Wednesday 17 August 2011

Despite aid theft, UN calls for more food aid to Somalia

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations called for more international help for famine-struck Somalia on Monday — even as the organization's World Food Program admitted for the first time it has been investigating the theft of food aid for more than two months.
Thousands of sacks of stolen aid had popped up for sale in markets alongside refugee camps filled with starving people living in appallingly filthy conditions, according to an investigative report by The Associated Press.
But WFP warned that the 'scale and intensity' of the famine is such that countries need to continue to send aid — and failure to do so would lead to 'many unnecessary deaths.'
The wider UN call for more help Monday came from the UN Security Council, which gets involved in issues that are additionally considered to pose a threat to international peace.
Long considered to be a failed state, Somalia has since 2006 faced an insurgency led by al Shabab, a fearsome militant Islamist group that has been affiliated with al-Qaida since 2007.

Somalia has also had no effective government since the downfall of the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, while pirate gangs have for more than five years been a major threat to international shipping off the country's coast.
But in its statement seeking increased international donations, the 15-member Security Council told Somalia's struggling transitional government that future support was conditional on its ability to boost security and services over the next year.

Somali political groups — excluding the insurgents — are to meet next month to establish a government 'roadmap' for the next 12 months that would set targets for improving the performance of the transitional federal institutions — or TSIs.
'The members of the Security Council noted that future support to the TSIs would be contingent upon the completion of the tasks of the roadmap,' said the council statement, read by Hardeep Singh Puri, UN ambassador of India, which presides over the council this month.

The UN's $2.4 billion famine appeal remains less than half funded as the world body warns 3.2 million people are on the brink of starvation. The already catastrophic situation is expected to worsen because of high levels of malnutrition, still rising cereal prices and a below-average rainy season harvest.
Expressing the 'serious concern' of Security Council members that the appeal is not fully funded, the body's statement 'urged members states to contribute.'
WFP said it had established 'strengthened and rigorous' monitoring and control of food distribution in Somalia after The Associated Press report.
While it disputed AP's claims about the scale of the thefts, program officials nevertheless admitted that humanitarian supply lines remained 'highly vulnerable to looting, attack and diversion by armed groups.'
More than 450,000 Somalis live in famine zones controlled by al Shabab, which the monitoring group Human Rights Watch said in a report Sunday had seized what stocks families had, and imposed taxes that made it almost impossible for them to survive.

The report added, however, all other parties in the country's armed conflict had also committed serious violations of the laws of war, including the Transitional Federal Government, the African Union peacekeeping forces known by the acronym AMISOM, and Somali militias backed by Kenya and Ethiopia.'All sides have used artillery in the capital, Mogadishu, in an unlawful manner that has caused civilian casualties,' the report said. 'Al Shabab has fired mortars indiscriminately from densely populated areas, and the TFG and AMISOM forces have often responded in kind with indiscriminate counterattacks. As a result, civilians have not known where to turn for protection.'

Source: The Gazette

Monday 1 August 2011

Somali famine victims lose homes as torrential rain hits refugee camps

Renewed appeals for aid made as wet weather adds to misery of thousands camped around Mogadishu

Tens of thousands of famine-stricken Somali refugees were left cold and drenched after torrential rains pounded their makeshift structures in the capital, Mogadishu, on Sunday, leading to renewed appeals for aid.

Rain is needed to alleviate the drought but it wrecked many of the makeshift homes made of sticks and scraps of cloth.

Suffering refugees said more aid was vital but agencies have limited reach in Somalia where Islamist militants, including the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab, are waging an insurgency against the country's weak UN-backed government.

"We are living in plight, we left our homes, lost our animals and farms so we ask everyone to help us to survive," Abdi Muse Abshir said.

Lul Hussein, a mother of five, said her family had a sleepless night after their makeshift home crumbled.

"We are starved and we don't have enough help," she said. "Who's helping us? No one! So we are already between death and bad life."

Al-Shabab, the most dangerous group among the militants al-Shabab, has barred major relief organisations from operating in the territories it controls.

The UN said tens of thousands of people have died in Somalia in areas held by the Islamist rebels because food aid could not reach them.

The African Union peacekeeping force fears al-Shabab may try to attack the Mogadishu camps that house tens of thousands of famine refugees, disrupting even further the distribution of food aid. The AU force is attempting to push the militants' front line away from the camps.

The drought and the famine have affected more than 11.8 million people in the Horn of Africa and created a triangle of hunger where the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia meet.

The World Food Programme says it cannot reach 2.2 million Somalis who live in territory controlled by al-Shabab in south-central Somalia.

Monday 25 July 2011

Horrific stories coming up the fleeing people from the Drought and Famine in Somalia

Many stories coming up from the fleeing people from the drought and famine in the Southern Somalia, Thousands of Somalis reaching every day to Kenya and Ethiopia borders to find out humanitarian assistance, Aid workers discovered many horrific stories from the refugee camps in Kenya like Dhadab, Dhagahle and Bulo-adaw camps in Ethiopia. Aid workers found a small sun shelter hut with 4 children sitting around the dead body of their mother believing that she is alive. The family reached the camp before days but not get assistance, no one was aware the situation of the family. The Former refugee people in the camp were trying to help although they have nothing to provide newly coming refugees. The other sad story was that a mother fled from Somalia was on way to Kenya, one of her youngest child carrying with her back was become very sick and started to cry very loudly because of the hunger, later on the child stopped crying and movement, the mother tried to know how is her child, she saw the children stopped movement, she believed her child is passed away, and put the child near the road by covering some clothes and walked away to safe other remaining children. The Fleeing people found the child covered with clothes and saw the child still alive, provided water and food, the situation of the child get better and taken to the refugee camps in Kenya to trace, later the Aid workers and the refugee people traced and found later the mother of the child and given to her.

Yussuf
Forgotten Diaries Blogger

Food aid for Somalia could be flown into country within a week

Food aid for starving Somalis living in Islamist-held territory could be flown into the country within “a week to 10 days”, the World Food Programme said.

The international effort to bring humanitarian relief to 3.7 million Somalis who need urgent help to beat drought and famine is being hampered by al-Shabaab's refusal to let most agencies into their territory.

The al-Qaeda-inspired insurgents backtracked on an earlier promise to allow access.

But the United Nations said it was planning to fly food into areas held by the Islamists despite the ban.

“There are 2.2 million people yet to be reached,” said Josette Sheeran, the head of the agency.

“It is the most dangerous environment we are working in in the world. But people are dying. It’s not about politics, it’s about saving lives now.”



WFP was one of the many organisations that al-Shabaab effectively forced out last year after imposing strict conditions of operation including no foreign female staff.

The group also taxed aid convoys.

Regis Chapman, the head of WFP's operations in Somalia, said that food deliveries would soon start into the limited parts of Mogadishu controlled by the internationally-backed government.

He added that “within a week to 10 days” WFP would be sending food into areas controlled by the Islamists.

The Red Cross on Sunday said that it had delivered 400 tonnes of food to 24,000 people in Gedo province, the first time it had taken supplies into al-Shabaab's territory since 2009. More than 2 million Somalis in the worst affected areas, including two famine zones, live in al-Shabaab territory and cannot be reached by international aid.

They are among more than 11.5 million people in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia who need urgent help to keep them from starving after at least two years with no rain.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation will meet with the heads of most major charities in Rome to draw “the political attention of leaders of the world” to the crisis, Cristina Amaral, the FAO's head of emergency operations said

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/somalia/8658036/Food-aid-for-Somalia-could-be-flown-into-country-within-a-week.html

G20 and World Food Program to hold emergency meeting on Somali famine

Amid a deteriorating humanitarian tragedy in drought and famine-hit Somalia, the UN is preparing to hold a special session to discuss the slow, complicated and dangerous nature of getting food aid deeper into the fractured country.

The UN’s food agency, the World Food Program, will hold emergency talks in Rome, Italy, in an effort to raise further funds and discuss the situation on the ground, which is immensely complicated due to the lack of a functioning government and the dominance of the al-Shabab militant group.

Somalia has been fractured by civil war for decades. It is only in recent years that an African Union military effort was able to win back the capital, Mogadishu, for the impotent interim government, which yields no authority beyond the city.

It is the innocent civilians who have suffered through the years of violence, but now a devastating drought has increased the suffering tenfold, causing death throughout the country and shocking famine in two vast regions of Somalia.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appealed to the international community for help. The UN needs around US $1.6 billion to see around 10 million people through the drought, expected to last until September.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross has been delivering food to around 25,000 people within one of the famine zones. A further 2.2 million in the country are in need of help.

The United Kingdom and France have led the international response to the crisis, with France calling the emergency meeting Monday in Rome. Delegates from the G20 countries will meet at the World Food Program headquarters to discuss the crisis.

The famine has been caused by the lack of a central government in Somalia, leaving the population with no protection or national leadership.

The country is under-developed due to a lack of investment, which has left farmers with no irrigation and other agriculture investment schemes that would have helped them through the worst of the drought.

http://story.albuquerqueexpress.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/c08dd24cec417021/id/815751/cs/1/ht/G20%20and%20World%20Food%20Program%20to%20hold%20emergency%20meeting%20on%20Somali%20famine/

Sunday 24 July 2011

Famine in Somalia is 'immoral': UN aid coordinator

by Dario Thuburn
ROME, July 24, 2011 (AFP) - With the world scrambling to rescue 12 million people on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa, UN emergency official Cristina Amaral said the fact that children are dying of hunger is "immoral". As head of emergency operations in Africa for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Amaral has been warning about the crisis facing the drought-stricken region since November, after the rainy season failed.
Now she says it's not enough for donor countries to stump up some cash for immediate food aid -- there needs to be long-term investment to help farmers resist droughts and international mediation to bring peace to war-torn Somalia.
"When we have a declaration of famine in the 21st century, we should consider this immoral," Amaral told AFP in an interview as she prepared for emergency talks at FAO in Rome on Monday aimed at coordinating the aid effort.
Ministers, aid chiefs and charities are meeting to discuss ways of stepping up food supplies and delivering them to the epicentre of the famine in southern Somalia, much of which is under the control of Islamist militants.
"Without access to south Somalia, we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg -- those refugees arriving in Kenya and Ethiopia," Amaral said. "There are many more -- we estimate 3.7 million -- that need emergency assistance," she added.
The Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab group has banned humanitarian aid agencies like the World Food Programme from working in the region, although FAO has been able to operate several small programmes to help farmers through local partners.
"We hope that the political negotiation will evolve and that the humanitarian situation prevailing will make the clans in Somalia negotiate in a way that will free the access to people in need," she said.
Amaral said the international community is now seeing the results of years of under-investment in solutions to the chronic drought problems of the region.
Projects to improve the management of pastures by herders, to improve animal health and to introduce more resilient crops would go a long way, she said.
"We know what to do but the funding only works when you have the media attention and that's the problem," she said. "War has become a normality there. You only hear about Somalia when there are pirates," she added.
"We need to look at this protracted crisis with a different kind of solution. Somalia has had a lot of humanitarian aid but not much long-term investment," she said, blaming misperceptions that any efforts are hopeless.
"People don't get out of the drought cycle in one or two years. Usually it takes five or six years. In this case we had a drought in 2008 and we're having another one in 2011. People have not yet recovered from the first one."
She said FAO needs $135 million dollars (94 million euros) for its projects.
Amaral's work has taken her to some of the most deprived countries and worst humanitarian crises in the world, with some of her most recent efforts concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti and Zimbabwe.
She said that, bad as the current crisis is, it still does not compare with previous humanitarian disasters in Ethiopia and Somalia in the 1980s and 1990s.
"Overall we have more capacity to respond today," she said.
But she added: "We're afraid that things will get worse in the coming months if nothing is done now." UN agencies say tens of thousands of people have died due to the drought and warn half a million children are at risk of dying.
One aggravating factor in the drought crisis has been the sharp spike in food and fuel prices in countries like Djibouti and Somalia that are net importers of food -- a point expected to be raised at the FAO talks on Monday.
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/61084

Wednesday 20 July 2011

UN to formally declare famine in drought-hit southern Somalia

The United Nations is set to declare a famine in drought-ravaged southern Somalia, the first time such a declaration has been made since the early 1990s.
More than 10 million people in the Horn of Africa are in need of emergency assistance due to drought and ongoing conflict, according to the UN
The famine announcement is expected Wednesday in Nairobi, and will be the first time the UN has declared a famine since 1992. It signals to donors the extreme need for more aid, and warns insurgents in Somalia that the population's suffering is taken seriously by the world community.
The formal conditions for famine are two adult deaths or four children deaths from hunger per 10,000 people a day, more than 30 per cent of children must be suffering from acute malnutrition and the population must have access to less than 2,100 kilocalories of food per day.
The drought, the worst seen in the region in 60 years, decimated the region's livestock and fields, both the only source of income and food for many people.
Thousands of people are arriving daily at large refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, raising fears of disease due to poor sanitation and overcrowding.
The population in Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in Kenya, has swelled to more than 380,000 people.
On Tuesday, the UN said that it needs further safety guarantees from armed groups in Somalia if it is to help those in need.
Somalia's most dangerous militant group, al-Shabab, has promised aid groups limited access to areas under their control. The group banned foreign agencies two years ago.
Oxfam said on Tuesday night that only around $200 million in new money has been provided for relief efforts so far. An estimated $1 billion is needed to stave off a major humanitarian catastrophe.
Meanwhile, top Canadian charities have banded together to address the Somalia crisis.
A network of five Canadian NGOs, including CARE Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam-Quebec, Plan Canada and Save the Children Canada, are uniting to tackle the relief efforts.
The Humanitarian Coalition aims to reduce unnecessary competition, better educate the public on humanitarian needs, increase the impact of Canadian humanitarian responses and reduce administrative costs.
Canada has contributed more than $11 million to the crisis.
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20110719/un-security-access-somalia-relief-110719/

Sunday 17 July 2011

What The International Media Reported From the Hunger and Famine in Somalia

The International media gave attention to the humaniterian crisis in Somalia which is the largest humaniterian crisis in the World at this time: visit the links below of the some International media and what the said about the hunger and famine in the Southern Somalia.

Al Jazeera:
UN makes first supply drops in Somalia
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/07/20117178716304210.html

Centre Daily Times:
Pope urges help for Somalia
http://www.centredaily.com/2011/07/17/2839701/pope-urges-help-for-somalis-fleeing.html

ABC News:
Somalia Drought 'One of the Largest Humanitarian Crises in Decades'
http://abcnews.go.com/International/somalia-drought-largest-humanitarian-crises-decades/story?id=14088488

Yass Tribune:
Suffer the children as hunger stalks the land
http://abcnews.go.com/International/somalia-famine/story?id=14088327

CNN International
U.N. flies aid to Somalia after Islamist rebels lift ban
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/07/17/somalia.un.aid/

Wikinews
Drought stricken Somalia nears famine
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Drought_stricken_Somalia_nears_famine

Straits Times
Survival struggle against Somalia's drought
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_690971.html

Ottawa Citizen
The forgotten people of Africa's deadly famine
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/forgotten+people+Africa+deadly+famine/5105962/story.html

Yussuf
Forgotten Diaries Blogger

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Drought and Famine Hit Southern Somalia

People started before months ago to walk hundreds of KM to Ethiopia and Kenya Borders to search food and other humaniterian assistance, many children were left behind on the way after stoped to walk, parents left them to safe other children to reach where they can get food and assistance, this was reported from the parents newly came in the Refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. the situation in the areas where this people fled mostly unknown what is going on there (southern regions of Somalia. The people reaching in the bonders of Kenya and Ethiopia are expected to be the people those who able to walk or have some food to eat while they are on the way to Kenya or Ethiopia or have some money to rent overloaded trucks.

As reported in this areas, the situation is very horrible, Media can not easly go to report what is going in the area where Al-shabaab controls. curently, most of the reports are comming from the refugee camps lined with the bondaries of Ethiopia and Kenya with Somalia as well as Mugdisho.


Yusuf
Forgotten Diaries Blogger

Ban 'extremely worried' by Horn of Africa drought

Ban 'extremely worried' by Horn of Africa drought
(AFP) – 19 hours ago

UNITED NATIONS — UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday he was "extremely worried" about the extreme drought threatening famine and death on a massive scale in the Horn of Africa.

"More than 11 millions people need urgent assistance to stay alive, as they face their worst drought in decades," the UN secretary general said. "This morning I called an urgent emergency meeting with the heads of UN agencies."

Ban said immediate action must be taken if millions in the Horn of Africa are to avoid starvation.

"We must do everything we can to prevent this crisis deepening. The human cost of this crisis is catastrophic. We cannot afford to wait."

Thousands of Somalis have fled their country in recent months to neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia to seek help from the devastation.

In Ethiopia, where conditions are also dire, agriculture officials said this week that some 4.5 million of its people will require humanitarian food through the end of the year.

The UN's World Food Programme said last week it expects 10 million people across the region to need food aid, revising upward an earlier estimate of six million.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h90sg_-fGbV22DEKEWHYBadlwcyg?docId=CNG.0ab2ac77281cfe1c695dd46990421301.511

Monday 11 July 2011

Somalia drought to worsen, famine possible: US

Somalia drought to worsen, famine possible: US
(AFP) – 3 days ago

WASHINGTON — The US government has warned that a drought in the Horn of Africa is likely to worsen by the end of the year, putting parts of war-ravaged Somalia at risk of famine.

"Our experts... expect the perilous situation in the Horn of Africa to worsen through the end of the year," Nancy Lindborg, a senior official at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said Thursday.

"Given limited labor opportunities, the dwindling food stocks, and sky-high cereal prices, many households cannot put food on the table right now," she said at a House of Representatives commission hearing.

Lindborg said an initial assessment found that this year's harvest will be a "failure" in the southern Lower Shabelle region and "well below normal" in the neighboring region of Bay.

She said in a normal season the two regions account for 71 percent of the total cereal production of southern Somalia.

"As unfortunate as it may be, we do expect the situation in Somalia to continue to decline," Lindborg said.

"Famine conditions are possible in the worst affected areas depending on the evolution of food prices, conflict, and humanitarian response," she added.

She added that the United States would continue to work with the international community to explore ways of providing aid to Somalia and to people fleeing the country, which has been mired in war for two decades.

The United States said Wednesday it is ready to test the word of Somali Islamist insurgents, who control much of the country and have appealed for foreign aid in the face of the drought.

For two years the Shebab insurgents, affiliated with Al-Qaeda, have curbed foreign aid groups from working in the region.

The United Nations last week warned that 10 million people in the Horn of Africa -- which includes Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea -- faced the worst drought in 60 years.

A poor rainy season and rising food prices have also led to severe food shortages in Kenya and Uganda.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jXiysHhkpaCoo39AdRFpXpBi5BlQ?docId=CNG.b25e50471bf7cd80f49ff0b9169e31d7.171

G8 'neglecting hunger fight pledge'

G8 leaders have been accused of neglecting a pledge to fight hunger in poor countries. Anti-poverty group ONE said the drought crisis in east Africa is a "wake-up call" to Governments who pledged to help feed the hungry in Africa two years ago.

A spokeswoman from the group said leaders of the rich world meeting at the G8 summit in Italy in 2009 pledged 22 billion US dollars (£13.7 billion) to go towards agricultural projects designed to put Africa on the road towards food self-sufficiency, rather than on emergency aid during famines and disasters.

But a report published on Sunday found that since world leaders pledged the cash, only a fifth of the money has been donated. With just one year to go until the deadline for the donations, the report found that the UK has only pledged 30% of the 1.7 billion dollars (£1.1 billion) it pledged, a ONE spokeswoman said. She said that collectively the countries have raised 22% of the financial pledges.

ONE executive director Jamie Drummond said: "World leaders are guilty of letting slide their promises to fight the root causes of hunger, in particular very low agricultural productivity in regions like sub-Saharan Africa. We should not need a food crisis to wake us up to the need to not just give food aid now, but also deliver on the promised partnership with African leaders, citizens and the private sector to boost yields across the region.

"Fortunately with food security on the agenda of the G20 later this year there is a real opportunity for a new partnership to turn this around. With the right support, Africans can both feed themselves and export to the world, helping them fight hunger and poverty and helping us all with lower food prices."

A ONE spokeswoman said the Government deserves praise for pledging emergency food relief for 1.3 million people in Ethiopia for three months in response to the current crisis. The Department for International Development donated £38 million to the World Food Programme which will provide the food aid that the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) will be distributing.

The worst drought in over half a century has hit parts of East Africa, affecting more than 10 million people. Thousands of families have travelled for days across scorched scrubland from Somalia to Kenya, including barefoot children with no food or water, after their crops and livestock were destroyed by drought.

The DEC, the umbrella body representing the UK's 14 leading aid agencies, said acute malnutrition has reached 37% in some parts of north east Kenya and child refugees from Somalia are dying of causes related to malnutrition either during the journey or very shortly after arrival at aid camps.

British donations to a DEC appeal for support have now risen to £8 million, the committee said. But the situation is set to deteriorate over the next three to four months and campaigners say continued funding is vital.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/g8-neglecting-hunger-fight-pledge-16021724.html#ixzz1Ropetid4

Deaths 'extremely high' in famine camps

Convoys of minibuses are making the trip back and forth from the Somali border to refugee camps in Ethiopia, as people flee the worst famine in years. UNHCR Head of Emergency Operations Jo Hegenauer said the death rates in the camps are 'extremely high and they worry everyone'.
Figures are as high as ten per day in some camps. 'If we don't respond quickly to this..I think we're going to have serious long term problems', he said.
The UN warned last week that almost 10 million people in the Horn of Africa are facing a humanitarian emergency as the region struggles to deal with its worst drought for 60 years.
The BBC's Mike Woolridge reports from Kobe camp in Ethiopia.

Thursday 7 April 2011

Drought-displaced “in tens of thousands”

HARGEISA/NAIROBI — With drought spreading to almost all regions of Somalia, officials and aid workers have expressed concern for those affected, saying drought was now a major cause of displacement.

“Drought, not insecurity, is now the main reason for new displacement in Somalia,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA Somalia) said in a March update. “More than 52,000 people have been displaced due to drought since 1 December 2010, many of them moving to urban areas in search of assistance.”

In particular, the capital, Mogadishu, had experienced an increased influx of drought-affected pastoralists, said OCHA.

“Although migration of people and livestock is not unusual during the dry season, this appears to be the first time ever pastoralists and their livestock have migrated into the capital, a situation that portrays the severity of the drought situation in the country,” OCHA said.

See more about the below link

http://somalilandpress.com/drought-displaced-in-tens-of-thousands-21332

Monday 10 January 2011

MSF calls for medical staff's freedom of movement to be respected

GENEVA/NAIROBI. (Sh. M. Network) – On 5 January 2011, PRESS RELEASE, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supervisors at Dinsor hospital, in Somalia, were prevented from leaving the town by representatives of Al Shabaab. The MSF supervisors were due to attend a technical medical training workshop in Nairobi. As of today, the situation is unsolved.

MSF is extremely concerned about the present situation. Since 2002, MSF’s medical staff have been providing free medical care in the only functional hospital in Bay region. For its programs in Somalia, MSF relies solely on private donations from the general public around the world to carry out its work. Its funds are strictly dedicated to running health activities.

Despite many repeated requests addressed to the authorities, Al Shaabab has not allowed the presence of international staff of Medecins Sans Frontieres to provide direct technical support to the hospital for several months, which compromises the quality of the care provided to the population and questions the continuation of MSF support to the hospital.

“MSF urges all parties in Somalia to respect and protect all health structures and medical staff. And in particular, in those areas like Dinsor were the health structures are scarce.

The authorities should grant all available help for the performance of their duties. The freedom of movement of all medical humanitarian staff, international and Somali, is essential to exercise their functions.” says Monica Rull, MSF Program manager.

MSF calls upon the authorities to stop hindering medical humanitarian efforts. To secure lifesaving assistance, MSF remains committed to engage with the authorities to establish a meaningful medical access to the civilian populations caught up in the conflict in Somalia.

Despite the challenges, MSF remains the main provider of free medical services in all of central and southern Somalia. In Dinsor, MSF runs a 65-bed facility which offers both inpatient and outpatient care.

The inpatient department (IPD), which serves the population of the entire district’s approximately 110,000 people, provides paediatric and adult medical care, treatment for tuberculosis and kala azar; as well as therapeutic feeding for severely malnourished children with associated pathologies.

The outpatient department (OPD) provides curative and preventive care and it includes an ambulatory feeding centre for severely malnourished children without medical complications.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) works in ten regions of Somalia, with more than 1,300 Somali staff providing medical care on the ground. Millions of people urgently require healthcare, yet the enormous gap between the needs of Somalis and the humanitarian response continues to widen.

UN calls for humanitarian access as drought hits Somalia

NAIROBI (Sh. M. Network) – The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Mr.Mark Bowden, has expressed concern about the unfolding drought situation in Somalia and has called for humanitarian access to the most affected areas.

The 2010 short rains (Deyr season – October to December) failed in most parts of Somalia. Since Somalia ishighly rainfall dependent, a further deterioration in the humanitarian situation is expected in the comingmonths. Two million people already depend on humanitarian emergency assistance and with the current dry season, the number is likely to increase.

Mr. Bowden described the task facing the humanitarian community as enormous given current access constraints in many parts of south central Somalia.

'I am deeply concerned about the current drought situation in Somalia. Somalia is already in the grips of a chronic catastrophe, the prediction we made late last year about the below-normal rainfalls due La Niña weather conditions is now a reality. We need to act fast to put in place the mitigation measures that will help us to avert a possible disaster,' said Mr. Bowden.

The impact of the failed Deyr season is already evident. Water supplies have dwindled, cereal prices have increased, and livestock deaths are being reported in some areas. Malnutrition rates in south Somalia are already increasing. A recent survey in Juba indicates rates of 30% acute malnutrition which is double the threshold used to release emergency assistance. Although the drought situation has affected the majority of the country, some regions have been in crisis for the past three years. These include Hiraan, Sanaag,

Galgaduud, Mudug and Bakool regions while others such as Sool, Gedo and Juba regions are now emerging as areas of concern.

The priority sectors identified for immediate interventions are Livestock, Agriculture, Nutrition and Water/Sanitation. The Food Assistance sector is ready to scale up distributions but will face a pipeline break in food supplies in late March 2011.

'Initially US$4.5 million has been earmarked from the UN Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF) for emergency drought response in most regions affected by the devastating dry spell,' said Mr Bowden.

Humanitarian access to Somalia’s most vulnerable populations remains critical, particularly to those in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection in the south central part of the country. Mr. Bowden urged all parties to Somalia’s conflicts to grant access to vulnerable communities.

'The increasing threat of hunger and disease caused by the drought calls for a collective effort by all parties in Somalia to increase and facilitate access for a broader range of humanitarian actions. I call upon all those who are in a position to improve access to lend their support at this critical time,' he said.

Source: Kuna News Agency

Tuesday 4 January 2011

Refugees turn to State for help

By ZAMZAM TATU
Daily Nation
December 27 2010

Refugees at Dadaab Camp have appealed to the government to improve their living conditions.

They accused the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) of ignoring its mandate to provide basic amenities that will allow them lead decent lives.

The camp, designed to house 90,000 refugees, now holds over 300,000 families.

This has resulted in poor sanitation and put pressure on the waste disposal system.

People are forced to use ‘flying toilets’ at night, exposing them to the risk of cholera outbreak.

Chairman of the Dadaab Minority Camp, Mr Mohammed Abdi Odhowa, said the UN agency only provides them with food stamps.

Mr Mohammed said despite forwarding their grievances to the field officers, hundreds of families spend the days in the scorching sun and the nights in the cold for lack of shelter.

“Why do they have to take in more refugees when the existing masses are living like animals in the open air?” posed Mr Odhowa.

He appealed to the government to supply them with tents, mosquito nets and water.

At least 800 foreigners, mostly from Somalia, are registered every month at the Ifo, Dagahley and Hagardere refugee camps under the central supervision of UNHCR officers in Dadaab.

The refugees are fleeing the 21-year civil war that has claimed more than 400,000 lives and displaced over a million people.

Mr Odhowa said minorities like the Somali Bantu are discriminated against during distribution of food and other services — which are controlled by the ethnic Somalis.

“The Kenyan IDPs are treated equally in all fronts, what will you make of your life when you are discriminated against by your own community every day while you are grappling with cold, disease and all forms of neglect by the UNHCR?” he asked.

Confirming the housing crisis at the camps, UNHCR spokesman Emmanuel Nyabera told the Nation they were building new camps and the refugees will be relocated next year to ease congestion.

“New Ifo (II) camp is a measure to offset the overpopulation we’ve experienced in the set up, even so, we provide make shift tents but the population is really overwhelming,” said Mr Nyabera.

Source: Daily Nation

Copyright © 2010 WardheerNews.com