Ainashe.net

Bob McCarthy, Somalia Emergency Officer of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was quoted as saying:

Every child [at a supplementary feeding centre] in Isdorto is below 80 percent weight for height. You can see the physical signs of malnutrition. ……It is a borderline situation, and more and more children are slipping into this category ……….Aid workers told me the numbers are rapidly going up.

Click here for the full article on the Reuters AlterNet. You may also click here for related stories at the UNICEF’s Somalia Media Center.

Ashenafi Abedje of the Voice of America prepared this dispatch on the current political development in Somalia. The news dispatch reads: 

Leaders of Somalia’s transitional government have set a date for parliament to hold its first meeting on Somali soil. Lawmakers said today that parliament will convene February 26th in the southern town of Baidoa. The town is a compromise between parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, who wants the government based in Mogadishu, and President Abdullahi Yusuf, who wants it in the town of Jowhar. The parliament has yet to convene on Somali soil since being formed in Kenya late in 2004. (…) Adan says convening the parliament in Baidoa, a town lacking facilities and infrastructures, will prove a challenging exercise. He says over the next few weeks, intense efforts will be made to prepare and equip the city for its new role. The affiliate director says the success of such efforts will largely depend on the level of international community support. Somalia has been without a working central government since warlords overthrew President Mohammad Siad Barre in 1991

Click here to view the full article on the VAO website. There is also an interview a Somali reporter from HornAfrik. 

Aijaz Zaka Syed; Assistant Editor of the Khaleej Times says:  

The Hamas win is the Palestinian people’s powerful reply to all those who had questioned the Islamic resistance movement’s participation in these elections. The Palestinian voters, by decisively choosing Hamas over the woefully ineffective and corrupt Fatah, have delivered a snub to the West and its attempts to impose its own will over a fiercely free-spirited and democratic people. Without doubt, the arrogance of the United States, Israel and the West in general in dictating the Palestinians to keep Hamas out of the poll and political process played a crucial role in tilting the scales in favour of the Islamists   

Aijaz Zaka Syed continued by saying: 

But isn’t democracy all about respecting people’s verdict? The Palestinian voters have made their choice and done so decisively. They have made it abundantly clear who should and will lead them. Yet the so-called international community (read the West) doggedly refuses to recognise and respect this democratic choice. But then this is hardly the first time it has happened. This has been a familiar history repeatedly enacted across the Middle East. But that’s beside the point.   

I entirely agree with Aijaz Zaka Syed that the political will of the Palestinian people must be respected even though many of us outside Palestine may not agree with the choice they made. 

Click here to view the full editorial on the Khaleej Times. 

The Reuter’s AlertNet reports: 

Somalia’s parliament will meet in the country on Feb. 26 for the first time since it was formed in Kenya more than a year ago, its speaker said on Monday. A session of the 275-member legislature will take place in the southern town of Baidoa, parliamentary speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan said in Nairobi after talks with President Abdullahi Yusuf. The move is a step forward for efforts to restore government in the lawless country. 

Click here for more related dispatches on the AlertNet.

Shima Islam, spokesperson for UNICEF told  Krystle Osafo Jones of the Black Britain daily news:

We are appealing for 14.7 million and that’s to bring more saving support to more communities and families in the greatest need and that are to cover the next three months.

Mr. Islam went on by saying:

We are working in three affected areas and what we plan to do is expand out therapeutic and supplementary feeding programme, increase vaccination and vitamin A campaign and also to apply water and salutation services.”

Click here for the full story on Black Britain website.

The South African Independent Online Says: 

United Nations agencies on Wednesday renewed desperate appeals for help in saving nearly three million Kenyans as well as more than a million children across drought-stricken east Africa who face impending famine. In separate statements, the World Food Programme (WFP) and UN Children’s Agency (Unicef) offered bleak assessments of the prospects without urgent donations for 2,5 million Kenyans, some of whom are among 1,2 million children in three countries in the region who are threatened with malnutrition. WFP said it would run out of food aid for hungry Kenyans in the worst-hit north and northeast by mid-February if donors do not respond to unmet previous appeals for $238-million (about R1,45-billion) worth of assistance required to meet the expected need. 

This is basically a summery of what we have been reporting for the last couple of days! 

Click here for the full article on the IOL. 

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network and FSAU released post “Deyr” seasonal assessment report for Somalia and said:   

Following early indications of a seriously deteriorating food security situation in Southern Somalia, FSAU and FEWSNET began to issue early warnings in November ‘05, advanced the timeline of its Deyr assessment fieldwork, and expanded both the duration and coverage of fi eldwork in the South in order to generate a more in-depth understanding of the rapidly evolving crisis. Fieldwork by FSAU with FEWSNET Somalia and another forty different partners was undertaken throughout December ’05. Fieldwork was followed by a series of regional analysis workshops and an overall consolidation analysis workshop held the fi rst week of January ‘06.  Results were presented to TFG, UN, INGO/NGO agencies, donor agencies and other partners at the SACB/FSRD meeting on January 18, 2006. This Monthly Brief highlights the key fi ndings of this assessment and analysis. The full FSAU Technical Series Report of the analysis will be released by the fi rst week of February ’06.   

Click here for the full report (PDF). For additional information, you may like to visit The Famine Early Systems Network’s Somalia page by clicking here. 

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) for Somalia has said: 

If the focus is only addressing immediate needs - whole livelihood systems could degenerate into relief-reliant communities, deepening poverty and prolonging the humanitarian crisis… (…) A full range of response is necessary, including: food aid, cash assistance, water relief and rehabilitation, livestock herd survival programmes, health and nutrition assistance, and protection of vulnerable groups. 

FSAU concluded by saying: 

A balanced, needs-based humanitarian response for the entire drought- affected region is necessary in order to prevent a further escalation of the crisis through cross-border population movements and outbreaks of conflict over resources.   

Hand-outs never worked for any one. Indeed, as many people are beginning to realize  now, aid only encourages dependency and long-term economic decay. Hence, what is need is food assistance programs that could help the Somali people to be become economically independent. 

Click here for the article on Reuters’ AlertNet. 

Major General Timothy Ghormley; Commander of the U.S. military task for the Horn of Africa was quoted as saying:   

We know for a fact there is an East Africa al-Qaeda cell in Somalia. It’s been referred to as mad max and the thunder dome in southern Somalia. 

Click here for a video news dispatch by Barbara Starr; the CNN Pentagon Correspondent who went to Northern Somalia earlier this week. 

According to the Security Document World:

The Republic of Somalia has awarded IRIS Corporation Berhad (ICB) an order to supply and implement a complete ePassport and e-Identification system. According to ICB, the contract is worth an estimated US$25 million and was signed between ICB and Just Solutions Limited, a company incorporated in United Arab Emirates.  Under the terms of the contract ICB must design, develop and implement the hardware and software to enable the enrolment, production and issuance of up to two million ePassport books with inlays and the same number of e-Identification cards over a five-year period. ICB anticipates that its success in Somalia will create more opportunities for the company in the African continent.

This story has been reported many times before, unfortunately, we are unable to get confirmation from the  TFG thus far! Also, unless someone else is paying, the TFG has no money for this projects at the present time.

Click here to view full story on “Security Document World”.

The American Jewish World Service says:   

The tsunami that struck South Asia in 2004 also devastated the coast of the African nation of Somalia. That fact is often forgotten, now that the term “South Asian tsunami” is fixed in our consciousness. And in a way it’s not surprising. Somalia seems always to be an exception to the rule. Not only is it consistently overlooked in regard to the tsunami, but it’s also the only country in the world without a functioning national government. For nearly 15 years a civil war has raged in Somalia, which is ruled by warlords and clans that dominate various regions of the country.  In this kind of volatile environment, where one’s clan affiliation means everything, women are especially vulnerable to disasters. Inter-clan marriages, which were prevalent before the onset of the civil war, leave women susceptible to accusations of disloyalty to both the clan they were born into and the clan into which they married. After the tsunami, many women survivors found themselves without the means to support themselves or their families and with no one to turn to for support.   

Well, as the saying goes, “Nimaan hadlin habartii wax ma siiyo” .. I think the Foreing Minister of the Somali Transitional Federal Government must do more to advocate our cause in the international arena. As far as I can see, the Minister has been missing in action since he was appointed as minister almost a year ago. I think it is just about time that he start doing something! And he must do it now!

Click here to view the full article on AJWS. The article also is being republished on the Relief Web. 

Maxwell Gaylard, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia was quoted as saying:   

If you have a normal country with a stable government and administration in place then you can take measures to establish strategic food reserves and help farmers and pastoralists when they are in trouble (….) As we deal with the drought, I think it is incumbent on us to help the government to build its capacity to deal with these things in the future. (….)..I am confident that they (the TFG) are moving forward but we shouldn’t expect too much too soon. There’s been chaos and fighting for much more than 15 years and you can’t fix that in a short time. 

Mr. Gaylard said the following about the problems of Piracy in the Somali coastline: 

The piracy off the Indian Ocean coastline has also affected the delivery of food. Food is coming at a much slower rate. (….) In this particular context of drought in southwestern Somalia, we have assurances from the local and regional authorities that they will do their best to provide a secure operating environment that we need.   

Mr. Gaylard concluded his remarks by saying: 

The first need, today, next week and the following three or four months until the rains come is water, but also food security is important and nutrition and health.   

Click here for the dispatch on Reuters AlertNet. 

In an article titled “Somaliland and the Issue of International Recognition” published on the Power and Interest News Report, Dustin Dehéz writes   

When the regime of Siad Barre was ousted from power in Mogadishu in 1991, it left a power vacuum that could not be filled by the many varying and still belligerent Somali factions. Somalia in its modern boundaries was formed by a unification of the two former colonies Italian Somaliland — the southern part of present-day Somalia — and British Somaliland in the north. The different forms of colonial rule adopted by the British and the Italians left Somalia with very diverse colonial legacies. 

Mr. Dehéz concludes his analysis by saying: 

While Somalilanders voted for their right of self-determination, the subject of state secession is still a matter of ongoing conflict. With a transitional government in southern Somalia reluctant of accepting Somaliland’s independence, neighboring countries deeply divided on the issue, the regional organization I.G.A.D. unable to endorse any solution, and a European Union paralyzed by the quarrel between the U.K. and Italy, Somaliland’s future remains to be seen.   

Acknowledgement: Thanks to “Black River Eagle” of the “Jewels in the Jungle Blog” for alerting me about this article. Thanks Bill. 

I will write a short comment about this later this week… 

Click here to view the full article on PINR website. 

Sharif Xasan Sheekh Aadan; the Speaker of the Transitional Somali Federal Parliament was quoted as saying:

They (the destructive Mogadishu warlords) have accepted and endorsed the Aden declaration and I have a mandate to continue with our discussions to end our differences. 

This is a great victory for the Somali people and a huge political victory for President Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed. Needless to say, the destructive Mogadishu warlords who kept the Somali people hostage for many years through terror have realized their eminent demise and decided to accept defeat. I am told that Qanyare begged to keep his ministerial position in exchange for his surrender. Whatever the truth about his defeat might be, I believe President Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed is wise to accommodate Qanyare’s request temporarily. However, once the security situation in Mogadishu is stabilized, Qanyare, Yalaxow and Caato must be ejected from the government. 

Click here to view the full dispatch on Reuters AlertNet.   

According to the Pan-Arab Al Jezeera Television Network:   

A South African inventor has developed an anti-malaria wristwatch to help combat one of Africa’s biggest killers by monitoring the blood of those who wear it and sounding an alarm when the parasite is detected. 

Gervan Lubbe, the South Africa Inventor was quoted as saying: 

It picks up the parasite and destroys it so early that the possibility of dying is absolutely zero and you don’t even feel the early cold symptoms.  If it works this could pave the way for eradication of Malaria related deaths in the Somalia and many other Malaria affected Africa countries.

Click here for the full story on Al Jezeera. 

The South African Mail & Guardian Newspaper writes:   

Tens of thousands of desperate Somalis have converged on Mogadishu over the past two months, abandoning their homes in the lawless nation’s drought-stricken south and centre to beg for food in the capital as famine looms across East Africa.  Since December, more than 76 000 hungry, thirsty and ailing peasants and pastoralists from at least five of the war-shattered country’s worst-hit provinces have trekked to the mean streets of the bullet-scarred city in search of sustenance, according to aid workers who expect the numbers to rise. 

Click here for the full report on the Mail & Guardian. 

Cabdullaahi Sheekh Ismaaciil; the Foreign Minister of the Transitional Somali Federal Government was quoted as saying:   

The security situation in Somalia is still precarious….There is a great need for the international community and the region to take into account Somalia’s call for the deployment of a peace and stabilization mission until we manage to put in place our security forces. 

The Somalia Foreign Minister went on by saying: 

There is an overall general agreement by all continental and regional actors to come to our help. From here on we will be moving towards the U.N. Security Council to request them to lift the arms embargo.  

I entirely agree with the Somali Foreign Minister that peace in Somalia will certainly remain illusive without external security force from the African Union or preferably from the Arab/Muslim countries.  I must also say that I agree with the Somali religious establishment that troops from Islamic countries will recieve wider Somali public support and respect. Hence, the TFG must work hard for getting peace-keeping forces from the Muslim countries. 

Click here to view the full dispatch on Reuters AlertNet. 

The ISN security watch reports: 

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) claims Somalia is suffering its worst drought in ten years, putting 1.7 million people at risk. The failure of seasonal rains at the end of 2005 has compounded inter-clan fighting for grazing land, and has left almost two million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, according to the OCHA. 

“It is the worst drought in a decade,” Maxwell Gaylard, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said in a Thursday statement. “The drought compounds what was already a dire humanitarian situation, and is affecting communities in areas beset by years of high malnutrition and morbidity rates, chronic food insecurity, clan fighting, and suffering from consecutive bad harvests.” 

Click here for additional reports by ISN. 

According to AGI; a special news service on behalf of the Italian Prime Minister’s office:   

Famine is having devastating effects in Somalia. Over one thousand people, half of which are women and children, died in the last four months as a result of the draught that hit the African Region. The numbers gathered in two weeks of the investigation begun by administrative authorities come from the elders of the Sheppard communities in the entire territory. “There is an elevated level of malnutrition that we can’t quantify with precision, we’re meeting with the district leaders, the women’s organizations, and the local communities to organize the emergency, but no physical aid has arrived as yet.” This was stated by Misna, Mohamed Ahmed Ali, the Deputy Commissioner of the Southern Region of Gedo, one of the worst hit locals in all of Somalia. The main problem, he underlines, “is the lack of water, there isn’t any or it’s not drinkable.” Ahmed Ali da Belet Hawa added, “The river that runs towards the ‘Giuba’ region is about ten kilometres away from the head village of the same district at the confines between Kenya and Ethiopia. The relief provided by FAO’s Local Health Authority confirmed the seriousness of the situation in the Gedo region, above all in the Northern district of Belet Hawa, Luuq and Garbaharey.   

Click here for the full report on AGI. 

The Swiss Info reports:   

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) says there is no end in sight to the drought in parts of Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia. The warning comes as Switzerland prepares to join the countries concerned, aid agencies and the United Nations at a donor and coordination meeting in Nairobi on Thursday.  

Click here for the full dispatch by the Swiss Info. 

According a statement released by United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs(OCHA):   

The humanitarian situation in Somalia has drastically deteriorated following failed rains at the end of 2005. Around 1.7 million Somalis are now in need of urgent humanitarian assistance until June 2006. Southern Somalia in particular faces a widespread Humanitarian Emergency.  According to the recent food security and livelihood survey by FAO’s Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU), an estimated 1.5 million people in North, Central and Southern regions are in a state of Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis or Humanitarian Emergency, and a further 200,000 are on alert status and at high risk of Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis. These figures do not include up to 400,000 internally displaced previously identified by the aid community in need of assistance and protection. Immediate causes of the crisis are a severe drought combined with localised conflicts. FSAU estimates crop production for this year to be 50% of the post war average – the lowest cereal production in over ten years. Cattle deaths in the worst affected areas are already reaching 20-30%, and could reach 80% by April. Malnutrition rates have reached over 25% in some areas and are expected to get worse in the coming months.   

Click here for the full dispatch on the Relief Web. 

Nick Haan, FAO Chief Technical Advisor of Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) for Somalia was quoted as saying:   

While Somalia is normally one of the poorest and most food insecure countries in the world, current conditions are dire and way beyond the typically resilient Somali peoples’ capacity to cope with stress……..The window of opportunity to avert disaster is quickly closing.

See below for a full press release by FSAU. 

The Food Security Analysis Unit for Somalia issued a press release earlier today and warned a dire humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia. The press release read:

An estimated 1.7 million people in North, Central, and Southern Regions of Somalia are facing conditions of Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis or Humanitarian Emergency at least until June 2006.  The Food Security Analysis Unit for Somalia (FSAU), implemented by FAO and funded by the European Commission and USAID, together with FEWS NET/Somalia and 40 partner agencies, have completed a comprehensive situation analysis following the Deyr rainy season which has largely failed.  The results confirm previous early warnings of crop failure, considerable livestock deaths, and fears of dire humanitarian consequences due to extreme shortages of food and water (see FSAU Monthly Briefs for November and December 2005).
The crisis is particularly severe in the Southern Regions of Somalia, where an estimated 1.4 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.  Further stressing their plight, the drought is regional in nature, extending into Ethiopia and Kenya and covering large areas of the greater Somali livelihood system.  Depending on humanitarian response and access, the potential for outbreaks of increased conflict, and food/water supplies, FSAU further warns that there is a moderate risk of Famine conditions in the coming months for the area around Gedo Region.

Click here for the full Press Release on FSAU website.

Somali woman in despair!  As the saying goes, a picture conveys more than thousand words! Somalia badly needs international assistance! 

The facts is, unless we all get serious about the plight of our people, indeed about our own existence as a nation and stand behind our government (TFG) supportively, we will most certainly suffer the same faith in the years to come! We can only move forward and prosper as a nation not as small tribes killing each other senselessly. Hence, we must see the bigger picture and work for a national unity and reconciliation. We cannot and should not allow ourselves mislead by grumpy old men who are fighting for political power and in the process destroying our nation. The Somali youth must unite and eject those grumpy old men from power! 

Copy Right: CBC News. (picture)

According to the Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA):   

UNOCHA spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs said Friday that pledges that were made Thursday in the one-day meeting that…………….. The appeal for Somalia, requiring USD 174,116,815, received pledges totaling USD 5,291,000.  Too bad! This is a fraction of what is required to help avert the food crisis in Somalia! 

Click here for the dispatch on the Relief Web. 

The CBC News reports:   

Countries in the Horn of Africa, including Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, are facing a famine because a drought is killing livestock and stunting crops. The United Nations, aid agencies and the countries themselves are warning about a potential disaster affecting more than five million people.   

The report continued by stating: 

Many children have been reduced to a meal a day, and the UN’s World Food Programme is appealing for donations to feed millions of people to avoid a catastrophe.   

The Somali Nation is facing the biggest food crisis since the drought in early seventies that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. The starving people in Kenya, in Ethiopia and indeed in Djibouti are, with few exceptions, all Somalis. Hence, the international aid agencies must help the Somali Transitional Federal Government to avert the looming catastrophe before it is too late. 

Click here for the full dispatch on the CBC News website. 

Andrew George, MP (Liberal Democrats) asked Hilary Benn; the British Sectary of State for International Development “what assessment his Department has made of the food situation in the Horn of Africa”. 

This is how the Rt. Hon. Hillary Benn responded: 

Poor rains in much of the Horn of Africa at the end of 2005 have left many communities who are dependent on farming and raising livestock in serious difficulties. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has issued a report saying that as many as 11 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti may require assistance in 2006. The severe food shortages in parts of these countries is sadly not a new phenomenon, and DFID has been responding with humanitarian assistance for many years. We are aware of the particular threat this year, the possibility that the current crisis may deepen, and that other areas may come to be affected. DFID humanitarian advisers visited the worst affected areas in Kenya in November 2005, and visits to Somalia and Ethiopia are planned for early 2006. 

The Rt. Hon. Hillary Benn MP went on by saying: 

This month DFID contributed £1 million to the World Food Programme for Somalia on top of the over £5 million we spent there on humanitarian interventions in 2005. This includes a number of health and nutrition operations in the worst affected parts of Southern Somalia. In Ethiopia DFID made a commitment of £43 million in March 2005 to the cash and food aid based Productive Safety Net programme. This programme provides assistance to some of the poorest communities in Ethiopia. In December 2005 we announced a further £2.7 million for Kenya in response to the situation there. DFID will continue to monitor the situation closely and we stand ready to provide additional support if necessary. 

Souce: British House of Commons

Rodrigo de Rato; the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), today issued the following statement on the risk of food shortages in sub-Saharan Africa: 

I note with deep concern the reports of increasing food insecurity in parts of Africa, including reports by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) of the UN, as well as by our own Resident Representatives in sub-Saharan countries in Africa. This follows last year’s food shortages, including in parts of the Sahel zone, notably in Niger, as well as in Eritrea, Ethiopia, parts of Eastern Africa, and in Malawi. The recent reports indicate that drought-related food shortfalls are intensifying in several regions in eastern Africa, and the situation remains difficult in some southern African countries. In the Sahel zone, the food situation has generally improved following the recent harvest, but the situation remains difficult in some parts, especially where livestock were depleted by drought conditions in previous years. 

The IMF Managing Director continued by saying: 

I note with deep concern the reports of increasing food insecurity in parts of Africa, including reports by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) of the UN, as well as by our own Resident Representatives in sub-Saharan countries in Africa. This follows last year’s food shortages, including in parts of the Sahel zone, notably in Niger, as well as in Eritrea, Ethiopia, parts of Eastern Africa, and in Malawi. The recent reports indicate that drought-related food shortfalls are intensifying in several regions in eastern Africa, and the situation remains difficult in some southern African countries. 

Well, the IMF should do more than issuing a blank press release! Yes, I do acknowledge the fact that the IMF’s press release could most certainly attract lots of attention in the international media, and thus could help turn world attention on the plight of the starving Somalis. But the fact is that empty words will not feed a dying hungry man. Hence, the IMF must act now by employing its financial muscle by putting substantial financial resources behind its word.

As the Somali saying goes “ Meel hoo u naahan Hadal waxba kama tago”. 

Click here for the full Press Release on the IMF website. 

Here is a shocking story: 

According to the Aviation Safety Network, a group which monitors aviation incidents worldwide, of the 35 fatal air accidents in 2005, 13 occurred in Africa.   

Overall, the group says, while Africa accounts for just 4% of global air passenger traffic, it accounts for 27% of all fatal air crashes. Among the biggest offenders in terms of equipment he said were Russian-built aircraft, which were involved in 11 out of 13 fatal accidents on the continent last year.   

Tshepo Peege, the president of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) was quoted as saying: 

We can no longer allow the situation to continue where Africa’s skies are known as the most dangerous in the world.   

I can’t help it but I keep thinking about Daallo Airlines which operates in Somalia. The Airline uses old Soviet built aircrafts made for transporting air-borne para-military personal. I saw one of those aircrafts at the Hargaysa Airport when I was there few months ago and they looked very old. Indeed, when you see Daallo Airlines planes flying over the blue Somali sky you’ll be shocked to notice the trail of dark and heavy smoke they leave behind. I would not fly on those aircrafts for free.. Neither should anyone else! 

Click here to view the full artice on Al Jazeera.