Conflict in Iraq, Syria and Gaza has led to the greatest humanitarian crisis the world has faced since the Second World War, the head of the Catholic Church’s relief and development work said.
Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, president of the Caritas Internationalis federation of Catholic charities, was speaking in Rome on Monday at a meeting of clerics and aid experts to discuss the crises in the Middle East.
“There are 13 million Syrians in desperate need, 3 million as refugees outside their country,” he said.
“Over 1.3 million Iraqis have been forced from their homes since the start of the year. They are often living out in the open, under trees or bridges.
“In Gaza, an estimated 10,000 homes were destroyed this summer, along with 70 percent of factories and the main power plant.”
“As part of the humanitarian community, we are confronted with the greatest crisis the world has faced since the Second World War,” he said.
He added that in a “terrible echo” of that war, in the Iraqi city of Mosul, the Arabic letter for “n,” the first letter in the word “Nazarene”, was painted on doors to identify the homes of Christians who were then beaten or executed.
He urged governments to seek a negotiated solution to the conflicts rather than a military one, and, drawing a parallel with the First World War, warned that “further violence … will lead to more ‘senseless slaughter’ in the words of Pope Benedict XV, describing the 1914-1918 Great War.”
Cardinal Rodriguez called for the end of the Israeli blockade of Gaza and a return to the borders recognised in 1967.
He also called for countries beyond Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey to accept their “fair share” of refugees from Syria and Iraq.
He also said that governments “must agree to a total cessation of arms transfers to the Middle East countries engulfed by conflict,” noting that some countries providing arms were even members of the UN Security Council.
Governments, “in particular those who are fueling the wars or letting them develop”, must be urged to stop their actions and respond to appeals for aid money. “Less than half of US$7.7 billion worth of humanitarian appeals by the international community for the Syria crisis alone have been met,” he added.
“Many of those shrinking from their responsibilities to provide humanitarian aid are among those providing the greatest number of arms.”
Caritas Syria, Caritas Lebanon, Caritas Jordan and Caritas Turkey have been providing food, shelter, protection, schooling, health and counseling to over 900,000 Syrians since the conflict began. Caritas Jerusalem provided food and health care to those in need during this summer’s Gaza conflict.
Read the cardinal's speech here.
Above: A woman who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar sits with a child at a camp in Syria's northern town of Qamishli. Photo: CNS, Reuters
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