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David Michalski of Medecins Sans Frontieres’  Head of Mission in Galgaduud, Somalia was quoted as saying:

The area hasn’t really had international NGOs working in the region, on the ground full time, for years and years and years. It has been really abandoned.

David Michalski  went on by saying:

Now it has also been abandoned because there have been a lot of security issues. You know, it is not that people simply forgot about it. But there have been difficulties in the past.

Click here to view the full report on Medecins Sans Frontieres’ website. You may also like to clicke here to view MSF’s Somalia page.

The United Nations’ Food Security Analysis Unit for Somalia made a Press Release announcing the launch of a new online Digital Library (DILI) for Somalia. 

I checked it and I liked it a lot; loads of online resources on Somalia! Check it out by clicking here. 

Mr. Rodrigo de Rato, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement in Washington D.C. following his meeting with Kenya’s Finance Minister, Mr. Amos Kimunya, on March 27. “I have had the privilege of meeting Kenya’s new Finance Minister, Mr. Kimunya. We held productive discussions on food security, governance, and on issues related to the completion of the second review under Kenya’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangement with the Fund”. “I noted with deep concern the reports of immediate food insecurity in parts of Kenya and appreciated Minister Kimunya’s assessment of the drought implications. The recent drought follows several seasons of poor rains and is Kenya’s worst since 2003. It is currently estimated that about 3.5 million people are in need of emergency assistance.  “Against this background, I urge the international donor community to respond generously and pro-actively in addressing the food needs of Kenya’s people. It will be critical to respond in a timely manner to avoid the human tragedies and adverse economic consequences that have all too often been associated with droughts in the past.   

I hope that the Kenyan authorities will spend the money they receive from the IMF to help the intended recipients; the Somali people in the Kenyan occupied Somali region of NFD. 

Click here to view the full press release by the IMF. 

The Alertnet Reports: 

The European Commission signed a pact giving political recognition to Somalia’s interim government on Tuesday and pledged more aid to the war-weary Horn of Africa nation, hit by fresh violence in recent days. The signing of a “Memorandum of Understanding” with Somali leaders is an attempt by the European Union executive to encourage EU states and others to recognize the government after last month’s opening of an interim parliament on home soil. “I gave assurances of moral, political and material support,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said after the signing of the memorandum with Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi. Barroso said the Commission would next month urge EU states to release a further 70 million euros ($84 million) in assistance to Somalia on top of the 200 million euros it has already granted, mainly through United Nations agencies. 

Click here to view the full dispatch on the REUTERS’ AlertNet. 

The EU strengthened relations with Somalia and stepped up aid for the troubled country on Tuesday. European commission president José Manuel Barroso and development commissioner Louis Michel signed a memorandum of understanding with Somalia’s president Abdullahi Yusuf. Addressing a press conference in Brussels, Michel assured Somalis that the EU had not forgotten their bloody domestic conflict. “For 15 years Europe has been supporting Somali people. This memorandum sets out key principles which will govern our co-operation,” he explained.  It is hoped that Somalia’s recently instated transitional institutions will provide the EU with a partner for peace in the troubled region.  “The memorandum gives Somalia the political backing it needs and also recognises the transitional government as a partner,” a commission spokesman explained.  But despite the transitional government Somalia remains a volatile and dangerous place.

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The Islamic Republic News Agency reports:

The European Commission and the Somali Transitional Federal Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Brussels Tuesday turning a new page in EU-Somalia relations. “It is really a milestone that marks the commitment of Somalia of becoming an active member of the community of nations after all the difficult moments that Somalia has had in the past,” President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters this afternoon. Barroso and Louis Michel, EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, signed the MoU with Somalia’s President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Ghedi. “We are very happy to sign this document because it opens the door for Somalia to the community of nations,” said Yusuf Ahmed. On his part Ghedi said it was an “historic event.” The signing of the MoU is an important step towards possible accession of Somalia to the ACP-EU Partnership agreement, known as the Cotonou agreement. Louis Michel said “this is a very important step in the coming home to the international community for Somalia”. The European Commission has played a vital role both financially and politically for the establishment of the transitional institutions following the Somali peace process initiated in October 2002.

Click here to view the full dispatch on IRNA. 

As animals die by their hundreds each minute due to the severe drought that is ravaging Somalia, the livelihoods of millions of Somali pastoralists die along with it! Consequently, those who lost everything their lives depended upon will have no choice but to migrate to the more urban areas and into the Somali cities and towns with all economic and political repurcussions that comes along with it. Sadly, this is the looming human tragedy that no one is talking about. 

Copy Right (picture): Jason Beaubien; Africa Correspondent for the National Public Radio (NPR). You may like to click here to view Jason Beaubien’s dispatches from the drought devestated Somalia

Following is Press Release by Louis Michel; the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid.

IP/06/368.. Brussels, 23 March 2006

The European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, launches today in Brussels the programming cycle for the 10th EDF (European Development Fund) for the East Africa and Indian Ocean region. This fourth Regional Seminar will be attended by the highest officials responsible for co-operation with Europe from the 12 countries of the region: Seychelles, Maurice, Sudan, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, Madagascar, Tanzania, Uganda, Comoros, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. In December 2005, the European Council adopted a financial envelope for the 10th EDF which comes to €22.7billion for the period 2008–2013. The 9th EDF which covered the period 2002–2007 had been allocated the sum of €13.5 billion. Good performance and respect for the commitments taken – especially with regard to good governance, sound management of public funds and efficient administration – are key factors for the increase in aid allocations towards each country. 

Click here to view the original text (available both as HTML and PDF) on the EU website.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) had released what it calls “Humanitarian coordination mechanisms in Somalia”.

Over the past years, the international response to humanitarian emergencies demonstrated that the system did not always meet the basic needs of affected populations in a timely and predictable manner. With varying responses from crisis to crisis, existing capacity levels are often insufficient to adequately meet key emergency needs in major crises. In order to better understand and correct such deficiencies, the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC), in 2005, commissioned an independent Humanitarian Response Review (HRR) of the global humanitarian system. The HRR identified a three-pronged reform programme to improve the predictability, timeliness, and effectiveness of humanitarian response:
1) Strengthening humanitarian response capacity: This sees the adoption of a cluster approach which encourages the effective use of expertise and technical know-how of mandated organizations in the particular sectors to fill identified gaps in humanitarian response, to ensure accountability with strengthened leadership and clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and to bolster coordination and synergy of efforts.

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Martin Seemungal of ABC News sent this dispatch from Wajir city of the Kenyan occupied Somali region of NFD.  

The scrubby grasslands of northeast Kenya have all but turned to dust. The nomads, who move from place to place to find water and food for their precious cattle, have given up looking for green pastures. The land is dead. It has killed whole herds of cows, and even camels seem to be dying. The nomads understand it is only a matter of time before the people start dying too. The Horn of Africa is facing its worst drought in two decades, and nearly 6 million people in Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Kenya are at risk of dying. The situation is so dire that Africans have come to rely more and more on various sources of foreign aid, which unfortunately, all lack for funds.

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Click here to view the full dispatch on ABC News.

The United Nations has launched a new revised humanitarian appeal for the drought-stricken Somalia and Somali regions in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Aid agencies have launched a revised appeal for US $326.7 million to avert a humanitarian disaster in drought-stricken Somalia, where some 2.1 million people are threatened with starvation following several successive seasons of failed rains. “This current drought is unprecedented in 10 years, and the impact it is having on food, water, health, education and livelihoods is alarming,” said Christian Balslev-Olesen, the United Nations acting humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, during the launch of the revised Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) on Tuesday. Humanitarian agencies had asked for $174 million in December 2005 to help drought-affected people in Somalia. As of 20 March, donors had committed $79,703,293 million - about 25 percent of the funds required to sustain humanitarian operations in Somalia until the end of 2006.

Click here to view the full dispatch on IRIN News. 

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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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. 

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. 

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 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. 

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.