Monday September 1, 2014
The United Nations and the Somali government have issued fresh drought warnings in southern parts of the African state.
The southern Somali town of Baidoa is one of the regions in danger and the humanitarian crisis is threatening to cause deaths and displacement.
For the past seven months, hundreds of people have left their homes in the Bakool region of southern Somalia to take shelter at a camp in Baidoa.
Most of them walked all the way to the camp from the town of Hudur, which was captured six months ago by Ethiopian troops from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
“It’s seventh month now since we came to this camp, we have received no help at all; we have no food, no canned water and no proper shelter. Rain and wind continue to affect us here in this camp,” a displaced woman told Press TV.
Farming is the lifeline for people in Bakool, but drought and famine have displaced more than half a million people and claimed the lives of approximately a quarter of a million others.
The displaced people at the camp in Baidoa accuse the government and aid agencies of negligence.
The displaced people told Press TV that they lost everything in the famine and they now demand immediate humanitarian assistance.
Somali Agriculture Minister Abdi Ahmed Mohamed told Press TV that “by starting to intervene as early as possible we might prevent the situation to develop to a level we have witnessed back in 2011. This is the time for action, if we do not act now, things might deteriorate…and that is what we want to actually avoid.”