NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Parts of southern Somalia are suffering from famine, a U.N. official said Wednesday, and tens of thousands of Somalis have already died in the worst hunger emergency in a generation.
The Horn of Africa is suffering a devastating
drought compounded by war, neglect and spiraling prices. Some areas in the
region have not had such a low rainfall in 60 years, aid group Oxfam said.
The U.N. needs $300 million in the next two months,
said Mark Bowden, the U.N.'s top official in charge of humanitarian aid in
Somalia. The last time conditions were this bad was in 1992, when hundreds of
thousands of Somalis starved to death. That famine prompted intervention by an
international peacekeeping force, but it eventually pulled out after two
American Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in 1993.
The southern Somali regions of Bakool and Lower
Shabelle regions are suffering from famine, Bowden said. Across East Africa,
more than 10 million people need aid.
"Somalia is facing its worst food security
crisis in the last 20 years," Bowden said. "This desperate situation
requires urgent action to save lives."
Famine is officially defined as when two adults or
four children per 10,000 people die of hunger each day and a third of children
are acutely malnourished. In some areas of Somalia, six people are dying a day
and more than half of children are acutely malnourished, Bowden said. Prices of
staple foods have increased 270 percent over the last year.
"If we don't act now, famine will spread to
all eight regions of southern Somalia within two months, due to poor harvests
and infectious diseases," Bowden said. "We still do not have all the
resources for food, clean water, shelter and health services to save the lives
of hundreds of thousands of Somalia."
He said it was unlikely there would be any respite
from the drought until the end of the year.
The drought has killed up to 90 percent of
livestock in some regions, Oxfam said. But poor governance is also to blame.
Most of Somalia has been wracked by civil war since
its last government collapsed in 1990. Islamist rebels currently hold most of
southern Somalia. They banned most aid agencies from working there two years
ago but rescinded the ban earlier this month.
The weak, U.N.-backed Somali government regularly
comes last in the world in the annual corruption rating by watchdog
Transparency International, but Bowden said it had welcomed the U.N.'s efforts
and was working closely with aid groups.
Neighboring Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya have also
been badly affected, and Eritrea is also believed to be hard hit, though its
repressive government does not release figures. Oxfam says the drought has been
exacerbated by poor governance and neglect, war in Somalia and land policies
that restrict grazing land for nomadic communities.
Oxfam criticized those policies in a report
released Wednesday, but also said several rich European countries should do
more to provide emergency aid. The aid agency says there is a $800 million
shortfall in funds. They say $1 billion is needed to fund relief efforts
through January.
Oxfam Regional Director Fran Equiza released a
statement Wednesday saying it was "morally indefensible" that countries
have only pledged $200 million in addition to long-running programs.
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton said the U.S. will give another $28 million, on top of the $431 million
in assistance it has given to the Horn of Africa this year.
Britain has pledged $145 million in the past two
weeks — about 15 percent of what is needed — and the European Union pledged
around $8 million, with more expected in coming days. Spain has promised nearly
$10 million and Germany around $8.5 million but Oxfam said France has so far
not pledged any more money and Denmark and Italy have said no significant new
sums are available.
"There is no time to waste if we are to avoid
massive loss of life," Equiza said in a statement. "We must not stand
by and watch this tragedy unfold before our eyes. The world has been slow to
recognize the severity of this crisis, but there is no longer any excuse for
inaction."
Oxfam said U.N. humanitarian appeals for $1.87
billion for the region this year are only 45 percent funded, leaving a gap of
over $1 billion — $332 million for the U.N. appeal for Kenya, $296 million for
the U.N. appeal for Somalia, and $398 million for the government-run appeal in
Ethiopia.
Some donors, like the U.S., have expressed fears
that aid might be diverted by Islamist groups. But Bowden said the U.N. had
done its utmost to minimize the risks that aid might be diverted. He added that
the U.N. was also approaching Arab nations like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for
donations.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
