'WORLD'S WORST HUMANITARIAN CRISIS'

'WORLD'S WORST HUMANITARIAN CRISIS'

Reuters Alert
Wednesday, January 07, 2009

More than one in 10 Somalis have been forced out of their homes by conflict as Islamist insurgents who ruled the country briefly in 2006 battle against the Ethiopian-backed government. Years of anarchy since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, combined with frequent drought and rampant inflation, have turned Somalia into the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the U.N.

More than 3.2 million need humanitarian aid
More than 1.1 million displaced
Infrastructure in tatters and little law and order

Somalia's Transitional Federal Government is unpopular and virtually powerless in a country where warlords, Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian-backed Somali government forces clash almost daily.

Aid workers say Somalia has more than 1.1 million internally displaced people and their numbers are swelled by an exodus of thousands of civilians each month from the capital, Mogadishu, under attack from Islamists fighting to take control of it.

Six months of strict rule by the Islamists in 2006 brought relative peace to Mogadishu. That rule ended when troops from Ethiopia, a key U.S. ally, helped restore the transitional government. Foreign involvement fuelled opposition locally and internationally and appeared to boost support for the Islamists, with some analysts saying U.S. accusations of al Qaeda involvement became a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Mogadishu since the end of 2006. Aid agencies say that the 15 km (10 mile) stretch of road between the capital and the town of Afgoye is probably the largest concentration of displaced people on the planet. In September 2008, an estimated 300,000 people were camped along the side of the road.

Somalia is the most pressing humanitarian emergency in the world - even worse than the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region, the country representative for the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said in 2008.

The U.N. Office for the coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in October 2008 that 3.2 million people need humanitarian aid. The shortages are caused by conflict, high inflation and frequent drought. But food distribution is hindered by pirate attacks on sea deliveries, roadblocks, and armed attacks on aid convoys.

Aid agencies rank Somalia one of the most dangerous places in the world to work, and few organisations base international staff there.

It is also the world's second deadliest country for journalists, after Iraq, says the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The African Union has deployed troops to replace the Ethiopian troops whose presence has inflamed the conflict. Ethiopia began withdrawing its soldiers in January 2009 having failed to stem the Islamist insurgency. But AU troops complain they are under-funded and under-staffed.

Source: Reuters Alert, Jan 07, 2009