Famine Stalks Somalia: UN Urges World Action

Somalia is facing a level of famine not seen since the 1980’s, senior UN officials have warned, calling for massive humanitarian assistance for the southern part of the country. 

An acute drought and continued fighting have forced hundreds of thousands of civilians into already overcrowded refugee camps in neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, where over 1400 new refugees are seeking shelter every day. 

“I believe Somalia represents the worst humanitarian disaster in the world” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Gutteres told journalists during a visit to a refugee camp in Kenya on Sunday. “And that is why we need to do everything everything we can to make it possible to deliver massive humanitarian assistance inside Somalia.”

 Threats from militias and a worsening security situation over the past months have left much of Southern Somalia out of the reach of aid agencies. Last week UN officials in Somalia welcomed the decision by al -Shabaab, a militant Islamic organization in control of large portions of the country, to allow humanitarian access to those in need.

But the rapidly growing number of displaced peoples has also put additional strain on neighboring states. Kenya and Ethiopia, who are struggling to manage the effects of the food crisis on their own populations, are continuing to see a large influx of displaced people.

The town of Dadaab in Northern Kenya is currently home to the largest refugee encampment in the world and operating well beyond its capacities. Over 350 000 people have sought shelter there, and 10,000 new Somali refugees are arriving every week. 

Over the weekend, Kenyan government officials turned down a UN Refugee agency request to open an other nearby camp to better manage the overflow of displaced people.

“You can imagine what it is like in a camp that was built for 90 000 people that now host over 360 000 people” UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos told reporters today. “The implications in terms of access to water sanitation, our ability to supply the most basic services to those people are extremely limited.”

Amos said she was “disappointed” the Kenyan governments decided to turn down the UN request and urged the international community to do more for the Horn of Africa. 

“We urgently need a united approach to the relief effort so we can avoid a descent into the famine like conditions last seen in the 1980’s.” she said “It’s clear that the effects of this drought are going to last for at least the rest of this year, and the situation in drought affected areas is expected to worsen. The need to do more now is urgent, but in addition, we also need to plan for the longer term, to help people rebuild their lives when the situation improves.”

UN Pleads For Access To Libyan Situation

United Nations officials fear the humanitarian situation in Libya is worsening although they admit they are having a hard time getting a good estimate because of their limited access in the field.

Doctors have seen a sharp increase in casualties in the cities of Ajdabiya and Misrata, while intense fighting has been reported near the western town of Ras Edjir,  said Catherine Bragg, the UN’s Deputy Humanitarian Affairs and Relief Coordinator.

 However Bragg pointed out most of the country remains out of the reach of humanitarian groups.  She told a briefing for UN members states that the Emergency Relief Coordinator has called on all parties to facilitate and allow urgent humanitarian access, particularly in Western Libya, following reports of civilian injuries and deaths resulting from the fighting. 

Bragg says that more than 3/4 of the country remains out of reach from humanitarian actors. Human rights groups and aid agencies remain for the most part unable to confirm any death toll since the crisis began, although most agree that well over 2 000 people have been killed.

A UN humanitarian mission did visit the Eastern region of the country last week. Although basic humanitarian needs are for the most part being met in the east, Bragg says aid agencies are concerned shortages of equipment and specialized medical staff, along with the possible disruption of supply lines to the region, could transform the situation into a much bigger humanitarian crisis in coming days and months.

Michelle Klein Sullivan, United Nations Observer for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), says the number of people trying to leave Libya has decreased significantly in the past few days, but warned that the decrease was likely not a result of improving human rights situation on the ground

“It may be a reflection of the crackdown in the country, internal road blocks and border checks or more fear.” she said. 

Over 250 000 people, mainly migrant workers from Egypt and neighboring countries,  have already fled to the Tunisian and Egyptian borders since February 15th.

Secretary General Ban Ki Moon had a phone conversation with Libyan Foreign Minister Musa Kusa over the weekend, during which its was agreed a UN humanitarian assessment team would be granted unimpeded access into the Western region.

Ban’s spokesperson said the assessment team has already been assembled and was awaiting clearance from Libyan officials,  which Bragg said could come at some point some over the weekend. 

Earlier in the week, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon named a former Jordanian Foreign Minister, Abdul Ilah Khatib, as his special envoy to Libya. Khatib is to meet Ban at UN headquarters on Friday and is expected to begin urgent consultations with the regime in Tripoli. He may also travel to meet with Gaddafi government officials in the coming weeks.

UN, Aid Agencies Shut Out Of Western Libya

International relief organizations have little or no information on the conditions and humanitarian needs in large portions of Libya, and such information is proving extremely hard to come by, says UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affair Valerie Amos.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon yesterday, called on Libyan authorities to offer humanitarian organizations unimpeded access to the country, but so far virtually no organization has been able to travel to the Western regions. 

A United Nations assessment team reached the Eastern opposition stronghold of Benghazi yesterday, where it reported that security situation was calm and that most humanitarian needs in the areas surrounding the city had, for the moment at least, been met.

However the humanitarian situation in Tripoli is for the most part unknown. The United Nations presence in the capital, which was already limited before protests broke out two weeks ago, is now reduced to a few Libyan national staff members who are unable to carry out their work due to safety concerns. 

Ms Amos, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs who is scheduled visit the Tunisian border this weekend,  says that she has received reports that government security forces were preventing Libyans in Tripoli and other Western areas from fleeing.

The security situation along the Western border also remains uncertain . Although tens of thousands have crossed into Tunisia in the past two weeks, Amos says there are unconfirmed reports of a build up of heavily armed Libyan forces along certain border areas, preventing people from leaving.

“Our concern now is that the number leaving Libya dropped sharply yesterday” Amos told reporters.

Amos was able to confirm that as of yesterday, 172 00 people had already fled Libya, the large majority of them foreign laborers. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that there are approximately 1.5 million migrant workers in Libya, nearly a million of whom are Egyptian nationals, along with tens of thousands from Tunisia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Philippines and several countries from Sub-Saharan Africa. These migrant populations are often more likely to be victims of violence. Sub-Saharan Africans from Libya and neighboring countries are often accused of being  mercenaries hired by the regime to crush the protests and have been subject to violent retribution. Egyptian and Tunisian migrants have also reportedly faced attacks and threats from Gaddafi loyalists, who blame them for inciting the popular uprising.

Although a transit camp offering shelter, food and water has been set up on the Tunisian side of the border to accommodate the tens of thousands who have fled, foreign nationals from these countries often find themselves trapped in the region for extended periods of time.  Amos said IOM and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees were working with partners to secure return flights and travel for those who have not yet been evacuated. 

No Easter for starving Sudan

By Ellen Ratner

This past Sunday was Easter, arguably the most peaceful, joyous and hopeful celebration in all of Christendom.

As I glance outside my window, I can see the props of our wealthy civilization: Tall, sleek, buildings of glass and steel, late model automobiles, paved roads and stores offering an abundance of all that that makes life long, good and easy. Yet about one week ago on Palm Sunday, I looked out and saw something else. That day found me in a small village in southern Sudan. And what I saw were buildings of dried grass and open roofs, filled with people, some of whom did not resemble the people I see on the street today – they wore rags, not their Easter Sunday best. And these rags contained men, women and, heartbreakingly, children – so many, many children – who resembled only caricatures of human beings: Malnourished and stick thin, whose tight flesh hosted open, running and sometimes what might be gangrenous sores. Mothers' breasts were dry; fathers and older male children were too weak to gather food that simply wasn't there anyway.

These were the bodies of starvation and the faces of suffering. On Palm Sunday, I was in Southern Darfur.



But among those who suffered, I found little bitterness. I was literally taken by the hand and led to a church service of what is euphemistically called, "returnees" from Northern Sudan and Darfur.

These were the kind of Christians that Jesus would have felt instantly comfortable with. Aside from the church's open roof and dried grass walls, I walked on dirt floors and sat on "seats" of small logs. No cut stone, no stained glass, no elaborately robbed clerics to distract the worshipper from purely spiritual concerns. What there was were people, many of whom hadn't the strength to walk a mile. Yet they crowded into these humble walls to worship their God.

Many of these worshippers were "returnees" who had just returned to this, their home village, just a few days before. They had come from northern Sudan and Darfur.

Several days earlier, a plane from the United Nations World Food Program had visited the village. Sacks of vitally needed food were dropped off and filled the tents of the World Food Program. There were other villages that also needed food, and, as always, there was not enough food to go around. By Palm Sunday, the U.N. food had run out, and the returnees who now crowded the church got nothing.

I would hear their stories but needed no more proof than the gaunt, hollow looks of starvation and malnutrition that characterized each storyteller.

I met a woman who said she was hungry. My translator explained that she would have to live on leaves and water until the U.N. came back. She, like most of the returnees, would be sleeping outside. There weren't enough huts; nevertheless, it might be bearable as the rainy season hadn't yet begun. But remaining outdoors meant increased exposure to mosquitoes carrying malaria (a death sentence given the malnutrition) and an occasional scorpion. But it would have to do.

I have traveled to 60 countries, and up until two weeks ago I thought I had seen it all. The sights couldn't get much worse than Eritrea, the country with the world's lowest per capita GDP. Of course, I was prepared for Darfur.

I was wrong. I have never seen such poverty, such misery and suffering. There was malnutrition as well as no idea and less hope as to when or where the next meal was coming from. People in the prime of life had simply made the decision to die slowly, quietly. There wasn't surplus energy for anything else.

But there was also something else that came with the hunger and running sores – trauma that most Americans only read about in connection with the African slave trade of long ago. The people I met had been forcibly abducted as slaves (although in modernity's penchant for euphemism, they are officially referred to "abductees.") And slavery might have been the least of it. Many of these people were first forced to watch while the village's adult men, as well as some women, were brutally murdered before their eyes. These were fathers, sons and husbands.

After the murders, after being enslaved, came the long march which for many was a death march – always a few murders to keep the rest in line. I've reported on Florida farm workers living in substandard conditions, and I've seen the horrific slums of Kenya, but I've never seen anything like this. The other talk show hosts ranged from the hardest left to the farthest right. And all were moved beyond words at what they saw and heard. Food, not ideology, is what's needed here.

Somebody thought it would be a good idea to bring pens, and we did. How naïve! There is no paper, no school, not even medical care to fill out a doctor's report.

After Darfur I went to Dubai. It may be the world's richest city, beautiful and gleaming. Cranes are everywhere, the sign of work and progress. It struck me like New York City must've looked in the 1920s. I felt like it was another planet, and I could not make any sense of my experience just 24 hours before.

I vow now, in print and before the world, to do something about Darfur. After Hurricane Katrina, I made a similar promise and committed all my spare time to helping people rebuild. I helped raise more than $1 million for the town of Pass Christian, Miss. There's still plenty to do down there, but one thing I cannot do is let the wealth and comfort in which I live and my busy life spin so fast that I forget what I saw in Sudan.

I've been close to the refugee experience since I was a child. Some of my earliest memories were of my parents helping World War II refugees make a home in the United States. But America is not the open door that it was once was. The people I saw in Sudan must rebuild their lives there.

And we must help them. If we do not, we are not worthy of the proud name, "American."