Friday, December 10, 2010
OCHA hopes to raise 530 million dollars for 229 projects across the country to be run by UN agencies or one of the 90 international or national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) active in Somalia.
Despite a fragile improvement to the north, where two good rainy seasons have improved the food situation, two million Somalis are estimated to be in crisis.
1.46 million of these are internally displaced people fleeing the ongoing violence in the south and central regions of the country.
Here, militant Islamists (Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam groups) are fighting for control against government troops and soldiers from the African Union. Despite this insecurity, the humanitarian community (including SOS Children’s Villages) has continued to maintain operations in Somalia and deliver assistance wherever access is possible.
During 2010, 2 million Somalis received aid, such as food assistance and clean water. Cases of malnutrition were treated through around 1,000 sites and non-food items were received by around 200,000 newly displaced people.
Continued fighting and horrifying abuses by the Islamic groups mean that new refugees are being created all the time. Last month, the Kenyan government turned back thousands of Somalis who were attempting to cross the border to flee the ongoing violence.
Amnesty International criticised the closed border as a violation of international law, which states countries must accept foreign refugees fleeing persecution. Kenya is already struggling to cope with the huge numbers of Somalis who are already living in its territory.
The Daadab camp in Kenya, close to the Somali border, is the world’s largest refugee camp, holding over 300,000 people.
In a small glimmer of hope for the situation in Somalia, the Western-backed Transitional Federal Government is working with a new cabinet. This includes ministers who have been persuaded to return from abroad, such as Dr Maryan Qasim, who spent the last 20 years in exile in the UK. Dr Quasim has returned to become the Minister for Women’s Development and Family Affairs. She and her new colleagues hope they can finally bring political stability to this war-ravaged country.
“If we are optimists and work hard, the rest will follow,” she insists. When asked how the new cabinet will succeed when so many others have failed, a senior official in the new government gave a one-word answer to describe what the administration now has - “experience”. Millions of war-sick Somalis will be hoping such confidence is not misplaced.
Source: SOS