USAID/OFDA Assistance to Somalia - $47,077,637
USAID/FFP(2) Assistance to Somalia - $197,415,500
State/PRM(3) Assistance to Somalia - $20,100,000
Total USAID & State Humanitarian Assistance to Somalia:
$264,593,137
Click here to retreive the full report by the USAID, et, alt.
Source: RW
The Oxford Analytica released following report on “The effect of a growing food emergency on security in the Horn of Africa”.
SIGNIFICANCE: Poverty, drought and food insecurity are well known in the Horn of Africa. This latest emergency occurs at a time of global increases in the price of food and fuel and when regional conflicts threaten to destabilise the region.
ANALYSIS: The sharp increase in food and energy prices globally has hurt the poorest and most food insecure regions of the world particularly hard. According to the US Agency for International Development’s latest estimates, as many as 16.3 million people in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti) are in need of emergency assistance or face food insecurity. Hunger and security. This latest food security crisis arises in a context of increasing tensions within and between the states of the region:
1. Somalia. In Somalia, this is the third year that the rains have failed. The incredible scale of the food security crisis is overshadowed by the humanitarian emergency caused by the brutal insurgency and counter-insurgency which have persisted since early 2007. In June, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) signed a UN-brokered peace agreement in Djibouti. Under the Agreement, the TFG and ARS agreed to end their conflict and called on the UN to deploy an international stabilisation force. However, prospects for such a force are remote, violence continues, and a faction of the ARS based in Asmara has condemned the accord.
The London based Iranian Press TV reports:
Four Ethiopian soldiers were killed in heavy clashes with the Union of Islamic Court (UIC) fighters north of the Somali capital Mogadishu. A Press TV correspondent, reporting from Mogadishu, says the fighting between the Ethiopian troops and the UIC fighters is ongoing in the Industrial Street. According to an eye-witness at least six mortars landed in the Pasta Base in north Mogadishu killing 4 Ethiopian soldiers and injuring several others. In a telephone interview with Press TV the UIC spokesman, Abdirahim Isse Addow, confirmed that the UIC has launched two strong attacks on Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers. Somalia has been without an effective central government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. In 2006, US-backed Ethiopian troops invaded the country in an attempt to back Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG). Thousands of civilians have been killed and displaced as a result of the continuous violence in the war-torn country.
Click here for more Somalia News compiled by the Press TV.
According to a Press Pelease by the European Commision:
The European Commission has allocated a further €21 million in humanitarian aid for the Horn of Africa: Assistance is being provided to vulnerable populations in Somalia (€13m), Eritrea (€4m) and Ethiopia (€4m). So far in 2008, the Commission has provided nearly €120 million in humanitarian aid, including food aid, to needy people in the Horn of Africa (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda). The funds are channelled through the Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO), under the responsibility of Commissioner Louis Michel.
The Press Release went on by saying:
The Commission’s assistance will focus on rural populations and internally displaced people (IDPs). It addresses core humanitarian needs, with emergency relief assistance for IDPs, host communities, the most marginalised groups and the chronically vulnerable, focusing on central and southern Somalia. The main needs identified are shelter and non-food relief items, health and nutrition, emergency food assistance, water and sanitation, as well as co-ordination of relief efforts. The Commission has also provided food aid worth €14 million so far this year. Humanitarian aid worth more than €56 million has been provided for Somaliasince 2006.
Click here to view the full Press Release by the European Commission.