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TechnoratiWorld Looks Elsewhere As Somalia Misery Grows
Relief official says aid programs overstretched, underfunded as thousands displaced by war
The bleeding in Somalia goes on, with thousands dead, more than 300,000 displaced and the survivors of the conflict threatened with rape, starvation and disease.
Yet, humanitarian agencies say, Somalia is becoming Africa's forgotten crisis, as the catastrophic conflict in Darfur captures the headlines, and wars in other parts of the world dominate the news.
Degan Ali, executive director of Somalia-based Horn Relief, was in Toronto yesterday to remind Canadians of the dire situation and aid workers' struggle to bring relief to people who have been caught in decades of wars.
"The conditions for people who have fled their homes are horrific," said the Somali-born American, who took over the project from her mother, Fatima Jibrell. "In some regions they're being charged `rent' by local people just for sheltering under a tree."
Water, food and sanitation are poor to non-existent.
In the capital Mogadishu, meanwhile, daily gunfire and explosions confine people to their homes, and only the poorest - or fighters' families - stay on.
Inter-clan fighting has caused near-anarchy in Somalia since the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, igniting a power struggle of warlords, clans and splinter groups. After a brief takeover by an Islamist movement that was driven out of power last year, fighting flared again when an Ethiopian-backed transitional government tried to recapture the capital.
Yesterday gun battles spread through villages south of Mogadishu, as Somali leaders meeting in Saudi Arabia said they want to replace foreign forces backing the interim government with Arab and African troops under United Nations command.
Humanitarian groups have fled Somalia after attacks and killings. But, Ali says, in spite of the danger, aid programs continue, though overstretched and underfunded.
One that has met with surprising success is Horn Relief's cash handout program that gives $60 a month to destitute people to buy food, shelter, medicine or other badly needed goods.
"It gives people freedom to get what they need most. For some it's help with moving, others, access to credit or a pair of children's shoes," she says.
Working with its partner, Oxfam, Horn Relief is also planning a more ambitious infrastructure project, rebuilding a once-bustling port at Laas Qoray, in the Gulf of Aden in northern Somalia. The $8 million project is expected to produce crucial revenues from trade and shipping.
For now, Ali says, what Somalis need most is security and an end to war, something countries like Canada should promote in the international forum. According to Human Rights Watch, civilians are under attack by Ethiopian, Somali and insurgent forces, but the abuses have met "a shameful silence ... on the part of key foreign governments and international institutions."
Yesterday in Riyadh, three leaders of Somalia's interim government and parliament signed a statement saying they would seek reconciliation. But earlier, Islamists attending a rival meeting in Eritrea boycotted the conference and refused to join peace talks.
© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2007
9 Comments so far
Show All"lack of concern for the humanitarian crisis and ignoring the cause of the trouble: US foreign interests and imperialism"
I agree.
I keep saying this, everyone needs to stay the hell out of Africa. Africa needs reparations, debt forgiveness, and any scientific advancements that have been and/or are already developed. Africa doesn't need humanitarian aid. Africa needs restitution.
It seems to me on one hand, you have people that just want to exploit Africa. On the other hand, you have people that want to go in there and "baby" Africans. As if Africans are not at all capable of handling things on their own.
Africa's problems stem from Western meddling, imperialist meddling in particular which has created the poverty and despair that fuels conflict.
I mean, even when people do go there to legitmately help (and I don't mean to disparage those humanitarians), it just seems to cause problems.
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.. our collective karma will come back to us for constantly turning our backs on Africans when they really need us. By sitting out of this one we all say that it's okay for them to be slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands. This is just one more genocidal notch in the belt of the Western powers..
http://www.darfurgenocide.org/learn.php#start
The Somalian Islamic front unwisely declared war on Ethiopia weeks before the Ethiopians invaded. As far as who is supplying the weapons, they all seem to be carrying AK-47's- a russian assault weapon.
I think we need to sit this one out, there is no good reason to get involved in another war in Africa.
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/01/21/sudan6982.htm
Type hrw.org and learn to our hearts content. See you there!
"I don't see where we need to get involved until it is safe for humanitarian workers to return. Then the U.N. can try again"
I agree. Because that strategy worked so well in Rwanda!
Since Antam Goncalves, the continent of Africa has had one power or another intervene in its affairs...and utlimately destabilize it to suit their own goals.
We should always be skeptical about these sorts of reports coming out of the continent because we never get the whole truth. The story is depicted as being so simple, we can't help but view Africans as idotic savages (I guess that's the point).
We don't hear or read about who is supplying these weapons, who is pushing an embargo of this nation or that, who has filed a WTO complaint against this nation's farmers and workers (forcing their government to pay damages), who is invdaing whom.
Such information leads us to ask "why?" And the answer, is too uncomfortable for the doting public: so you can have the 1900 sq. ft. house, two SUVs, and summer home, drink that arabica bean coffee, etc., etc...!
Americans started this conflict by urging and supplying the Ethiopeans to invade .
NYTimes reported that the population of Mogadishu was relieved that peace was taking hold even though the jihadist fundamentalists were in charge: Shops were open during noon prayer hour, girls were going to school, teenagers were standing around guarding with guns over their shoulder and spitting out watermellon seeds at each other.
Those were the days- just before the US had to ignite another conflict. SHAMEFUL and also STUPID.
What is wrong with voluntary disarmament by all parties and getting all foreign troops out?
it seems to work in Liberia.
When people are have suffered enough they get peace by NOT having weapons.
Can you really enforce peace ?
The U.N. humanitarian intervention in 1992 was a fiasco. Somalia has not had a real government since 1991, and now is a battleground between warlords and factions both large and small. Trying to bring order out of this chaos would require either a huge influx of peacekeeping troops, or the arming of one faction against the other. Both seem like bad ideas.
I don't see where we need to get involved until it is safe for humanitarian workers to return. Then the U.N. can try again
this article does a good job of seeming concerned while watering down the facts of the matter. as usual the violence is chalked up to "inner-clan fighting" and the Islamic Courts Union (refered to as an "Islamist movement") is cast in a negative light, refering to the unity and order that they brought to the region as a "takover." where is the real story here: what about the US backed Etheopian war of agression that started all this, and the obvious US interest in this stretegic area. notice how the port is going to be up and running: "to produce crucial revinues from trade and shipping." revinues for whom i might ask?
cmon common dreams, there must be a better article out there. this is the same spin that has been put on the situation there for decades, simply denouncing the lack of concern for the humanitarian crisis and ignoring the cause of the trouble: US foreign interests and imperialism.