Many leaders are more interested in power than helping end conflict, UN humanitarian chief says
UNITED NATIONS — Leaders in many conflict zones are more interested in power and political rivalry than in listening to the needs of their people, improving their lives and ending the fighting, the United Nations humanitarian chief told the Associated Press.
In an interview on Wednesday, Martin Griffiths said humanitarian workers in conflict-torn countries see the consequences of this failure every day, while they often risk their lives to help millions of people who are hungry, displaced and trapped in violence. That has been added sharp lighting in Gazain which more than 200 emergency workers died.
The eight month old Israel-Hamas war in Gaza reminds the world of the willingness of some important countries to participate try to end the conflictsaid Griffiths, who is preparing to step down this month after three years as undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency response coordinator.
“There is no lack of political diplomacy towards Gaza,” he said. “It just doesn’t work well enough. But the efforts made by a range of governments to support the Palestinian people tell us that this is possible.”
The United Nations has criticized the Israeli forces hinder aid deliveries and has called for the opening of all border crossings and the safety of aid workers and convoys overtaken by starving Palestinians. Israel has repeatedly accused the UN of not getting enough aid to Gaza.
Griffiths called Israel’s criticism “quite a reach,” and emphasized its obligations as an occupying power to protect civilians and provide them with essential necessities. “Hamas has an obligation not to have initiated the events of October 7, which led to this specific recurrence of the terrible Palestinian tragedy.”
Griffiths also said it is academic whether Israel maintains a full-fledged military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah or not – because it has uprooted a million Palestinians “and is utterly enough to stop almost all aid to southern and central Gaza.”
He said he and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will attend a conference in Amman, Jordan, on Tuesday, co-hosted by the UN, Jordan and Egypt, aimed at speeding emergency humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
The outgoing humanitarian chief also noted this Climate now competes with wars as a driver of humanitarian needs, “so it’s a world with two plagues.” He cited more famine threats today than in many previous years – from the Horn of Africa to conflict zones such as Sudan and Gaza – as well as major climate events, including floods in Libya and Pakistan.
Despite increased humanitarian needs and the United Nations cutting its annual budget to help 188 million of the 300 million people in need worldwide, he said the UN had received only 17% of funds by mid-year. That is the lowest in years. The UN has cut its budget from about $56 billion last year to $49 billion.
Griffiths said donors – largely countries, but also some foundations, corporations and others – have cut back on funding due to expenses such as the rising cost of living and rising energy prices. But he also said much more needs to be done to increase aid, from attracting new donors and working with the private sector to ending wars and dealing with hundreds of millions of displaced people around the world.
As examples of the failure of dialogue, he pointed to February 2022, when “Russia simply decided to invade Ukraine to reaffirm what it saw as its objectives – it was not a negotiation, it was an invasion.”
And in Sudan, he said two generals working together in a transition process to civilian rule decided one day in mid-April 2023 to “take their country to war and destroy the livelihoods of so many of their people.” They didn’t negotiate, he said, “they simply decided that the weapon was more effective than dialogue.”
“We have lost our passion for peace and the absence in this divided geopolitical world of political diplomacy as a central part of how we end wars is something I deeply regret,” Griffiths said.
David Miliband, chairman of the International Rescue Committee, a leading humanitarian organisation, praised Griffiths for being a partner in “tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges”, including wars.
“Martin has worked tirelessly to make the voices of citizens in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan heard at the negotiating table and on the international stage,” Miliband told AP.
He urged the world to fund the humanitarian gap and provide the “diplomatic power to end conflict and human suffering.”
At a time when U.N. mediation and peacekeeping efforts are “often adrift,” Griffiths has sought to alleviate crises that the U.N. cannot resolve, said Richard Gowan, U.N. director of the International Crisis Group. At times he went beyond humanitarian aid, including: war treaty mediated by the UN and Turkey Ukraine was allowed to ship grain for a year after the Russian invasion, alleviating a global food crisis.
“But the reality is that as the UN’s humanitarian workload increases, funding for its efforts is not keeping pace,” he said. “Trying to manage multiple conflicts through aid, rather than finding political solutions to them, is not sustainable indefinitely.”
As for Griffiths’ future, he said he would spend more time with his family in Geneva but would not stop working. He’s setting up the Office of Martin Griffiths, “or OMG,” he said, laughing, and “what I’m going to do is work outside the UN but on these very similar issues.”