Polio left this displaced Somali man paralyzed in both legs. On Friday, he was moved into the new Ifo camp with the help of a donkey-drawn cart. UNHCR / B. Bannon
THE UN announced yesterday that spiraling food insecurity in northern Uganda could potentially plunge the county into crisis, making it the fifth Horn of Africa country to fall victim to the most devastating drought in over sixty years. The number of people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Somalia already fighting for survival has escalated to 12.4 million, with tens of thousands reportedly already dead in southern-Somalia.
In an interview with Reuters yesterday, FAO spokesperson Sandra Aviles said some 600,000 in the drought-prone region in the north of Uganda are currently experiencing moderate food insecurity, a phase two situation on the United Nations famine measuring scale where Phase Five equals famine.
"Drought conditions need to be monitored because they spread like wildfire," she said.
The United States yesterday announced a lifting of its "anti-terrorist policies" against the al- Shabaab controlled Southern Somali where 2.2 million lives are in serious jeopardy as a result of lack of access of humanitarian aide organizations, Ghana Nationreports.
This is an unparalleled situation," added Semhar Araua, Horn of Africa regional policy advisor at Oxfam International. "This is about people's ability to cope, and people in this region have been able to respond day in and day out, for years, through conflict and insecurity, and it is at this time that we are seeing an inability to cope...an inability to find the basics."
Somali refugees wait with at dawn at a registration centre on August 2, 2011 at Dagahaley refugee site within the Dadaab complex to be registered to receive aid after having been displaced from their homes in southern Somalia by a famine that is ravaging the horn of Africa region. An estimated 3.7 million people in Somalia -- around a third of the population -- are on the brink of starvation and aid agencies are stretched in trying to cope with a daily influx of Somali's escaping not only drought but the al-Shabab extremists who have turned taken advantage of the famine to forcefully arrest and recruit men trying to escape the famine.. AFP PHOTO/Tony KARUMBA
In an allAfrica article, Somalia: Famine Relief Stymied by Access, it was announced that US officials and world relief agencies agreed that even in a "best case scenario" the East Crisis will spread throughout areas where civil war prevents access to relief.
WFP Director llan Jury, who attended the Brookings Institute Panel "Famine in Somalia: An Expected Turn for the Worse", said while funds were a problem, access challenges in southern Somalia, are a more significant problem.
"There is a reason why Ethiopia is a manageable expanding crisis and Somalia is a famine. They are not accidental and they are man-made...because the rain statistics on both sides of that border are very similar."
As ugly as the word drought has become in the country's strife- stricken south, it may not be the primary setback for the some two million clinging to life there - especially when relief agencies struggle to funnel food into areas controlled by Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents.
"We have a situation in Somalia that is truly chilling ... the most serious crisis we have seen for a long time," Jury said. "The key issue is that Somalia is probably the most dangerous country we operate in."
This report comes fast on the heels of a daunting NYT article published Monday which detailed the horrific conditions facing Somalis under the control of the Shabab Islamist group which is denying them passage to neighboring countries and blocking access to river water.
The group is widely blamed for causing a famine in Somalia by forcing out many Western aid organizations, depriving drought victims of desperately needed food. The situation is growing bleaker by the day, with tens of thousands of Somalis already dead and more than 500,000 children on the brink of starvation.
Every morning, emaciated parents with emaciated children stagger into Banadir Hospital, a shell of a building with floors that stink of diesel fuel because that is all the nurses have to fight off the flies. Babies are dying because of the lack of equipment and medicine. Some get hooked up to adult-size intravenous drips — pediatric versions are hard to find — and their compromised bodies cannot handle the volume of fluid.
In a Washington Post article today, Innovations in the fight against famine, author Emi Kolawole discusses some of the innovations being applied to innovative solutions to build 'value chains' between local farmers and research laboratories, investigating flaws in existing supply chains and focusing on the need for highly nutritious locally produced food.
“It’s not just the climate that’s causing the famine,” said Prabhu Pingali, deputy director of agricultural development for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, citing countries with similar climates to Somalia that had avoided such widespread devastation. “Both Kenya and Ethiopia have made a significant commitment to focusing on agriculture in their own countries. And so our ability to change the level of productivity depends a lot on government commitment.”
East Africa Food Crisis: 48 Hours of Action
This weekend, Daily Kos is participating in 48-hour Famine Crisis Fundraiser in conjunction with environmental websites and nonprofit organizations to benefit the 12 million people struggling for survival in the East African countries of Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. All proceeds from the Daily Kos blogathon will benefit Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, directly supporting their work in the Horn of Africa. Some 400,000 people, most from neighboring Somalia are currently residing in the camp, which has grown over the past weeks to the size of a small city.
The Kos blogathon will begin at 9AM EST Saturday and continue nonstop through early Monday morning. Please stop by to support the diarists and contribute what funds you can afford to MSF.
Also participating in this weekend of action are 350.org, Oxfam International, WiserEarth,tcktcktck, DeSmogBlog, MIT Climate CoLab, BPI Campus, Climate Change: The Next Generation, RedGreenAndBlue.org, Cool HIVE, and MedicMobile.
Content will be shared among participating organizations and there will be a coordinated effort to publicize the work of all participants and the agencies they have chosen to support throughout the weekend. Experts in the field of humanitarian assistance will join environmental writers to outline the history of the region and detail how geopolitics, colonialism, ongoing civil wars, climate change and geographic vulnerabilities have combined to create the perfect storm now ravaging East Africa.