Ainashe.net

The Reuters news agency reports:

Talks aimed at reconciling Somalia’s fledgling transitional government and the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), were continuing on Monday in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, under the mediation of the League of Arab States. At the same time Kenya announced that President Mwai Kibaki would on Tuesday chair a special summit of the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which will discuss the Somali crisis. IGAD, which comprises Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia, mediated the reconciliation talks that culminated in the formation of the transitional government in Kenya in October 2004.

Click here to view the full report.

Source: UNOSAT.  You may like to click here to view the original map.

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. 

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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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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Copy Right: John Donnelly of The Boston Globe 

Mark Simmonds; MP for Boston and Skegness asked the UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the security situation in Somalia.  The response from the British Government was given by the Rt. Hon Ian Pearson, MP. The Rt. Hon Ian Pearson said: 

Somalia has had no effective Government since 1991. We are supporting the establishment of Transitional Federal Institutions to restore peace and security, but in the interim most of Somalia continues to be controlled by armed clans and factions which frequently resort to violence. We therefore advise against all travel to Somalia because of the terrorist threat, the dangerous level of criminal activity and internal insecurity. Westerners and those working for western organisations have been targeted in recent shootings. 

The Rt. Hon Mark Simmonds also asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the activities of (a) al-Qaeda and (b) Islamic fundamentalists in Somalia. 

The Rt. Hon Ian Pearson replied by saying: 

The absence of effective Government in Somalia creates a vacuum in which terrorists, such as, al-Qaeda, operate, threatening the region and the wider international community. Islamic fundamentalists are seeking to create an Islamic State in Somalia. We have been closely engaged in the Somali national reconciliation conference and the subsequent political process. We continue to work closely with the UN and other members of the international community to achieve a comprehensive and lasting settlement and a return to good governance in Somalia, through the establishment of Transitional Federal Institutions and a return to democracy. 

Source: The British Government 

We have contracted several agencies in the United Nations system, countless number of NGOs, ICRC and many governments in the West and the Arab World. We will occasionally publish selected email responses from our current campaign to inform the world about the plight of the starving Somali people in Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and in Western Somalia (Ogaden) occupied by the Ethiopia.

Below is an email we received from the UNDP Somalia office in Nairobi. The email summarizes the food crisis emergency relief efforts by the UN system and some other international humanitarian agencies.

1.  There is now a common understanding of the magnitude of the crisis. The already dire humanitarian situation is now further aggravated by the worst drought in Somalia in a decade. Approximately 1.9 million people are in need of urgent assistance and protection, including up to 400 000 IDPs. The Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) of FAO further estimates that about 240,000 people are at high risk of falling into a state of Acute Food an Livelihood Crisis. Hence, the number of people in a state of livelihood crisis and humanitarian emergency has almost tripled (more than 500,000 people identified in the Post 2005 Gu survey and now almost 1.5 million people) . More than 600′000 people - some of whom were already in a state of humanitarian emergency - in Gedo, Middle and Lower Juba and areas of Bay and Bakool face a moderate risk of famine.  FSAU reports total crop failure in 6 Southern regions and livestock loss up to 80% in some districts in Gedo.

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Following is a list of projects and costs from the United Nations Consolidated Appeal for Somalia 2006. (see below entry for further details).

The 2006 Consolidated Appeal for Somalia seeks US$ 174,116,815 for 77 projects in the five sectors of Access and Security; Food Security and Livelihoods; Health, Nutrition, Water and Sanitation; Education; Protection and the three cross cutting sectors of Human Immuno-deficiency Virus/Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS); Return and Integration; and Capacity Building. 

Following is excerpt from the United Nations Consolidated Appeal for Somalia 2006.

After fourteen years of state collapse and widespread civil war, Somalia’s population of seven million faced renewed hope when the transitional parliament was formed in June 2004 and an interim President, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, was subsequently elected in October 2004. The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) returned to Somalia in June 2005, but critical issues that would reflect political progress, linked to security, the interim seat of government and national reconciliation remained unresolved. Although the expectation was that the TFG was ‘a new dawn’ for the war-ravaged country, the outcome has been complex, with accompanying peace and stability still some way off. Even though the challenges are considerable, there remains no doubt that Somalia is at a crossroads as the TFG strives to gradually expand its authority throughout the country.
In 2006, United Nations (UN) agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) intend to work closely with local authorities and communities, as outlined in the Common Humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP), toward the following three strategic goals:

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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. 

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. 

Following is a short translation of Dr. Abdulkarim Soroush’s recent speech in London. The reporting is done by the BBC Persian service.

Dr. Abdulkarim Soroush, in his most recent speech in London entitled “The Ideal Islamic State”, has spoken about the inability of fiqh [Islamic jurisprudence] to deal with many of the concerns of modern-day society, as well as about the challenges faced by Muslim immigrants in non-Islamic societies. Dr. Soroush argued that, despite the assumption made by many Muslim thinkers that fiqh contains solutions to “all human concerns”, the experience of the establishment of the Islamic Republic by an Iranian faqih (cleric/expert) in Islamic jurisprudence] proved that, despite its broad scope, fiqh does not have answers to many of the questions and concerns of modern-day human beings.

Dr. Soroush seems to be taking a very narrow view about the Islamic faith and indeed about other religions and the world in general. He should know that there is no system or religion that could claim to address, as Dr. Soroush puts, “all human concerns” to its infinitesimal level. The idea that religion deals with human conditions from a very broad point of view is not peculiar to the Muslim faith. Islam gives universal set of beliefs and guidelines regarding how believers (Muslims) should live their lives in accordance with the Holy Koran and the Hadith. The rest is left to individual to decide as long as his/her actions do not conflict with those guidelines and teachings of Islam. For instance, you will not be able to find in the Holy Koran instructions on how to iron your trousers nor will you able to learn anything about computer programming by reading the Holy Koran or the Bible for that matter. In short, Dr. Soroush’s attempt to argue for secularism by saying that the Islamic religion is too general to solve world problems is self defeating. (more…)

According to Reliefweb:

Six million people are on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa region due to severe drought, crop failure and depletion of livestock herds, according to the United Nations. The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said about 2 million people needed urgent humanitarian help in Somalia. The situation was also very serious in southeast Ethiopia, with up to 1.5 million people affected, and Djibouti. According to the United Nations at least six million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti need food, but only 16,400 tonnes of the required 64,000 tonnes have been made available. Trócaire is currently developing a targeted response by expanding its work in both Somalia and Kenya, at an estimated initial cost of €23,000.

Xasan Maxamed Nuur (Shaatiguduud); the Minister of Agriculture of the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) should be applauded for being less troublesome than the destructive Mogadishu warlords such Qanyare and Yalaxow. However, he must come out to the limelight now and he must stand up for the Somali people and address the severe food crisis issues that are facing our nation. He must appeal to the international community on behalf of our people as Minister for Agriculture. He cannot keep sitting under the cool shade of big tree and eat his mango till eternity. In short, he must act like a Minister who takes his duties seriously.

The Somali people are getting tired of the so called government ministers who want to be ministers for the sake of the title without having any clue whatsoever about what to do with their powerful government positions let alone how to discharge the duties entrusted upon them. Perhaps, I should not single out Shaatiguduud since the majority of the ministers failed and failed the Somali people miserably, but we must remember that the lives of millions of Somalis are on the line and that’s something that cannot be taken lightly. Hence, Shaatiguduud must act and he must act NOW.

Click here for the full report on the ReliefWeb.