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Somaila: Struggling to survive...Somali militants force WFP to halt aid work
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Posted on January 8, 2010 at 05:56:47 PM by mb

Somaila: Struggling to survive...Somali militants force WFP to halt aid work

Source: Women's Refugee Commission, 28 Dec 2009

THE SITUATION

In Somalia, drought, conflict and displacement have combined to create one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.

Between 1 and 1.5 million Somalis have been displaced within the country by fighting and hunger. An additional 560,000 refugees are estimated to have fled the country.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 123,000 people have been displaced in Somalia since July 2009 alone.

Rainfall in some parts of Somalia has yet to bring relief for those suffering from malnutrition and hunger, while aid agencies are facing security threats and budgetary shortfalls that restrict their ability to provide sufficient aid.

YEARS OF WAR AND LAWLESSNESS

Somalia has been without a permanent central government since 1991, when the government was overthrown by opposing clans, which then descended into warfare. In 2004, a transitional government was formed, but the country has remained in a state of virtual anarchy as various factions, including warlords and Islamist insurgents, fight the government and each other for control.

Following the creation of a new transitional unity government in January 2009, Ethiopian forces, which had been supporting the interim government, withdrew from the country. Instability increased, and in May 2009, radical militias launched an attack on the capital of Mogadishu, forcing more than 210,000 people to flee their homes.

Somalia is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world. The conflict restricts the free movement of humanitarian aid workers, 20 of whom had been killed and 17 abducted as of August 2008, according to UNHCR.

DROUGHT EXACERBATES THE CRISIS

Drought resulting from consecutive seasons of poor rains has added to the country's instability. Somalia has not faced a food crisis this severe since the famine of 1992. UNICEF estimates that more than 3.6 million people in Somalia need food aid, and the World Food Program reports that one in five children suffer from acute malnutrition.

Somali refugees face similar drought conditions in other countries across the Horn of Africa, where more than 23 million people are in need of food aid.

FOOD CRISIS CONTINUES DESPITE RECENT RAINS

While seasonal rains have arrived in some areas, the hunger crisis is still far from over. It will take time for reduced livestock herds to replenish and for parched lands to regenerate. In arid and semi-arid regions where the land is infertile, the population depends on imported food. Meanwhile, food prices remain high due to inflation.

THREATS TO AID DELIVERY

Somali pirates have become a major threat to international shipping in the area, delaying or preventing the transport of cargo. Since aid agencies deliver the majority of their food aid and other humanitarian assistance by sea, piracy is a serious concern.

The provision of aid is also threatened by underfunding. A spokesperson for the World Food Program said the agency is $167 million short for its food aid operations across Somalia between December 2009 and May 2010.

DISPLACED PEOPLE HIT ESPECIALLY HARD

Internally displaced Somalis are suffering not only from hunger, but also from limited access to basic services. They are especially vulnerable to communicable disease outbreaks because of their makeshift living conditions and lack of adequate drinking water and sanitation.

In late October, the World Health Organization reported rumored outbreaks of acute diarrhea in South Central Somalia, where there are a high number of internally displaced people (IDP's).




WFP Ends Food Aid to 1 Million Somalis



Alan Boswell | Nairobi 05 January 2010

The World Food Program is pulling its operations out of much of rebel-controlled Somalia, affecting some 1 million in-need Somalis. The food aid organization is citing "unacceptable demands" from the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab that reached a breaking point in the form of a January 1 rebel-issued ultimatum.

The WFP says that nearly one-third of all those it planned to feed in the country will be affected by this move. The worst drought in nearly two decades and ongoing instability has left a significant portion of Somalis reliant on emergency relief for basic survival.

Ninety-five percent of the affected area is southern Somalia territory controlled by al-Shabab, the exception being the central Somali town of Beledweyne, held by Hizbul Islam, a rebel group loosely partnered with al-Shabab.

WFP spokesperson Peter Smerdon says that the situation for the organization in these rebel-held areas has been deteriorating for months.

"This disruption, this suspension of WFP's work in southern Somalia has been brought about by security threats and unreasonable pressure on our operations," he said.

At specific issue is a list of 11 rules issued by al-Shabab in November for all NGOs working in its territory, including a ban against women workers and a demand for $20,000 every six months as a security fee.

Smerdon says events only went downhill from there.

"Then later in November, al-Shabab demanded that WFP stop bringing food into their areas, that our contractors stop working with us, and that we remove what food stocks we have in their areas by January 1, 2010," he said.

The statement issued November 25 by the militant group said that the WFP's provision of food rations had been "devastating to the agriculture industry in Somali and has greatly discouraged the Somali people from the agricultural trade." It dictated that all WFP food supplies in the area be bought locally.

Not affected by the WFP move will be northern Somalia, most of central Somalia, and the capital city Mogadishu, where alone the aid group supplies 80,000 meals daily. The WFP will also continue operations in the so-called Afgooye Corridor, the most concentrated displaced camp in the world and home to over half a million IDPs.

The U.S. government, the WFP's biggest donor, has placed strict restrictions on its WFP Somali contributions amid fears that some of the aid was falling into the hands of al-Shabab, designated by the U.S. a terrorist organization and considered to have links to al-Qaida.

The WFP has described the restrictions as effectively "breaking" the food supply line. Smerdon denied that its suspension of southern Somalia operations was related at all to donor-expressed concerns, saying the action was purely a consequence of the unworkable situation created by the rebels.

Al-Shabab is waging an intense insurgency against the Western-backed Mogadishu government. The official administration is propped up by an African Union peacekeeping force known as AMISOM, which protects roughly ten blocks of the city encompassing the presidential palace as well as the air and sea ports.

The government has recently announced it is launching a new military offensive against the rebel groups, which control most of southern and some of central Somalia.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2010/01/mil-100105-voa02.htm


Somali militants force WFP to halt aid work


BBC, 5 January 2010

Hundreds of thousands of Somalis rely on food aid from the WFP

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has pulled out of large parts of southern Somalia because of threats from powerful Islamist rebel groups.

The WFP says the suspension is its biggest shut-down in years and will affect about one million people.

The al-Shabab militant group has repeatedly threatened the WFP - who it accuses of ruining local farming by forcing Somalis to rely on imports.

The WFP says without help, Somali farmers cannot supply enough food.

Drought and war have left more than 109,000 young children and many more adults dependent on the feeding centres run by the WFP.

But late last year al-Shabab, which controls large parts of southern Somalia, gave the WFP a deadline of 1 January to halt all of its operations in the area.

Staff evacuated

The group also issued a string of demands for aid agencies working in the region.

The WFP's Peter Smerdon said these included removing women from their jobs and a demand for a payment of $20,000 (£12,400) every six months for security.

"WFP's humanitarian operations in southern Somalia have been under escalating attacks from armed groups, leading to this partial suspension of humanitarian food distributions in much of southern Somalia," the agency said in a statement.

Six of its offices - in Wajid, Buale, Garbahare, Afmadow, Jilib and Belet Weyne - have been shut temporarily, which the agency said would affect more than a third of the people it feeds in Somalia, most of whom are women and children.

The WFP said it would continue food distribution in other parts of Somalia, including the capital Mogadishu.

Its staff who have been evacuated from the south will be redeployed in other parts of the country, preparing to help people who might start moving away from areas where feeding programmes have been suspended.

Somalia has been in turmoil since 1991 when its central government collapsed.

The transitional government, helped by an African Union peacekeeping force, runs only parts of Mogadishu.

Groups such as al-Shabab want to impose a hard-line interpretation of Islamic law on the country.




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