Somalia Suffering Ignored, Senior UN Envoy Laments

[Nationalist]

The East African Standard (Nairobi)

December 6, 2004

 

Nixon Ng'ang'a

Nairobi

 

A senior UN official has criticized the international community for ignoring Somalia and warned political stability in the war-torn country will be unlikely without massive donor funding.

 

Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mr Jan Egeland blamed the West and aid agencies of being obsessed with Sudan at the expense of its equally troubled neighbour.

 

Egeland who has just visited Somalia said the country which has not had a government for 14 years deserved as much attention as Darfur, in Sudan which was currently occupying world humanitarian attention.

 

Said he: "Mortality deaths in Somalia equal those in Darfur yet the latter has all the international attention that Somalia lacks. Somalia needs all the attention and assistance possible."

 

Although the population affected in both cases was roughly equal (around 1.5 million), Somalia currently attracted a meagre tenth of international aid channelled to Darfur, he said.

 

Ironically, by its very essence, the UN is expected to take the initiative in rallying global attention to trouble spots like Somali.

 

Although it was quick to raise sustained concern for Darfur including a much-publicised visit by secretary general Kofi Annan, its attention for Somalia has not been exactly the same in prominence.

 

By UN accounts, nearly a third of Somalia's estimated eight million people are either internally displaced or facing a severe food shortage, a situation described by Egeland as meriting "desperate attention."

 

At a press conference in Nairobi yesterday, Egeland said the UN requires nearly Sh13 billion ($160 million) to assist the country ravaged by internecine civil war evolve a working government.

 

The money, he said, will go towards "life saving assistance, primary education, health, protection of civilians and the reconstruction of new government structures."

 

The money will also be used in training policemen and other public servants and in the strengthening of the Transitional Parliament.

 

He warned that failure to give Somalia commensurate attention could render useless all peace-building ventures so far that have culminated in an election of Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed who was sworn in as Somalia President in October. But the President, like with his Cabinet which was inaugurated in Nairobi last month, remains in the Kenyan capital as his country is deemed too lawless and unstable for the safety of its Executive.

 

Somalia was approaching a "turning point," he said insisting the coming years will "make or break it," a situation that demanded global goodwill and support.

 

"If we fail, Somalia will come to an endless spiral of despair and explosion of diseases, anarchy, chaos and a safe haven for extremists and terrorists," he said.

 

Egeland, however, said Somali warlords must show genuine commitment to end hostility for the envisaged international support to realise meaningful change, a message he reportedly took to them.

 

"Somalis must themselves put an end to the senseless infighting. I have told political leaders in Somali and the Transitional Government leaders in Kenya that they must now embark in the process of reconciliation."

 

Cessation of active hostilities among militias who have parcelled out territories in the Horn of Africa country that slid to turmoil after the ouster of dictator Said Barre is expected to make it safer for aid workers to distribute much-needed relief.

 

According to Egeland, security in Somalia was too "precarious" and a number of aid workers have been killed.

 

The UN was "encouraging" the TG to relocate to Somali and was facilitating an early decamping from Kenya, he said. He further added the UN favoured more participation by the African Union, the Arab League and the European Union in the future of Somalia.

 

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