Somalia Donors Falling Short of UN Goal

The international community has so far committed less than half of food and aid and money required for famine stricken Somalia, where aid groups say tens of thousands of people, mainly children, have died in the past months, and hundreds of thousands more are at risk. 

 UN Humanitarian Aid Chief Catherine Bragg told the Security Council earlier today, that the world body’s humanitarian partners were more than 560 million dollars short on funding to provide emergency assistance to the more than 2.8 million people. 

 Bragg says aid agencies still need 1.3 billion dollar to provide emergency assistance for the whole of the Horn of Africa. Earlier this week President Obama announced the US would be contributing an additional 105 million dollars to the crisis.

“Donors have committed more than a billion dollars to the response so far and continue to pledge more.We are very grateful, especially in these difficult economic times. But the magnitude of human suffering in Somalia today demands more.” Bragg told Council members. “Despite the difficulty of operating in one of the most conflict riven countries in the world, we cannot let people down,our response must be scaled up and the resources to support  that effort must be provided.”

 Speaking to reporters via teleconference, UN envoy to Somalia Augustine Mahiga said there had been a significant improvement in the security situation since Al Shabaab had withdrawn from Mogadishu last week, leaving the capital in control of Transitional Government Forces for the first time in years, but that the Islamic militant militia was still  hindering aid delivery. 

At the outset of the crisis Shabaab, who in the past has blocked humanitarian agencies from operating within the regions under its control, said it would grant humanitarian agencies access. The group has however refused to grant the WFP ( World Food Program) access to the region because of its close ties and majority funding from the US. 

Mahiga says other group like the International Red Cross have been able to access these areas but do not have a sufficient food delivery capacity.

“It remains quite a challenge, when you have a group like Al Shabaab, that not only politicizes and attaches ideological attachments to humanitarian assistance but they still have security leverage to prevent humanitarian work.”

UN Declares State of Famine in Somalia, Says Tens of Thousands Dead from Starvation, Millions More At Risk

Tens of thousands of Somalis, mostly children, have died from acute malnutrition in the last three months and thousands will follow unless the international community takes urgent action say senior UN humanitarian officials.  

The world body today declared the food crisis had reached famine levels in Southern Somalia’s Lower Shabelle and Southern Bankool region, with acute malnutrition rates exceeding 30% in children and a daily crude death rate over two per 10 000 people. These levels have not been reached since the famine of the early 1990’s which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

UN Humanitarian coordinator Mark Bowden says child malnutrition rates in certain regions of the country are as high as 50% and warned other regions could soon reach such levels. 

“We still do not have all the resources for food, clean water, shelter and health services to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Somalis in desperate need,” Bowden told reporters in a video conference from Nairobi. “If we don’t act now, famine will spread to all eight regions of southern Somalia within two months, due to poor harvests and infectious disease outbreaks.”

UN agencies estimate that over 60 percent of those in the Southern Region of Somalia (2.8 million people) are in urgent need of lifesaving assistance. Bowden says a rapid large scale humanitarian response could still save lives but so far, the international community’s response and financial commitment has been insufficient. 

“We estimate that $300 million is needed to address the famine in the next two months. This is a rough estimate and the number will probably increase as the number of people in need rises,” said Bowden.

Both EU and African states have been criticized for failing to recognize the severity of the situation and providing a substantial amount of assistance. Bowden says a drop in US assistance over the last two years, from Somalia’s largest international donor to the 7th or 8th largest, made the situation in the country worse.

US officials have blamed the decrease on Al Shabaab, a radical islamic militant group listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department, who in the past has been accused of from commandeering aid and preventing humanitarian organizations from accessing those in need.

Last week Al- Shabaab announced it would allow humanitarian deliveries to parts of the country it controls, but US Ambassador Susan Rice expressed some doubt over their intentions.

“They [Al-Shabaab] say they’ve lifted [the restrictions] after two years of starving their own people. We’ll see if those restrictions are lifted on the ground. Neither the United States nor others in the international community are prepared to pay bribes or taxes to Al-Shabaab while it starves its own people. The question is whether Al-Shabaab will finally, in the face of a massive famine, allow its people to access the critical humanitarian resources that they need.”

WFP Faces $190 Million Budget Shortfall Amidst Growing Food Crisis

The World Food Program (WFP) faces the challenge of helping over 10 million people in need of emergency food aid in the Horn of Africa over the next few months, despite being handicapped by a $190 million budget shortfall.

Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, and other countries in Eastern Africa have been hit by severe and prolonged drought, dramatically increased food prices, skyrocketing fuel prices, and in some countries, political instability.

“WFP has really been gearing up its operations. We think we will have to feed six million people in the area.” Chief WFP Spokesperson Bettina Luescher told Talk Radio News. “It’s very challenging to do that, especially because we are so under funded,” 

The WFP isn’t the only organization facing severe budget deficits. Oxfam International, an NGO operating in 98 countries worldwide, needs $80 million for its campaign in Africa to reach 3 million people across Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya. 

“This is the worst food crisis of the 21st Century and we are seriously concerned that large numbers of lives could soon be lost,” Jane Cocking, Oxfam’s Humanitarian Director said in a statement posted on the organizations website. “Two successive poor rains, entrenched poverty and lack of investment in affected areas have pushed 12 million people into a fight for survival. People have already lost virtually everything and the crisis is only going to get worse over the coming months – we need funds to help us reach people with life-saving food and water.”  

 The crisis has also forced tens of thousands of people from their home, in search of food and greater humanitarian aid.

 “What we are seeing is that population movements and drought are factors that makes it so hard for the people, but at the same time food prices have risen dramatically, sometimes in some areas 30%, in other areas prices have doubled.” Luescher told Talk Radio News. 

 Malnourished children represent a large portion of the migrating population. According to a UNHCR report, more than 50% of Somali children arriving in refugee camps are “seriously malnourished”

“The children are always the biggest concern because they are the most vulnerable. But especially for the children and nursing moms, we give them special extra food so that they can recover.” says Luescher.“We have seen, for example in Ethiopia, where the refugees from Somalia are coming in, you have a acute malnutrition rate of 45% of these little kids that are coming in to the camps, triple what is usually already considered an emergency threshold. It is a dramatic situation and we have mobilized all of our forces and are working with our UN partners “

 The current security situation in Somalia has also caused tremendous complications for the WFP. 

 WFP officials say Al-Shabaab, the Islamic militant organization, has proven to be a tremendous “headache” in the distribution of food aid. Just last year, the WFP had to pull out of Southern Somalia because of unreasonable demands made by Al-Shabaab officials who apparently threatened WFP staff members and demanded payment. Luescher described the decision to pull out as “one of the hardest decisions you ever have to make as an aid organization,”

 A few days ago, Al-Shabaab reportedly decided to lift a ban on humanitarian organizations supplying food aid to Somalis, but it is unclear how quickly organizations will be able to resume operations in affected areas.