Calling the humanitarian situation in Somalia "a
forgotten crisis," a top U.N. official has appealed for
more than $160 million next year in international aid for the
long-suffering Horn of African country. The U.N. official
says some areas in Somalia have the same mortality and
malnutrition levels as the war-torn Darfur region of western
Sudan.
A day after completing his three-day visit to Somalia, U.N.
Humanitarian and Relief Affairs Coordinator, Jan Egeland, told
reporters in Nairobi that far more international attention needs
to be focused on Somalia, where an estimated one in five people
urgently require assistance after suffering nearly 14 years of
political and social anarchy.
Mr. Egeland's fact-finding mission was the United Nation's
first high-level visit to Somalia in a decade.
"Today, we will be launching a new consolidated appeal
for Somalia, an appeal where we ask for more than $160
million," he said. "That $161 million will be directed
towards lifesaving assistance to primary education, to health
care, to programs for protection of civilian populations, but
also for building a new future for Somalia through
reconstruction and helping new government structures. Next year
will be a crucial year. It will be a make or break year for all
of us for putting Somalia right for once."
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when
clan-based warlords overthrew the regime of dictator Mohammed
Siad Barre and plunged the nation of 10 million people into
chaos.
The country remains a patchwork of fiefdoms run by warlords
and their armed militias. But the creation of a new government
in the past five months, cobbled together in neighboring Kenya
after two years of talks, has raised hopes that Somalia could
soon become stable.
Mr. Egeland says the priority for the international community
now should be to help the new government rebuild Somalia's
infrastructure, particularly its shattered health care system.
As an example, Mr. Egeland compared the current mortality
rate in Somalia to that in Darfur, Sudan, where nearly two years
of fighting between Sudanese troops, government-backed militia
and rebels have caused what the United Nations calls "the
worst humanitarian situation in the world."
In Darfur, two out of every 10,000 people die every day from
hunger or disease. Mr. Egeland says the situation appears
to be the same in some parts of Somalia, but laments that Darfur
is drawing most of the world's attention and humanitarian aid.
"One death per 10,000 signifies a humanitarian
emergency," he noted. "So, two signifies a big
emergency. And I think that it's noticeable that the whole world
rushed to Darfur to help, but nobody is rushing to Somalia to
help."
Mr. Egeland acknowledges that there may be little
international enthusiasm to help Somalia after billions of
dollars were spent in the early 1990s in failed efforts to
relieve the then-emerging humanitarian crisis.
But he warns that without adequate attention and funding,
Somalia could spiral further into despair and chaos from which
it may never recover.
Somalia
"a forgotten crisis," Listen (UN Report)
Mr Aideed, who is home affairs
minister as well as third deputy prime minister, is the son
of the late General Mohamed Farah Aideed, who US forces
vainly tried to capture in 1993.
The
Fall of ARTA and Rise of SRRC Leadership (HAN Note 2001)
SOMALI
DAILY NEWS
(HAN) 7 Dec 2004-- Somalia's prime minister appointed a top
Mogadishu militia leader as national security minister,
completing the formation of a 34-strong cabinet in the latest
move to rebuild the anarchic nation, officials said.
