Latest posts
Facing down the threat of terror together
NEW
It’s a quarter to three on a sultry afternoon and a bomb containing the nerve gas Sarin has just been detonated by terrorists in the Metro station Stade de Gerland, Lyon. Five people have been killed, 230 others seriously injured, and hundreds...
The Battle of Qusayr
NEW
(Photo: AFP - Miguel Medina) I have been following with a sinking heart the tragic events in Qusayr, a town on the Syrian-Lebanese border which has become the focus of a deadly struggle between the opposing regime and rebel forces. I read that the fa...
A more prepared partner in disaster response
NEW
Two years ago in Moscow, I visited the state-of-the-art emergency response centre of EMERCOM, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations. Back then, we in Europe had our own Monitoring and Information Centre, but also an idea for upgrading our cap...
A stronger partner in the face of disasters
NEW
Two years ago in Moscow, I visited the state-of-the-art emergency response centre of EMERCOM, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations. Back then, we in Europe had our own Monitoring and Information Centre, but also an idea for upgrading our cap...
The children of Syria
NEW
If things are very bad in Jordan they are even worse in Lebanon, I discovered when I visited the Bekaa Valley. In the few short months since I was last there there has been a palpable rise in tension caused by the burden on the local community of so...
A better tool for European solidarity
NEW
This is a great day, not just for Europe but for the safety of the world. Today we launch our Emergency Response Centre here in Brussels. It’s a state-of-the-art operations centre which will be on duty around the clock, watching and waiting an...
On the Syrian border
NEW
There were eight of them, the women and children came first followed by their menfolk carrying all their most precious possessions. Exhausted and frightened, they were helped across the last few sandy steps from Syria into Jordan – a safe haven...
Celebrating Europe’s day… or not?
NEW
Today we celebrate Europe’s Day, but these days there seem to be few reasons to celebrate in Europe. The crisis is still biting hard, youth unemployment is a daily reality for 5,6 million Europeans under the age of 25, and growth seems a distan...
Living on the frontline of climate change
NEW
Just as the EU’s new climate adaptation strategy was being launched I was visiting the Siti Zone in Ethiopia’s Somali Region together with my colleagues Connie Hedegaard, the Commissioner in charge of climate action, and Dacian Ciolos, th...
A tragic week in the USA
NEW
As always when I am in Washington, I go to see Craig Fugate at FEMA. We start our meeting on a sober note, with me expressing sympathies for the loss of life and the injuries in Boston, and European solidarity with the American people. And this puts...
CAR, the forgotten country
NEW
I start writing this story wondering how many people will read it. The Central African Republic, or CAR as it is usually abbreviated in the news, a country of 4.4 million people, has been going through tough times for years, and yet there has been ve...
Running out of time
NEW
Witnessing the tragedy that is the Syrian civil war unfolding over the last two years has at times seemed like watching an episodic television series which you can duck in and out of, turn on or tune out, without losing the narrative thread. While th...
The bitter taste of success at the Syria pledging conference
NEW
Last week in Kuwait the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was able to ramp up over $1.5 billion in pledges to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of the Syrian people whose lives have been shattered by a civil war with no end yet in sight.
What next for Mali?
NEW
©WFP/Rein Skullerud The fact that so much has changed in Mali since I was here last month only goes to prove what an unstable world it is. Admittedly, the warning signals were there back in December and by the time I boarded the plane at Bamak...
Haiti, three years after the earthquake
NEW
I visited Haiti for the first time shortly after the earthquake struck in 2010. I will never forget the devastation I saw nor the courage of the Haitian people. The whole world then stood by Haiti – nations rich and poor pledged to help rebuild...
Stories of struggle and hope: What it means to be an urban refugee
NEW
Urban refugees have a tough and poignant life – often fleeing death and unimaginable hardship, many of them end in large cities – impoverished, vulnerable and unseen. To tell their story and raise awareness of their situation – the...
While the world did not end
NEW
Millions of people thought, talked and wrote about the end of the world which was predicted to arrive upon us yesterday. The Internet, the news and the social media have been full of content on this topic for months, even years now, and were especial...
In Lebanon, with Syria’s children of war
NEW
The boy’s name is Ali, he is six years old and he was born and raised in Aleppo, Syria. With a shy smile and some prompting from his teacher he handed me a drawing. I wasn’t sure what to make of it until he explained it to me. There was a...
Surviving in a city far away from home
NEW
The Traore family is divided by the conflict in northern Mali. Forty two people have run south to Bamako, the country’s capital, and are living in just two rooms of a half-built house in the city’s Quartier de Baco Djicoroni. The rest, th...
Back to the Sahel and a crisis averted – for now
NEW
In Burkina Faso the first line of humanitarian action came from the local people. Arriving hungry and exhausted from Mali, families forced to flee the fighting in the north of the country found their neighbours giving them not just food and water but...
