Once again, a drastic food crisis has hit the Horn of Africa, with more than ten million people at risk of starvation over the coming months if speedy assistance does not reach them.
The culmination of a perfect storm of events, Somalia is the epicentre of the crisis with nearly three million people - more than one in three - now living in crisis.
I have worked in this region on and off since 2006 and responded to three droughts, but I have never experienced the scale of the unfolding situation in the south of Somalia, where people are now one step away from famine. As millions of people face a future with little prospect of food, a major funding shortfall is threatening to make famine inevitable, as access to communities improves.
Many will remember the devastating images of the 1984/ 1985 famine, when Live Aid brought the message of death and despair to our screens, or the image of an emotional President Mary Robinson visibly shaken by what she saw on a visit to famine-hit Somalia in 1992.Withtears in her eyes, Robinson spoke of her shame at what she had seen, saying that it was ‘‘not acceptable that human beings are in the degrading, humiliating situation in which they find themselves’’, which she said diminished us all as human beings.
A quarter of a million Somalis died from hunger in horrific conditions that year. Many more would have died if agencies like Concern had not provided food, nutrition services and water to hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of starvation.
Against this haunting history of a country mired in conflict, donors may be torn between a desire to respond and feeling of utter helplessness that whatever they give will never be enough to force lasting change.
Concern is now asking for support because the crisis has reached severe proportions, with millions of people one step away from famine.
There is now a real risk of large-scale loss of life, and the main barrier between those people and food right now is funding. Each family needs an average of US$60 a month to feed themselves.
Rains expected at the end of last year completely failed, leaving the earth parched and water sources dry. For nine months, people waited for the next rains, and now they have failed too. People have seen rivers dry for the first time in their lives.
The harvest in January also completely failed and the next harvest, due in the coming weeks, is anticipated to be no more than half the average.
There is a drastic food shortage, particularly in poor riverine farming communities.
Local food is unavailable and, with imported food prices high due to increasing global prices, most cannot purchase what is available.
Prices have skyrocketed and, in some cases, cereal prices are 270 per cent higher than the same time last year.
Some areas have been experiencing the driest conditions for more than 60 years. Ironically, the conditions in Somalia were caused by the same periodic climatic event that caused the severe flooding in Queensland, Australia, last year - La Nina. This year’s event is described as the strongest in over a century and, for Somalis, it is devastating.
Millions of euro worth of livestock and camels have died this year, leaving many pastoralists destitute and without assets to rebuild their future.
The stench of decaying animals fills the air, and carcasses line the roadsides where people have abandoned animals that were too weak to continue on their desperate journeys in search of food, water and pasture.
Some of these journeys will take Somalis through conflict frontlines and land mined fields and across regional borders in their efforts to find food and assistance, and only the strong will survive the journey.
Weakened children will die along the way as mothers carry on in the hope that their remaining children will survive.
More than 2,000 people are arriving at camps in Ethiopia every day, and over 1,300 people a day are arriving in Dadaab in north-east Kenya, the largest refugee camp in the world, which is enormously overcrowded. Built for 90,000 people, the camp now has more than 380,000 people seeking shelter and assistance.
Those arriving are in desperate conditions, many of them suffering from severe malnutrition, having walked with little or no food for weeks.
Malnutrition rates among newcomers are the most severe seen in the region for years, with nearly half the new arrivals malnourished. There are also alarmingly high mortality rates, particularly among children.
People are also flooding into urban areas - especially Mogadishu, where abandoned buildings and public spaces are now littered with small shelters for people fleeing the drought.
Their conditions are squalid and overcrowded, and signs of malnutrition are everywhere. Skeletal children lie listless in the makeshift camps while their mothers queue for assistance at our nutrition sites.
Of 55 children screened at our nutrition site yesterday, 40 had severe malnutrition which, put bluntly, means that they are suffering from starvation. One in every three children in many parts of Somalia is now malnourished - double the emergency threshold - and the rate is increasing as the crisis deepens.
But this crisis is not just about drought. For over 20 years, Somalia has been mired in conflict which has damaged infrastructure and undermined development.
Development assistance that supports a resilient response to such disasters has been limited in Somalia due to a combination of insecurity and inadequate longer-term funding.
Lack of security has limited access to some of the worst-affected areas, though there were signs last week that this may be changing, with one of the largest groups in control of parts of Somalia inviting agencies to respond to the crisis.
The Somali people themselves are extremely resilient. Somalis who have emigrated have been generous in sending back remittances, and have responded generously to crises such as this.
As access has dramatically improved in the last week, humanitarian agencies now face the challenge of quickly funding a large-scale response.
The Somali people need emergency aid to survive - and they need it now.
There is no time to waste. This aid will save lives and livelihoods and, thanks to aid generated for this relief effort, agencies like Concern will help to build the capacity of communities to mitigate the impact of the disaster.
Source: The Post
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