Somalia famine: UN WFP to airlift food to Mogadishu

Click to play

The BBC's Andrew Harding says getting aid deeper into Somalia "is very slow, very complicated and... very dangerous""

Continue reading the main story

East Africa hunger crisis

• Fleeing to a war zone
• Why Somalia can't cope
• Babies left to die
• Q&A: East Africa drought

The UN World Food Programme will begin airlifting food to Somalia on Tuesday, WFP head Josette Sheeran said at crisis talks on East Africa's drought.

This will be the first airlift of food aid since the UN declared a famine in two areas of Somalia last week.
Somali Foreign Minister Mohamed Ibrahim warned at the emergency meeting in Rome that more than 3.5 million people "may starve to death" in his country.
Islamists, who control most of Somalia, have banned the WFP from their areas.
Al-Shabab, which has ties to al-Qaeda, has accused the groups it has banned from its territories of being political.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

This is about saving lives now. It's not about politics”

End Quote Josette Sheeran WFP head

Ms Sheeran said aid would be airlifted to the capital, Mogadishu, where the weak interim government - backed by an African Union peace force - controls only parts of the city.

Tens of thousands of Somalis have been fleeing al-Shabab areas and heading to Mogadishu and neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia in search of food.
Ms Sheeran attended the meeting in Rome - called by France, which chairs the G20 group of powerful nations - after visiting Mogadishu and the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya.
"What we saw is children who are arriving so weak that many of them are in stage four malnutrition and have little chance - less than 40% chance - of making it," she said.
"This is about saving lives now. It's not about politics, it's not about anything but humanity standing together to save lives."

Continue reading the main story

Analysis Andrew Harding Africa correspondent

---

There are dozens of experienced local aid organisations already working throughout Somalia - a fact that often gets lost in the furore over al-Shabab's hostile attitude towards some of the bigger international organisations, like WFP.
There's no doubt that the drought - and the Arab spring - have shaken up the security situation in Somalia.
Anecdotal evidence suggests al-Shabab is now seriously short of money, more divided than ever, and many of the foreign jihadist fighters who came to join it have left the country for other struggles.

• Read more from Andrew
• Solving the aid conundrum

Mr Ibrahim said that food aid was mostly needed in areas controlled by al-Shabab.

"The UN estimates that more than 3.5 million Somalis, the vast majority of them in the insurgent-held areas, may starve to death," the foreign minister said.
But Director of the international charity Goal, John O'Shea, told the BBC the the UN's response to Somalia's political crisis had worsened the crisis.
He said the UN Security Council should have authorised a sizeable force of peacekeepers to end years of conflict in Somalia.
"We wouldn't have four million Somalis starving if they sent in UN peacekeepers," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
Somalia has 9,200 African Union peacekeepers out of a promised 20,000 - all of them based in Mogadishu.
'Scandal of century' France's Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire told the meeting at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation headquarters in Rome that the world had "failed to ensure food security".
Continue reading the main story

Extended drought is causing a severe food crisis in the Horn of Africa, which includes Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. Weather conditions over the Pacific means the rains have failed for two seasons and are unlikely to return until September.

An estimated 10 million people in the region are affected by the drought. The UN has declared a famine in two areas of southern Somalia, where 30% of children are acutely malnourished and four children out of every 10,000 are dying daily.

The humanitarian problem is made worse by ongoing conflicts. Militants had lifted a ban on aid agencies operating in parts of southern Somalia, but now say reports of famine are exaggerated and have again limited access.

Since the beginning of 2011, around 15,000 Somalis each month have fled into refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia looking for food and water. The refugee camp at Dadaab, in Kenya, has been overwhelmed by an estimated 400,000 people.

Farmers unable to meet their basic food costs are abandoning their herds. High cereal and fuel prices had already forced them to sell many animals before the drought and their smaller herds are now unprofitable or dying.

The refugee problem may have been preventable. However, violent conflict in the region has deterred international investment in long-term development programmes, which may have reduced the effects of the drought.

Development aid would focus on reducing deforestation, topsoil erosion and overgrazing and improving water conservation. New roads and infrastructure for markets would help farmers increase their profits.

The result of climate conditions, conflict and lack of investment is that 6.7 million people in Kenya and Ethiopia are currently existing on food rations, and relief agencies estimate 2.6 million in Somalia will need assistance a new emergency operation.

BACK 1 of 9 NEXT

"If we don't take the necessary measures, famine will be the scandal of this century," AFP news agency quotes Mr Le Maire as saying.

Ahead of the Rome summit, the World Bank pledged $500m (£307m) to help.
Some $12m will be for immediate assistance to those worst hit by what the UN says is East Africa's worst drought in 60 years.
But the bulk of the money will go towards long-term projects to aid livestock farmers.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged donor nations to supply an extra $1.6bn and a donors' conference is due to take place in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday.
Somalia is thought to be worst-hit by the crisis, but Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti have also been affected.
More than 10 million people in the region are thought to be at risk of starvation.
Analysts say the drought has been caused by the lack of rains and the failure of governments to adequately finance agriculture and irrigation schemes.