Aid Still Needed for Somalia Famine

Photo Courtesy of News One

Last year's Somali famine killed over 10,000 people. Thanks to a plentiful harvest and an increase in emergency food aid, the famine has finally ended. However, UN officials warn that emergency food aid is needed for more than two million Somalis.

Anti-Western Islamist militia group Shabab banned Western aid from entering most of southern Somalia. Even in the face of such staunch opposition the United Nations helped contribute more than $1 billion. Aid workers worked tirelessly to deliver emergency aid to areas under the Somali transitional government.

Senait Gebregziabher, head of Somali operations for Oxfam has said, "The world shouldn't turn its back on Somalia solely because statistics say there is no longer a famine."

-Akshika Patel


SOURCE:New York Times

The UN World Food Program Responds to Food Shortages in Niger

 The United Nations World Food Program announced plans to scale up its operations inside the country of Niger, where more than one million people are in need of emergency food aid. According to humanitarian agencies, conditions in Niger are particularly bad this year, due to a poor harvest, drought, and insect attacks. The situation was worsened by the return of almost 200,000 migrant workers from Libya and Cote d’Iovire.

Gaëlle Sévenier, a spokesperson for the UN World Food Program, told reporters in Geneva that $60 million is required to fund food aid interventions for the most vulnerable over the next six months, as the country deals with an estimated deficit of 500,000 tons of cereal. Sévenier also added that the number of people in need could rise to two million, by the end of next year.

The UN Food Agency reassured the state of Niger that they would act quickly in the face of crisis. So far, the UN Food Agency has doubled the number of people it plans to feed in Niger during next month’s general food distribution.

- Madeline Lee 

SOURCE: UN News 

UNICEF: More Resources are Needed in the Horn of Africa

The massive humanitarian response to the food crisis in the Horn of Africa has eased the suffering of many, but more resources are needed to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in central and southern Somalia. Elhadi As Sy, the UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, called for the scaling up of integrated intervention in health, nutrition, food security, water and sanitation, education and child protection.

In its monthly report, UNICEF detailed the scale and impact of the famine.

• 13.3 million people are in need of assistance across the Horn of Africa, half of them children. 
• Famine has been declared in six areas of Somalia
• The lives of 750,000 people are at risk if relief efforts are not increased by December. 
• Thousands of children have already died, and more than 320,000 - half of them in central and southern Somalia - are suffering from life threatening malnutrition. 
• More than 450,000 Somalis have fled to refugee camps in north-eastern Kenya. Another 183,000 Somalis have entered Ethiopia, and around 20,000 Somalis have fled to Djibouti.  

The report gave thanks to the international community, for allowing UNICEF and partners across the Horn of Africa to achieve important results on which to build. In the past three months over 10,000 tons of supplies have been delivered to the Horn of Africa. Over 108,000 malnourished children have been treated through therapeutic feeding centers, and some 2.2 million people have received safe drinking water.  

While the humanitarian response to the food crisis in the Horn of Africa has helped thousands, more resources are needed to maintain the relief effort. Thus, although much has been done, it is important to remember that the crisis is far from over.  

- Madeline R. Lee 

SOURCE: UN NEWS 

Appeal from the Executive Director of ONE

The UN recently released data that the famine has not yet reached its peak and will continue to get worse before the situation may begin to make a turnaround in early 2012.

Many international agencies believe that the famine, a disaster created not by nature but by humans, could have been prevented. After the last famine that attacked the Horn of Africa, safety measure were put in place to prevent another widespread humanitarian disaster. However, history is repeating itself once again, which is the argument that is put forth by Jamie Drummond, the executive director of ONE. Click here to see his appeal.

"We can’t just blame politics for their fate while sitting by and doing nothing. We must deal with the politics embedded into the way we deal with the crisis – the local issues that turn drought into famine, the regional complexities that make response slow and difficult, and the global neglect that means promises are rarely kept. We must learn these lessons and in the name of those who have died, declare this time for real: never again."

Let's do our part as global citizens. Please take the time to get in contact with your congressional leaders. See yesterday's blog post for an email template that can be sent so that life-saving food assistance programs will not be slashed in Congress.

-Chelsey Dambro

Source: africanarguments.org