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The European Union made a press release regarding the European response to the drought-related crisis in Somalia and the rest of the East African Countries– It reads:

MEMO/06/130 Brussels, 20 March 2006

Drought conditions caused by the failure of the rains for some years in a row have put millions of people at risk of starvation in the Horn of Africa. Countries affected include Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. These seven countries form IGAD, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. Food security is one of the issues on which IGAD focuses. Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, attends the 11th summit of IGAD Heads of State and Government taking place in Nairobi today. During the summit, he will make proposals on the strengthening of regional cooperation and will hold a number of bilateral meetings with the Heads of State and Government of the region. In addition, Louis Michel will address the problem of the drought in Kenya and the Horn of Africa and will announce a further decision of €5 million to increase the European Commission’s response (see IP/06/336).  So far, the Commission has allocated €78 million for drought-related interventions in response to the crisis. It has a two-pronged approach involving the provision of relief assistance under the humanitarian aid budget (€17 million to date) and of support aimed at tackling the effects of the drought in the medium and longer term (€61 million). The latter involves financing mainly from the food aid/food security budget line and from the European Development Fund (EDF).

Click here to view additional information regarding this Press Release.

In response to the current crisis Trócaire, with the support of Irish Aid, is ensuring that schools in the Gedo region remain open and that health services are maintained. Trócaire is funding school meal, therapeutic feeding and supplementary feeding programmes through Community Education Committees (CECs) and the Gedo Health Consortium, a group of three NGOs of which Trócaire is a member. Trócaire works with CECs and the newly established District Education Board (DEB) in 14 schools in BeledXaawo, Dolow, Luuq, Tulabarwaqo and Garbaharrey and reaches over 3,000 children. The agency provides nutrient rich food for school meals, has built shades to protect pupils from the scorching sun and has bought utensils for cooking and eating. It has also provided water and fuel-wood to schools that needed them. 

Click here to view the article on Trócaire’s website. 

Benson Amollo of the Kenyan Times writes:

The post-conflict reconstruction and the possibility of deploying a peace keeping mission to Somalia by the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) countries is set to feature prominently at the ordinary session of the Heads of State of the seven-member countries in Nairobi today. The Heads of State meeting in Nairobi, to be hosted by Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki, will determine the fate of the war-torn Horn of Africa’s country, currently recuperating from a 22 year-old civil strife under a Transitional National Government (TNG) and Parliament. The Heads of State are set to deliberate and pass recommendations on whether IGAD partners should send peace keepers to Somalia as agreed last year. They should also agree on an action plan aimed at wooing the international community to chip in donor support for the country’s reconstruction.

Well, I am very skeptical about the effectiveness of IGAD as an organization. Indeed, they have created lots political and legal problems for Somalia. For instance, the dispute regarding the UN Security Council arms embargo and the deployment of foreign peace-keeping forces to Somalia is based upon a wrongful interpretation of the Security Council Resolution # 733. The fact is that Resolution 733 is not applicable to peace-keeping in Somalia, yet, IGAD council of ministers ignorantly thought that the arms embargo must be lifted before IGAD headed peace-keeping forces could be send to Somalia.  I believe Somalia is pursuing a wrong foreign policy at the moment. We should leave both IGAD and the African Union and established better political relations with the Arab and Islamic countries! I do not see any reason why Somalia should be in the same political, cultural and economic union with countries like Ghana, Gongo, Uganda etc. The whole concept of creating a club (African Union) for the poor African blacks is racist!

Somalia must join with countries that we have political, economic, cultural and religious ties! We do not have anything to do with Ghana, Gongo, Uganda or South Africa for that matter.

Click here to view the full dispatch on the Kenyan Times.

Louis Michel; EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Development was quoted as saying: 

I am proposing to you a regional pact for stability, security and development in the Horn. This pact would revitalize and complement agreed common programs to address the regional cross-border dynamics and ensure that such programs are fully effective. (…) This strategy should focus, in particular, on regional governance, natural resources management, food security, border control and nonproliferation of small arms,” he told eastern Africa leaders in Nairobi. (…)The history of the EU can be a source of inspiration for the region. The EU has thrived and flourished because it has overcome long-standing rivalries and hatred.

Louis Michel went on by saying:

Nowadays, your regional political forum, IGAD, has become a central part of the political and security architecture of the Horn of Africa. It needs to be utilized to its full potential. Butthis requires genuine political will and commitment.

 Well, I will need to study the full strategy text before I can make an educated judgment. However, my gut-feeling tells me that this “strategy” is nothing more than Europe’s covert way of trying to curb immigration from the Horn of African countries. I don’t think this is something that will have positive impact in terms of security and economic development for the countries concerned. It is an old anti-immigration strategies sugar coated with a gentler political rhetoric. It will not work!

Click here to view the dispatch on the Xinhuanet.

In a meeting held in Brussels on March 20^th 2006, The European Union General Affairs Council adopted the following conclusions regarding the Somali political crisis: 

1. Recalling its unequivocal support to the Somali National Reconciliation Conference and the Transitional Federal Institutions, as expressed in the Council’s conclusions of 22 July 2002 and 22 November 2004, the Council reiterated the strategic importance of peace, stability and prosperity in Somalia and the EU’s commitment to continue supporting the Somali reconciliation and peace process. 

2. In this context, the Council welcomed as an important step towards reconciliation and governance the opening on 26 February 2006 of the first session on Somali soil of the Transitional Federal Parliament in the city of Baidoa. It commended the Somali leaders for their efforts to put aside any remaining differences to make possible this important step. It encouraged them to continue working together to facilitate a representative and productive Parliamentary session and in general to ensure the proper functioning of the Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs) to the benefit of the Somali people. 

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According to statement released by the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC):

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is stepping up its emergency operation to assist more than 1,200,000 drought-affected people in Somalia over the next four months. Relief is being delivered to the most conflict-ridden areas in the southern part of the country in order to avert a potential famine. The ICRC has increased its estimated expenditure in Somalia for 2006 by 61%, from 26,118,000 to 41,951,500 Swiss francs. Severe drought following up to four years of insufficient rainfall has resulted in acute shortages of water and food, withered grazing lands, a sharp drop in cereal production and vast numbers of dead cattle in the parts of southern Somalia that have been hardest hit.  The drought has aggravated an already appalling situation in humanitarian terms. In 15 years of internal conflict, thousands of families have been forced not only to flee their homes but also to endure lawlessness and cope without basic health and education services.

Well, as the saying goes, action speaks loader than words. And as I wrote before, It looks the ICRC is doing better than the cumbersome, over bureaucratic and highly disorganized UN agencies! 
Click here to view the full article on ICRC website.

The UN News Wire reports:

The United Nations Security Council today welcomed the convening of the first session of the Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP) in Somalia, while condemning the increased inflow of weapons there and calling on all parties to cease the fighting that continues to claim innocent life and hamper critical humanitarian aid.

Click here to view the full article on the UN News Wire. You may also click here to view the full statement by the UN Security Council. 

Kjell Magne Bondevik; UN Special Humanitarian Envoy to Somalia was quoted as saying:   

There are a number of important countries that are not willing to help out because they are disenchanted and think the situation is hopeless.

Click here to view the full article on Black Britain. 

The famous cold-war era author John Le Carré was qouted as saying:

In the worst drought of the decade, 3.5 million people in northern Kenya (Somali people in Kenya occupied region of NFD) are in imminent danger of starving to death, dying of thirst, or being killed in fights for survival. (…) Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, this time round, we devoted as much money and energy to saving 3.5 million of our fellow citizens as we do to making war in other regions of the globe.

I agree with Mr. le Carré that it would be really wonderfull to save the lives of the starving Somalis in Kenya, Ethiopia and in Somalia. Indeed, the amount the United States spends on a single day in waging war in Iraq could feed millions of people for a decade or more.  Unfortunately, there are no readily exploitable oil reserves in Somalia, Somali NFD or Western Somalia (Ogaden). Regrettably, the Somali people are left for the wolves to feed. 

Click here to view the full article on the Independent newspaper in London. 

Adam Mynott of the BBC writes:

Somalia is now in the grip of one of the worst droughts to hit the Horn of Africa for decades. The country has been without a functioning government for the past 15 years. The combination of these two factors threatens to bring a human tragedy on a vast scale. In the southern Lower Shabelle region, Kadicha Mohammed said that none of her three children had had a proper meal for a week. No-one knows how many people in Somalia are affected by drought for the simple reason that in this lawless land no-one knows the size of the population of Somalia.

What’s happening in Somalia can be described as a tragic situation that could have been prevented from happening in the first place. However, what is more tragic is the fact that the response of the international community is, at best, too little too late!

Click here for the full dispatch on the BBC News. 

Aid is failing to reach nearly 1.5 million people facing the threat of starvation in drought-stricken Somalia, a charity warned today. 

The lack of rain across East Africa over the past two years has seen wells and watering holes dry up completely, according to Christian Aid. The charity - which launched an appeal fund earlier this month - said they had received reports of people dying of thirst and others being driven to drinking their own urine to survive. Up to 80% of cattle herds have also died in the drought, as time begins to run out for the 11 million people the UN estimates are at risk of starvation if the crisis continues. But while aid is beginning to arrive in Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Djibouti, Somalia’s dire security situation has meant little food or water has reached the 1.5 million people who desperately need help.

Click here for the full article on the Irish Online News Portal; Unison. 

The United Nations’ Food Security Analysis Unit for Somalia says:

Given the significant possibility of a below normal outcome - combined with the current precarious humanitarian emergency in southern Somalia and the sustained possibility of widespread conflict - it is prudent for all stakeholders to prepare for a worst-case humanitarian and livelihood scenario.

Click here to view the full dispatch on the AlertNet. 

Jack Kimball of the Reuters News Agency writes: 

Drought-stricken Somalia could face a new famine on the scale of the catastrophe that killed tens of thousands of people in the early 1990s, a food security analyst told Reuters on Wednesday. If the rains do not come, more than 10,000 people could die each month, said Nicholas Haan, chief technical advisor for the Food Security Analysis Unit, a project of the European Union and the U.S. government.“The southern part of Somalia would be at high risk of famine conditions, high risk meaning we estimate an over 50 percent probability it’s going to happen,” Haan said. “If our high risk prediction is correct, it would be comparable to what we saw in ‘93 to ‘94 in Somalia.” Tens of thousands of Somalis perished in a famine that decimated the country in the early 1990s.

Click here for the full dispatch. 

The United Press International Reports: 

At least 1.7 million Somalis teeter on the verge of famine as record droughts in the Horn of Africa have led to extreme crop shortages, says a new report. According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, a U.S.-funded program to predict and manage food insecurity, the current crisis is worst in southern Somalia where an estimated 1.4 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. The FEWS Net report said that an additional 400,000 refugees whose livelihoods depend on menial farm work and social support are also at serious risk. “As a result of failed rains, crop failure and severe pasture and water shortages are affecting southern Somalia,” the report said. “Significant livestock deaths have occurred and cereal prices have increased beyond the reach of most poor households.” Because the drought has a regional scope, affecting parts of Kenya and Ethiopia, migration options are limited and social support systems are “stretched” to capacity, said the report. 

Click here for the full story on UPI. 

The above map is showing most affected regions with mass distress migration and famine food consumption in Somali and Greater Horn of Africa (GHA). Copy Right: FEWS. 

The map shows the regions with high lifestock death and severe water shortages. Copy Right: FEWS. 

Conflict among pastoral communities and with agricultural communities frequently intensifies during droughts, as communities vie for access to scare water and pasture resources. Copy Right: FEWS.

Total annual rainfall (mm) for selected pastoral areas in the Greater Horn of Africa in relation to the minimum threshold for viable pastures: 1995 – 2005.. Copy Right: FEWS 

Nicholas Haan, chief technical advisor for the Food Security Analysis Unit, a project of the European Union and the U.S. government was quoted as saying:   

The southern part of Somalia would be at high risk of famine conditions, high risk meaning we estimate an over 50 percent probability it’s going to happen. (…)If our high risk prediction is correct, it would be comparable to what we saw in ‘93 to ‘94 in Somalia. 

Mr. Haan went on by saying:

This is manifesting itself as what could be a major humanitarian catastrophe of historic nature.   

Click here to view the full dispatch on the Reuters AlertNet.  You may like to click here for the original story by the Reuters news Agency.

The Irish Medical Times writes:   

The current drought in Somalia, Kenya and through the Horn of Africa is causing up to 11 million people to go hungry, according to recent UN statistics.  Nomadic farmers roam the arid plains in Somalia with their camels in search of pasture and water for their livestock and dead animal carcasses line the roadsides. Compounding matters is the widespread breakdown of law and order in Somalia. Since 1990 Somalia has operated without a government, and, as a result, its infrastructure has suffered. 

Click here for the full dispatch on the Irish Medical Times. 

 

Copy Right: Islamic Relief.

The above picture shows conditions of cows in Kenyan occupied region of Somali NFD. 

You may like to click here to view Islamic Relief’s Horn of Africa Emergency Response. Also, click here for more pictures from the drought devastated Somali NFD. 

This is a crisis on the verge of becoming a catastrophe. There are dead cattle everywhere and people have sold everything they have to buy food.  (…) These are the last few weeks that many people are going to be able to survive without help.

Dominic Nutt; Emergencies specialist, Christian Aid.

The African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) says:

At least 1.4 million people are facing a humanitarian emergency in southern and central Somalia and if sufficient food and water is not provided urgently, there is risk of an all out famine. The failure of both rainy seasons in 2005 has led to minimal harvests and acute lack of water and pasture. This, combined with ongoing civil strife for more than 15 years, has led to the worst food security situation the country has ever faced. One of the most affected regions is Gedo in the south of the country, where the African and Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) works. Cattle carcasses are strewn along the roadsides and on the edge of villages, and it is estimated that 80% of the cattle will perish by April. This is particularly disturbing, as more than half of the population are nomadic cattle herders.

Click here for full report on the AMREF website.

The Reuters AlertNet reports:

A measles vaccination campaign targeting 2.5 million children in southern and central Somalia has started, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said. “Data from routine measles vaccination for 2005 indicates that less than 25 percent of infants were vaccinated before their first birthday and that Somalia has registered very low coverage for all vaccine-preventable diseases since the collapse of the central government in 1991,” said John Lebga, UNICEF Somalia project officer for health and nutrition. Measles is one of the leading causes of childhood deaths in Somalia, where vaccination coverage is about 38 percent. The country has one of the highest infant and under-five mortality rates in the world, with 132 deaths per 1,000 live births and 225 per 1,000 respectively, a joint statement from the agencies said. 

Click here for the full article. 

In an statement released yesterday, UNICEF Acting Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator Christian Balslev-Olesen said:   

Aid workers should be able to operate without fear and we appeal again to all political and religious leaders, elders, the business community and opinion leaders in Somalia to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers and the critically-needed assistance they deliver, especially during the current drought. (…) We cannot save lives if we cannot reach the communities that are in need, and we are not guaranteed safe passage.   

Click here for a news dispatch on this by the Chinese News Agency (Xinhuanet). You may also like to click here to view previous UN Appeals for access and some comments we made about it. 

Guled Mohamed of the Reuter News Agency sent following dispatch from the Somali capital; Mogadishu:

The United States has funded a new “anti-terror” coalition to fight Islamists in Mogadishu to avenge the killing of American soldiers there in the 1990s and to ensure anarchy persists, a leading Islamist has alleged. In a rare interview, Sheikh Dahir Uweys, 61, who is on a U.S. list of most wanted terrorists, said Washington was still bitter over the deaths of 18 soldiers in lawless Somalia during a U.N. mission in the early 1990s that went sour. That incident was depicted in the film “Black Hawk Down”. “Americans were killed and dragged here, they have a grudge against the Somalis,” the military officer-turned-cleric told Reuters late on Friday. Uweys said a newly formed Somali political group — calling itself the Mogadishu Anti-Terrorism Coalition and comprising many of the city’s major warlords — was behind a recent flare-up in violence, with U.S. support and funding. In the worst fighting of recent times in Mogadishu, at least 37 people died and scores were injured in mid-February when pro-coalition fighters clashed with Islamists, residents say.

Click here to view the full dispatch of Washington Posts Newswire. You may also like to click here for addtional disptaches by the Reuters.

The Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA) reports:   

An Arab ministerial committee assigned to follow ‏up the situation in Somalia on Saturday put forth a strategy that would help Somalia’s interim government ensure security and stability of the African country. A resolution adopted by the committee at the Cairo meeting, stipulated that the plan will be submitted to the next Arab Summit. The strategy urges Arab countries to relieve Somalia from its debt and calls on Arab nations to honor their pledges to the USD 26 million special funds for support to Somalia that was established during the Algiers Summit to meet the needs of the Somali transitional government. It also called on Arab nations to offer immediate humanitarian aid to prevent an outbreak of famine in Somalia, which threatens 400,000 people. The committee urged Arab countries to lift the ban on Somali imports especially livestock. The Committee also assigned the Arab League to coordinate with the African ‏Union to prepare and execute a joint program to disarm Somali militias. The meeting was held in the Arab League’s headquarters in Cairo. The Committee’s meeting took place on the sidelines of the 125th session of the Arab League Ministerial Council due to begin late Saturday.

I thought our brothers and sisters in the Arab World left Somalia for the wolves to feed, luckily this news proves me wrong. Having said that, I think, the Arab League should do more to help the starving Somalis. 

Click here to view the KUNA website. 

The UK based Charity; Save the Children launched an emergency appeal for the drought devastated Somali children in Somalia, Kenya and in Ethiopia. Save the Children says:   

More than 2 million children across East Africa are suffering the effects of the worst drought to hit the region in years. Save the Children is seeking to bring life-saving support to the most vulnerable children and their families during the coming months. Please help us fund our work by making a donation.   

Click here to donate. You may like to click here to view Save the Children’s Somalia website.

The Relief Web qouting senior CARE staff says:   

A mass movement of people across political boundaries and increasing violence against women are major concerns unless a consistent and coordinated emergency response occurs across the Horn of Africa, leading humanitarian agency CARE warned today. The magnitude of the drought — approximately 8 million people in the worst affected countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti — could create tens of thousands of ‘aid-pull’ refugees drawn across traditional tribal and political boundaries in a desperate search for food and water. Some migration has already exacerbated the problems of scarce grazing and water, and provoked fighting between clans. Women, traditionally responsible for fetching water, are also traveling longer distances and are increasingly at risk of gender-based violence in the drought affected areas. “Emergency food and water must be provided urgently, but also uniformly across the entire region, particularly along borders between countries,” said Mohammed Qazilbash, Senior Program Manager for CARE’s emergency response in Kenya. “If one side of a border has food and water available, we will inevitably see people moving en masse towards it, regardless of demarcated boundaries. This will escalate cross-border tensions and could potentially catapult pockets of the Horn into violent conflict.”.   

The situation looks very bleak for the starving Somalis. Unfortunately, the response from the international community thus far is, at best, too little too late! I hope the world will wake up soon and help avert this looming catastrophe before it is too late. 

Somalia is crying for help! Is anyone listening????? 

Click here to view the report on the Relief Web.