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UN declares Famine in
Southern Somalia.
(Dabab, Kenya July 20, 2011
Ceegaag Online)
The UN
officially declared famine in two parts of southern Somalia
Wednesday as the world slowly mobilised to save the 12
million people battling hunger in the region's worst drought
in 60 years.
The
United States urged the Al Qaeda-inspired rebels controlling
the area to allow the return of the relief groups they
expelled two years ago while aid groups warned many would
die without urgent action and funding.
"The
United Nations declared today that famine exists in two
regions of southern Somalia: southern Bakool, and Lower
Shabelle," a statement by the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs for Somalia said.
The
region is Somalia's breadbasket and the UN said that an
estimated 3.7 million people -- or nearly half of the
war-torn country's population -- were facing a food crisis.
"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 humanitarian coordinator
for Somalia Mark Bowden told reporters.
"If we
are not able to intervene immediately, tens of thousands
more Somalis may die," the UN added.
Somalia, which has been affected by almost uninterrupted
conflict for 20 years and become a by-word for "failed
state", is the worst affected nation but parts of Kenya,
Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti are also hit.
The
United States urged neighbouring Eritrea, one of the most
secretive countries in the world, to reveal the scope of its
own food situation.
"Given
the combination of severity and geographic scope this is the
most severe food security crisis in Africa since the 1991/2
Somalia famine," the UN added.
Famine
implies that at least 20 percent of households face extreme
food shortages, acute malnutrition in over 30 percent of
people, and two deaths per 10,000 people every day,
according to UN definition.
The
Shebab expelled foreign aid groups two years ago, accusing
them of being Western spies and Christian crusaders.
However, the UN last week airlifted in the first supplies
since the group said it would lift restrictions on aid.
Malnutrition rates in Somalia are currently the highest in
the world, with peaks of 50 percent in certain areas of
southern Somalia, Bowden said.
"Every
day of delay in assistance is literally a matter of life or
death for children and their families in the famine affected
areas," Bowden said.
Over
78,000 Somalis have fled to seek refuge in neighbouring
Ethiopia and Kenya in the last two months.
In
Kenya, they are streaming into overcrowded camps hosting
some 380,000 people -- more than four times the original
capacity.
On
Tuesday, the UN refugee agency said death rates among
refugees arriving in Ethiopia's Dolo Ado area reached 7.4
per 10,000 in June, 15 times more than the baseline rate in
sub-Sahara Africa.
Somalia's embattled
government welcomed the famine declaration -- the first
since the term was defined by the UN in 2008 -- as a sign
that the world was beginning to acknowledge the scope of the
disaster.
"At
least it is great that the world has recognised the
magnitude of hardship the poor Somalis are facing,"
Abdulkadir Moalim Nur told AFP, a minister in the
president's office.
The
Food and Agricultural Organisation appealed Wednesday for
$120 million (84 million euros) for the 12 million drought
victims in the Horn of Africa.
Aid
group Oxfam said only $200 million (140 million euros) of
the needed one billion (700 million euros) had been
provided.
"There
is no time to waste if we are to avoid massive loss of life.
We must not stand by and watch this tragedy unfold before
our eyes," said Fran Equiza, Oxfam's Regional Director.
The
government's authority over the vast country is limited and
Johnnie Carson, the US assistant secretary of state for
African affairs, stressed that the Shebab's responsibility
in the suffering was clear.
"Al-Shebab's
activities have clearly made the current situation much
worse," Carson told reporters.
UN
agencies will hold a meeting Monday in Rome over the
drought-sparked humanitarian crisis as the world's top
leaders called for mass mobilisation to contain one of the
planet's worst unfolding humanitarian disasters.
As he
toured the continent earlier this week, British Prime
Minister David Cameron described the Horn of Africa drought
as the worst humanitarian catastrophe in a generation.
Source:AFP
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