UN sends aid to Somalia area under Shebab rule

AFP/Nairobi

Grim outlook: A Somali woman holds her severely malnourished baby inside a tent serving as a medical clinic established by the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), in Mogadishu. The mission’s Civil-Military Component (CIMIC) has built five large waterproof tents in a camp for internally displaced people near the the city’s airport to serve as accommodation and a medical centre, with Ugandan doctors serving with the mission offering free medical treatment for people affected and displaced by the drought currently ravaging Somalia and the wider Horn of Africa region

The UN said yesterday that it had made its first delivery of aid to a rebel-held Somalia region in two years, as calls mounted for more international help to deal with the devastating drought in the Horn of Africa.War-torn Somalia is the worst affected country by a severe drought that has hit the Horn of Africa region, prompting appeals for increased aid to some 10mn people facing starvation, according to UN figures.The UN children agency Unicef airlifted five metric tonnes of food and medicines to Baidoa, a town in central Somalia under the control of the Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab rebels, after the insurgents lifted a two-year-old ban on foreign relief groups, a spokeswoman said.“It was successful and it was a good step towards airlifting supplies into Somalia. It is the first in two years,” said Iman Morooka, the Unicef spokeswoman for Somalia.Morooka said the Shebab, who in 2009 expelled foreign aid groups after accusing them of being Western spies and Christian crusaders, “have given approval and gave unhindered access, and it was a smooth operation”.The delivery was made on Wednesday and Unicef said it was ready to take more supplies to southern and central regions of Somalia controlled by the hardline rebels.The Horn of Africa’s current drought is its worst in decades and British International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell yesterday urged European countries and the international community to step up assistance to the region.“We have seen some derisory offers from rich European countries. The whole international community... should now realise the scale of what is happening in the Horn of Africa and put their shoulder to the wheel and do everything they can to help,” Mitchell told reporters in Nairobi.“It is a terrible thing in our world today that a baby should die from lack of food,” said Mitchell, who toured some of Kenya’s drought-affected regions.Unicef director Anthony Lake said: “This is a very serious crisis ... not only are the immediate needs great, but this crisis is likely to deepen over the coming six months or so because it is very unlikely that there will be sufficient new harvests.”“We have to do everything we can now to ameliorate its scope and to save the lives of the people who are affected,” he added.On Saturday, Britain promised £52mn in emergency aid.Germany also pledged a further 5mn euros for the crisis.Mitchell visited Dadaab refugee camps in the east of Kenya, where hundreds of Somalis are seeking refuge every day after days of trekking that have claimed the lives of weak children and seen families robbed and attacked on the way.The 380,000-strong Dadaab camps are the world’s largest refugee settlement, now hosting more than four times their original capacity. One-third of the new arrivals are women and children.“I have never before seen a collection of so many mothers and children completely silent,” said Mitchell.“I saw the feet of some of the children and mothers covered in cuts and blisters. It was amazing that they could move at all on feet that have been so badly injured,” he added.Lake on Saturday toured Kenya’s Turkana region in the north where he said families had run out of food and some mothers were feeding their children on pounded nuts they first moisten with saliva before giving to the babies.Unicef estimates that more than 2mn children in the Horn of Africa region are malnourished and need urgent help, while some 500,000 of them face imminent, life-threatening conditions.