Somalia in worst humanitarian crisis in 18 years: UN

[General Duke]

Somalia in worst humanitarian crisis in 18 years: UN

 

 

Print AFP/File – Internally Displaced people line up to receive food aid distributed by World Food Program WFP at a camp … Tue Aug 25, 6:18 am ET

NAIROBI (AFP) – Persistent violence and a prolonged drought have plunged Somalia into its worst humanitarian crisis since civil war erupted two decades ago, with a third of its 10 million people needing relief aid, a UN report said Tuesday.

 

One in every five children is acutely malnourished, around 1.42 million have been displaced by violence and up to 3.76 million are in need of humanitarian assistance, said a study by the Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia.

 

"Somalia faces its worse humanitarian crisis in 18 years amid an escalating civil war," it said.

 

The majority of those affected are in the country's southern and central regions which have seen heavy fighting and remain largely inaccessible to humanitarian relief efforts.

 

"The depth of the crisis in these areas is severe with up to 75 percent of the total population in humanitarian emergency," said the study.

 

An anti-government onslaught by hardline Islamist rebels since early May has deepened the crisis, with hundreds of civilians killed and tens of thousands displaced, mainly from the capital Mogadishu.

 

The Horn of Africa country has been wracked by almost uninterrupted civil unrest since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre.

[General Duke]

Somalia Reels From Worst Humanitarian Crisis in 18 Years

By Joe De Capua

25 August 2009

 

An elder displaced woman is shown at Daymarudi Camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia, 10 Dec 2007

A new report says Somalia is now in its worst humanitarian crisis in 18 years. And it warns things could get even worse.

 

The UN Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia, part of the Food and Agriculture Organization, issued the report Tuesday. Cindy Holleman, chief technical advisor for the unit in Nairobi, says there are three main reasons driving Somalia's humanitarian crisis.

 

"One is that there's an ongoing drought in the country. Parts of the country are suffering five consecutive seasons of rain failure…. And about 1.4 million people are affected by the drought."

 

The drought has hit pastoralists very hard with the loss of large numbers of livestock.

 

The second factor is hyperinflation.

 

"Very, very high and rapid increases in food prices and non-food prices, which is beyond the reach of a lot of the poor in urban areas, as well as those populations that are dependent on market purchases," she says.

 

And of course conflict

 

"Right now it's one of the worst times in the last 18 years for civil insecurity," she says,

Dead bodies lay near a street in southern Mogadishu's K4 junction, 21 Aug 2009

withnearly one and a half million people displaced in Somalia since last year.

 

The conflict between Transitional Federal Government forces and Islamist militias has been escalating in the south-central region.

 

"About 75 percent of the…people in crisis right now are located in south-central (Somalia). Also, two-thirds of the children that are currently acutely malnourished are located in south-central," she says.

 

She adds, "This is the same areas where the conflict is most tense and there's not very good access for humanitarian workers. So one of the priorities has to be resolving the conflict and returning to peace and security."

 

A lot of hungry children

 

'We have done about 33 nutrition surveys in the last three months throughout the country. And we are noting that the nutrition levels have deteriorated. Currently…we seeing that one in five children are acutely malnourished and one in twenty are severely malnourished," she says.

 

Holleman says Somalia's acute and severe malnutrition rates are "the highest in the world" and continue to worsen.

 

Why so dry, so often?

 

"We have been looking at the cycles of drought in Somalia over the last 30 years. And there was a drought in this area 2003 / 2004, but it hadn't reached the level it is now. The last drought that they're comparing this to in its severity is 1974," she says.

 

Holleman says it's still not certain whether climate change is to blame.

 

"The main thing is we are issuing an early warning for an even further deterioration in the humanitarian situation depending on what happens in terms of the conflict," she says.

 

Somalia has been in nearly constant conflict since the fall of President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

[General Duke]

Half of Somalis need aid, says UN

 

Many Somalis have fled the country to escape the deepening crisis

 

More than half of the Somali population is in need of humanitarian aid, the UN says, as it warns of deteriorating conditions since the start of the year.

 

UN food-security officials say one-in-five children are acutely malnourished and the number of refugees has risen by more than 40% since January.

 

And they warn that those in greatest need are in areas of fierce fighting, making it difficult to reach them.

 

Government troops are fighting Islamist insurgents for control of the country.

 

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991 and has been the scene of brutal fighting for much of that time.

 

Future 'even worse'

 

The UN's Cindy Holleman says the latest figures show a "serious deterioration" in the situation from earlier in the year.

 

"More worrying is that the escalating fighting and conflict is occurring in the same areas where we are now recording the greatest problems of food access and malnutrition," she said.

 

 

 

"This will not only place additional burdens on the people already in crisis, but will also make it difficult for humanitarian relief to reach the vulnerable populations most in need of humanitarian and life saving interventions."

 

The UN's Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia conducted an assessment of the whole country and concluded it is facing its worst humanitarian crisis in almost two decades.

 

The agency said 3.76 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance - up from 3.1 million at the start of the year and 1.8 million in January 2008.

 

The UN's approved population of Somalia is 7.5 million, although other organisations have higher figures.

 

The agency also warned there were now 1.42 million refugees in the country compared with 1 million in January - not including hundreds of thousands who have fled to neighbouring Kenya.

 

It estimated that 285,000 children under the age of five were acutely malnourished - of which 70,000 were classed as in danger of death if they do not receive help.

 

The agency warned that the increased intensity of fighting would make the situation worse.

 

The country is nominally run by a UN-backed government, but in reality much of south and central Somalia is under the control of radical Islamist groups.

 

Fighting between government forces and militants led President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to declare a state of emergency in June.

 

Thousands of peacekeepers from the UN and African Union are deployed in the country, but the government

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

Tragic indeed. Things keep spiraling out of control. The sad thing is that there seems no relief in the horizon.

[Kamaavi]

Half of Somalia is lot. May Allah Almighty help them & bless them, may we all help where we can(ameen) in this difficult time!

[Peacenow]

Enough of war. Enough of arab worshipping slaves working for their arab masters.

[General Duke]

Walid Abdalla is saying things are getting better. Things are getting worse because people keep rewarding bad behaviour.

 

Insha Allah it will get better.

[Som@li]

A country that can not protect/feed its citizens, very sad. :mad:

[General Duke]

^^^The country has enough food, its just mismanaged and the lives of the people have been played with.