Somalia humanitarian crisis worsening

[American-Suufi]

26 Jun 2008 18:49:33 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Daniel Trotta

NEW YORK, June 26 (Reuters) - Somalis face mass starvation, with snipers, bombers and kidnappers increasingly targeting aid workers and civilians in the war-torn African nation, aid organization Doctors Without Borders said on Thursday.

The group, also known by its French name Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF, has withdrawn international staff amid the humanitarian crisis because of violence from an Islamist-led insurgency against the Somali government and its Ethiopian military allies.

Violence against civilians has come from all sides, MSF said in a teleconference with reporters in New York. Internal refugees are crammed into unsanitary shelters while prices for rice and corn have tripled since the start of 2008.

"Every time we think that it can't get much worse, it does. ... We feel we have reached a new low," said Nicolas de Torrente, executive director of MSF in the United States.

"Aid workers are increasingly targeted in Somalia, kidnapped, killed," he said.

The Mogadishu-based Elman Peace and Human Rights Organization estimates 2,136 civilians have been killed this year, bringing the civilian death toll to 8,636 since the insurgency began in early 2007 -- the latest in a cycle of conflict since the 1991 fall of a military dictator.

The United Nations says 1 million Somalis -- one-ninth of the population -- are living as internal refugees, and MSF said malnutrition has exceeded emergency rates for a year.

"People sell everything they have to buy extra food. Then they drop out the expensive food items that are usually the most nutritious. Finally they start to ration what they do have. And finally they are in the very difficult situation of having to decide which members of the family are expendable," said Greg Elder, the deputy operations manager in Somalia.

One MSF nutrition program in Mogadishu is flooded with 3,000 children with an additional 500 arriving every week.

"In that center over half of patients are women and children wounded by blasts or gunshot wounds," Elder said.

Benoit Leduc, MSF's operations manager in Somalia, said the killing and kidnapping of aid workers have been chilling.

"Each time we go in a car we fear we will be caught in a cross fire," Leduc said. "We fear to be hit by a roadside bomb. We fear to be kidnapped. So this is the frustration. We are not able to respond adequately to the needs." (Editing by Eric Walsh)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N26348263.htm

[American-Suufi]

Thousands of Somali children need urgent medical aid

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Somalia needs urgent medical aid to save thousands of malnourished children and wounded adults who are trapped in one of the most violent, lawless countries in the world, an international aid group said Thursday

Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, treated more than 2,500 children suffering from acute malnutrition in the towns around Mogadishu, the country's shattered capital, in May alone. More than 2,000 people have been treated for traumatic injuries since the beginning of the year.

"Somalia is no longer on the verge of a catastrophe, the disaster is happening now," said Bruno Jochum, the group's director of operations. "The situation is tragic and we are unable to provide the aid necessary to prevent further deterioration of the situation," he added.

Somalis have few options for escape, as the main border crossings are closed.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and turned on each other. Thousands of civilians have been killed in Somalia since 2007, caught in vicious disputes over ancient clan loyalties, religion and government.

Somalia's shaky transitional administration was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but it has failed to assert real control. After Islamic militants seized control of Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia, the government called in troops from Ethiopia in December 2006 to oust them.

An insurgency started soon afterward, and remains a potent and disruptive force. Rebels set land mines and attack police posts and the Ethiopian troops respond with deadly force, witnesses say.

The humanitarian crisis is aggravated by high global food prices and drought.

Medecins Sans Frontieres released a short video Thursday from one of its clinics around Mogadishu, showing skeletal children who appeared on the verge of death. Hundreds of women and babies were shown lining up outside the clinic seeking help.

Despite the urgent need for help in Somalia, aid work there is fraught with danger. Medecins Sans Frontieres pulled its international staff out of Somalia after three of its workers were killed in a land mine explosion this year.

On Thursday, the humanitarian agency called on all sides in the conflict to "guarantee safe and unhindered access" to aid workers.

Islamic insurgents vowed to target foreign aid workers after a U.S. missile strike killed the head of the Islamist al-Shabab militia, Aden Hashi Ayro, and 24 other people in May. Ayro was reputed to be the top al Qaeda commander in Somalia and was linked to a string of attacks on foreign aid workers and journalists.

Kidnappings and piracy also are on the rise in Somalia, where hijackers demand -- and often receive -- huge ransoms. The 1,880-mile-long (3,000-kilometer-long) coast, the longest in Africa, is overrun with pirates.

On Monday, a German couple and their son were kidnapped along with a French yacht captain off the Gulf of Aden. They were brought to a mountainous area near Puntland, a semiautonomous region of northern Somalia, where clan elders were trying to negotiate their release Thursday.

The pirates were demanding $1 million ransom. The condition of the captives was not immediately clear. A clan elder who is helping negotiate said the boy is suffering from a fever and needs medical help.

On Saturday, a Somali employee of the U.N. refugee agency was kidnapped outside Mogadishu.

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