Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa | DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS
Bilbao-born Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, head of Emergencies at Doctors Without Borders, warns that the humanitarian scenario is the worst in the last fifteen years
Humanitarian crises are the professional context in which Bilbao-born Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa develops. He has been director general, head of mission and head of the Emergency Unit of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), a position he currently holds. He has just returned from Africa, the epicenter, once again, of a new looming situation of hunger for tens of millions of people. Central Somalia, northeastern Nigeria, northern Mozambique, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali are suffering from war and massive displacement.
– How does rising energy and commodity prices affect the South?
– A lot of things have come together with a disastrous balance. We made progress on food security through 2017, but it got worse again the following year. Then there was the rise in prices and the covid that paralyzed many countries. In Africa it was applied so strictly that it paralyzed even the smallest markets. In addition, the epidemic caused the collapse of international logistics as China stopped selling. Imagine that a screw is missing, here it can be a nuisance, while there it is impossible to find any spare part.
– In this context, how has the crisis in Ukraine impacted?
– The continent has been suffering from consecutive droughts for three years, especially in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, which have driven up costs. Ukraine has been the auction. Prices have risen sharply in food futures, a sector controlled by few companies. This circumstance comes to finish off a bad situation, not that it provokes it, it just means one more nail in the coffin.
– Are we witnessing one of the worst scenarios of recent times?
– It is one of the worst scenarios of, at least, the last fifteen years. It had been a long time since such a situation had been seen in Somalia or Nigeria. Inputs have become more expensive, but the thing is that peasant families have few resources, they spend everything they get from the harvest on a day-to-day basis and it is just now, when there is nothing in the fields, that the prices are they raise 50 or 70% and they can’t afford it. The food is there, but it is unaffordable.
– The situation is especially worrying in the Sahel.
– The oscillations of El Niño and La Niña have caused up to five years without rain and the displacement of the population due to hunger because the natives have finished off their cattle and have no more resources. There are at least 20 regions in 12 countries in crisis according to the World Food Program. In Nigeria alone, MSF cares for 100,000 children in outpatient therapy and another 20,000 in intensive care, with admissions of at least three weeks. In this rainy season, the impact of the diseases of the season is added, in the case of cholera, malaria and acute respiratory infections. Malnourished children can get ahead with nutritional help, a malnourished and sick child runs a very high risk and the majority that we receive is like this.
– Can an organization like yours deal with such a serious situation?
– There is no way for humanitarian organizations to assume this demand. It is a much bigger challenge and involves not only bilateral aid, but injection of subsidized food in many markets.
– The political situation also affects.
– There are four or five countries under the instability of coups and radical attacks that even prevent, in the case of Niger, farmers from going to their fields to cultivate.
– And is it possible to work in countries as unstable as Mali or Burkina Faso, where it is only safe to travel by plane due to the risk involved in traveling by road?
– We negotiate with the interlocutors, but in some it is impossible, as in those where there are clashes between the jihadist groups themselves. You don’t even know who to talk to.
– Afghanistan is no longer in the foreground, but it also suffers from impoverishment.
– Afghanistan has a major problem, but not as acute as the one facing the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. Their situation has a lot to do with the climatic irregularity that does not allow the peasants to cultivate what touches what touches. The circumstances of insecurity that cause the population to continue dedicating themselves to heroin, the crop that gives the most money and allows you to survive the rest of the year.
– Is there no hope in the short term?
– Poppy cultivation can be legal and for medical use. Spain is one of the largest regulated producers. Why is it not negotiated and granted so that they sell regularly and reduce speculation and the illegal market? But right now, with the Afghan state bankrupt and the few funds blocked by Washington, there is very little to do.
– Attacks against medical centers and NGO workers have also become commonplace in recent years. Have security conditions deteriorated?
– The situation is similar, what happens is that now there is more information. There are a lot of humanitarian workers, not only from MSF, and a lot more activity. The level of incidence increases, but the fact is that the presence has also grown. It is also that NGOs manage more resources and are seen as an easy target.
– The prospects do not seem promising.
– We continue doing what we always do, what we can, where we can and where they leave us.
– After so many setbacks, has public opinion become discouraged and has it stopped financially supporting these initiatives?
– No, there has been a very strong wave of solidarity with Ukraine. The donor has not demobilized but there are so many conflicts that require humanitarian aid that it gets tired. Informational dynamics also play a role. You put the spotlight on one place for a fortnight and then it changes, and some places, like Yemen, never get the spotlight. There is a reduction in funds and aid and these flows are critical for its stability. Many UN appeals remain incomplete. Ukraine does, but the same does not happen with Mozambique.
– Does Ukraine monopolize humanitarian care today?
– It’s normal because it’s close to home. At MSF, we have set a limit on the collection of donations and expenses in that country so as not to unbalance our operational attention.
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