by Avv Issa Ahmed Warsame
Friday, October 07, 2011
For the last several months, the media has intensively propagated the news on the famine in Somalia. To emphasise the existence of such a famine, highly distressing and defaming skeletons of malnourished Somali children have appeared on satellite television screens as well as on the headlines of both printed and electronic newspapers.Most of such news presented millions of Somalis who are facing starvationand whose hope of saving their lives is almost equal to none. It also repeatedly quoted the U. S. report stating that 29,000 Somali under five year olds children have starved to death over the second quarter of this year.As mentioned in the report, this alarming mortality rate occurred in Somalia’s southern areas controlled by Al-Qaida inspired Al-Shabab movement.
It is worth to mention the fact that such a humanitarian crisis is due to numerous root causes that all make it a multi-dimensional catastrophe.
It can be said that the scarcity of rains added to the aridness of the zone have caused a severe drought, which then resulted in the worst humanitarian crisis of the world. However, this assertion does explain only the nature-made dimension of the current calamity in Somalia. Such a dimension is considered the most obvious root cause of the severe malnutrition of hundreds of thousands of children and the starvation to death of tens of thousands of Somalis. Thus the media has widely propagated it, affirming repeatedly that the existing famine is the effect of the worst drought in 60 years.
Additionally, it is established that various man-made dimensions have mostly paved the way to the existing disastrous famine in at least six regions of the country. An obvious feature of such factors consists in Al-Shabab’s famous denial of access for major international aid agencies into the areas controlled by them. In fact, such a ban contributed to pre-existing conditions of the famine. Furthermore, internal measures taken by Al-Shabab authorities in these areas; i.e. heavy taxes, jihad contributions and recruiting family bread winning males worsened the situation. The containment of famine-hit people by negating them to search refuge elsewhere increased their victimisation and prone them to starvation.
However, other manifestations of Al-Shababhandling of the situationshowed to some extent their benevolence. Few relief organisations are allowed access to help famine victims in areas controlled by Al-Shabab. Some of these agencies such as the International Committee of Red Cross are working in these areas to deliver regular aid supplies to the starving population. Reliable reports confirm that ICRC is providing humanitarian aid for at least 162,000 famished people living in these areas. Meanwhile, an internally displaced people’s camp is established at KM50 of LawerShabelle region. Such a camp, which is run by duly appointed managers, is funded by donations raised under the auspices of Al-Shabab authorities. Recently, a Turkish aid group accompaniedby a Mogadishu based relief agency travelled to the camp and distributed food items to the needy inmates. The visit to KM50 camp, alsoknown as AlaYasir, increased the credibility of the news about the accessibility of aid agencies to the regions ruled by Al-Shabab.
Other crucial dimension of the current crisis involved the TFG’s manipulation over the humanitarian work. Although the famine was predictable, the TFG did not accomplish any preventive measures to avoid it or at least decrease the scope of starvation it may cause. In addition, no effective administrative mechanismshave been established by the TFG for the smooth delivery of the massive humanitarian aid from the compassionate world.Contrarily, TFG troops were reported looting food aid destined to IDPs camps and shooting dead a number of the victimised beneficiaries. Other reports show that some of these troops take bribes from hungry displaced people in order to protect them from alleged bandits. The worst reported practice in this field is that the aid supplies are stored in wherehouses and sold on local markets for the benefit of few people who are engaged in the work of delivery or/and distribution.
With all the disorders stated above, the TFG’s humanitarian work is only limited to Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia. All the other 17 regions of the country are neglected, mainly on the justification that they are controlled by Al-Shabab. The inhabitants of these areas are forced by the TFG either to starve to death or flee their homes and territories. The TFG is committed to apply such a ban by any means. The staffs of Turkish and Somali local charities have been detained in Mogadishu on allegation that they delivered aid to the needy IDPs in KM50.Consequently, the TFG is politicking the humanitarian aid intended to rescue the starving population.
As regards the United Nations role in making the current famine in Somalia,it is worth to mention that the concerned agencies did not carry out any preventive action despite the existence of obvious signs of the upcoming crisis ten months before its official declaration. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Somalis have starved to death before a famine situation was officially declared.The United Nations’ efforts in Somalia concentrated on militarily defeating Al-Shabab, fallingshort to achieve an objective situation analysis. As such the U.N. contributed in causing the Somalia’s famine by omitting the fulfilment of its duties and thus neglecting the needy people.
As to the United States, the implementation of the USA Patriot Act 2001 resulted in banning any minimal aid to the destitute millions of people including severely malnourished children. According to the act and following the policies of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, American aid agencies and their partners werenot allowed to work inside areas controlled by Al-Shabab. Such a ban has aggravated the pre-famine conditions transforming them, with all other factors, into a real famine. To show certain amount of philanthropy, the United States has lifted some of the negative effects of the USA PATRIOT Act. Nevertheless, there is no any material improvement in the United States’ humanitarian work in Southern Somalia. The main cause of such incapability consists in the authoritarian direction of the American policy, which does not recognise any demarcation between politics and humanitarian intervention.
All entities described above are jointly liable for mass mortalities, which are expected to continue during the course of the coming four months. They all must accept their responsibilitiesand change the way things are going. The International Community must intervene to make a positive alteration to the current situation in Somalia. According to the international norm:“Responsibility to Protect”, the International Community has the duty to carry out a humanitarian intervention to reach out all the famine-hit areas including those ruled by Al-Shabab.It can be argued that what happened in Somalia could be classified as genocide. Therefore, such a duty must be accomplished before it gets too late.
Avv Issa Ahmed Warsame
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