Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Al-Shabab lifts airlift ban for starving Somalis

Opposition movement al-Shabab has waived its airlift ban in order for the United Nations to deliver food and medicine to displaced Somalis. Al-Shabab, an armed movement that aims to overthrow the government and impose Sharia law, had previously banned foreign aid organizations in 2010. However, with international concerns turning to Somalia and the Horn of Africa, al-Shabab recently lifted the ban. The U.N.'s World Food Program has said it is ready to work again in areas controlled by the movement.

The U.N. Children's Fund, or UNICEF on Sunday airlifted emergency nutrition supplies and water equipment to the town of Baidoa. The delivery included five tons of food and medicine to treat malnourished children. Included in the shipment was equipment to supply clean water for a camp near Baidoa that houses refugees.

The U.N. says it plans to send supplies to Mogadishu, the capital controlled by the internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government. Supplies will include kits with essential medicine to treat childhood illnesses such as respiratory tract infections, diarrhea and worm infestations in up to 100,000 people for three months.

UNICEF says that about 11 million people need humanitarian assistance in the Horn of Africa. UNICEF also estimates that about half a million Somali children face life-threatening conditions that could have long-lasting consequences for their physical and mental development.

Described by a U.S. official as one of the worst humanitarian crisis in decades, the East African hunger crisis has prompted stepped-up efforts by Western countries to provide relief.

Tens of thousands of Somali refugees are flooding camps in Ethiopia and Kenya - at a rate of more than 3,000 new arrivals per day - in search of food after several seasons without rain killed livestock and destroyed crops in Somalia.

Duncan Harvey, the acting country director for Save the Children in Ethiopia, has said that "in terms of the sheer numbers of people affected, this is one of the worst droughts the world has seen in a long time."

A senior U.N. official warned that the plight of millions of people left hungry was set to worsen, with the next rains expected in October and harvests months away.

"We are possibly seeing a perfect storm in the coming months ... We are going to do everything we can to ameliorate it," Anthony Lake, the UNICEF director said.

"We are scaling up in every way we can ... It is very bad now. There will be no major harvests until some time next year.

"The next six months are going to be very tough."

Source: Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

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