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Somalia: Ethiopian attacks hinder aid works
Friday, 16 May 2008
Kenya: There are new Humanitarian accusations that high quality aid sent to Southern Somalia through Mogadishu port has been swapped for low quality products from the Ethiopian Army warehouses.
The continued outflow of IDPs from Mogadishu, The recent tragic attack on humanitarian aid workers, logistical challenges, along with poor infrastructure and poor rains in parts of south and Central regions are contributing to the crisis and has affected the ability of international agencies and Somali civil society to continue life saving humanitarian operations in the South.

FAO's chief technical adviser to FSAU-Somalia, said samples of the rice handed out to victims were old, damaged and of poor quality, unlike the high quality FOA rice being brought to the somali IDPs in the south.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization's Food Security Analysis Unit and FEWS NET Somalia, said the humanitarian situation in southern and central regions of the country had deteriorated in the past six months.

"Between 1.8 million and two million people, including roughly one million IDPs, are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance and livelihood support for at least the next six months," the agencies stated.

The worst affected regions are Lower and Middle Shabelle, Hiiraan and Central regions, due largely to "a significant increase in the number of internally displaced persons fleeing Mogadishu [the capital] and a deepening drought in Hiiraan and Central regions".

The deputy head of office for the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Somalia , told Geeska Afrika Online that local Somali business groups and their volunteers have been carrying the largest share of the humanitarian assistance burden, HAN & Geeska Afrika Online report said.

A resident of Mogadishu told the agency that Somali TNG official complained to WFP that large quantities of high energy food that were rushed into Afgoye were sent to a Ethiopian military food centers and exchanged for tasteless and low quality food produced by the Ethiopian government.

UN officials who work on Somalia said that the country had higher malnutrition rates, more current bloodshed and fewer aid workers than Darfur, which is often publicized as the world's most pressing humanitarian crisis and has taken clear priority in terms of getting peacekeepers and aid money.

Ethiopia is taking heavy criticism for restricting the amount of foreign aid and humanitarian workers allowed into Somalia, despite the fact Hunderds of thousands of people are sick and dying in the wake of a devastating war with Islamist forces in Somalia.

"Many of these kids are going to die," said Eric Laroche, the head of UN humanitarian operations in Somalia said last month. "We don't have the capacity to reach them for security reasons."

He added "If this were happening in Darfur, there would be a big fuss. But Somalia has been a forgotten emergency for years."

"They're only relenting very slowly, and much more slowly than everyone believes is necessary to save lives, there," said IGAD2020 regional security watch Official.

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahamd told Geeska Afrika Online by Phone, "Many Somali business community, Egypt, Yemen, Eritrea, Sudan and from Somali communities in Europe, are offering help and they're being denied and the Ethiopian government is really just letting aid in at a trickle now."
 
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