Jan 2013 10:37:00 +0100

What to do when your country records one of the world’s highest infant mortality rates? The European Commission's humanitarian aid and civil protection directorate (ECHO) allocated €21.7 million of humanitarian aid to Burkina Faso's most vulnerable people in 2012...

Haiti - progress made so far

18 Jan 2013 08:35:00 +0100

It has been three years since one of most devastating disasters of recent times shook the world: the 2010 earthquake in Haiti brought immense suffering to a people who were already struggling as the poorest nation of the Americas...

India - Helping the Assam floods victims get back on their feet

17 Jan 2013 11:40:00 +0100

In 2012, the North-Eastern Indian State of Assam experienced its worst flood in a decade. Over a million people were displaced, their homes and crops destroyed by the fury of the mighty Brahmaputra river which burst its banks following heavy rains...

Nigeria, after the floods of a lifetime

15 Jan 2013 09:55:00 +0100

When inhabitants of Lokoja, in Nigeria’s Kogi state, got warning that the river Niger was dangerously swelling and dam water would be released, they fled to school buildings made available by the authorities...