DEC member agencies and their partners are continuing to scale up their relief efforts in Somalia as the famine affecting parts of the country spreads and intensifies. The UN announced on Monday that another area of the south and centre of the country – Bay – was suffering famine. There are now four million people in crisis in Somalia with 750,000 at risk of death in the coming months.
Despite the efforts of DEC members and other agencies, the situation in Somalia continues to deteriorate and the UN Food Security and Nutritional Analysis Unit now fears more than half the country will be affected by famine in the coming months. Conflict in Somalia had led to significant limitations for many aid workers wanting to operate in the worst affected parts of the country. There is also a continuing shortage of funds to support the work of some agencies that do have access. In addition to the severe shortage of food and water, cholera and measles are increasingly common. Both diseases can be deadly, particularly for young children weakened by hunger.
Surrounding countries, and in particular Kenya and Ethiopia, are affected by the same drought but the crisis is most acute in Somalia because of conflict and lack of effective government. There are more than eight million people in need of food aid in the surrounding countries and DEC agencies are working there both to support Somali refugees and to help local people also facing severe food shortages which the UN has classified as an emergency.
DEC agencies working directly or though partners in famine-affected areas of Somalia include:
Islamic Relief
Working extensively in Somalia they have provided food or other aid to 160,000 people in areas including Bay, Bakool, Lower Shabelle and Mogadishu, which are all affected by famine. Islamic Relief are scaling up operations to reach 320,000 people in the coming months, with aid that includes water trucking for 120,000 people, rehabilitating boreholes and providing safe toilets and hand washing facilities in IDP camps (which can help prevent the spread of cholera). They are also planning to provide veterinary support to 840,000 surviving livestock.
Comments
Leon from DEC
Posted at 11.55 am on 01/03/12
Thank you for your comment. We'd like to highlight the fact that this update was published early last September and represents the situation of that time. At the peak of its emergency response Islamic Relief was providing monthly food distributions to 180,000 people and daily water trucking for 120,000 people. The beneficiaries of this included displaced people in Mogadishu and also many people in Bay, Bakool and Lower Shabelle through a new sub-office that Islamic Relief opened in Baidoa in July 2011. That office is currently closed as a result of military activity in Bay, and the Islamic Relief staff who were based there have been evacuated to Mogadishu for the time being.
jamac ali farah
Posted at 04.47 pm on 29/02/12
this is jamac ali farah on behif of Bay and Bakool regions confirmed here that islamic does involve in those regions and program mangers had writen this reports in mogadisho.
they come here and it already misleaded all projects allocated both.two regions.
Anonymous
Posted at 08.12 am on 07/10/11
I run a medical clinic in Pakistan last summer and wanting to do relief work for the Somalians during November. Can someone please send me contacts who would like me to come and help out for a short period of time. Thank you.
Anonymous
Posted at 04.59 am on 30/09/11
Any country with a population of millions of people will inevitably have a few murders and criminal gangs amongst them. This is true of Somalia, of Britain and any european country.
Somalia is different to other countries though, because the UN estimates that there are 750,000 people at risk of dying of starvation in the coming months.
DEC provide us with an opportunity to prevent that happening.
Leon from DEC
Posted at 06.03 pm on 12/09/11
Hi John,
Conflict and the lack of any effective government are the underlying causes of the famine now affecting parts of Somalia. Providing aid is not an endorsement of the lawlessness of Somalia but an attempt to alleviate the suffering of the more than four million Somali people suffering as a result. The DEC has neither information or influence that could assist the kidnapped British tourist.
Anonymous
Posted at 09.14 am on 12/09/11
Having donated to the DEC Appeal previously, in view of the on-going murdering and kidnapping of British citizens by apparently Somalian criminal associates, I will not be donating further to your Appeal. May I suggest that you use your influence to eradicate Somalian criminals.
John Jones
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