Desperate hunger
July 13, 2011
The refugee camps in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu - as well as Dadaab in Kenya and Dollo Ado in Ethiopia - are full to bursting. But more people keep arriving every day, weak from walking long distances. They have fled from drought and hunger.
Hassan Idow is one such refugee; he said he came to the camp because there was no food left to feed his family.
"I have five children that I can't feed," said Idow. "We come from the south of the country, and people are starving there. All the cattle have died."
Low on reserves
In Somalia, the last few rainy seasons have come and gone with little or no rain; the country is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years.
Other regions in the Horn of Africa are also affected by the ongoing drought, but in Somalia, the situation is critical, since the country is already drained from years of ongoing civil war.
More importantly, Somalia no longer has any reserves of staple food supplies such as cornmeal or millet. What little is left is being sold for record-high prices, experts say.
According to Mark Bowden, the United Nations coordinator for humanitarian aid in Somalia, speculators are profiting from the drastic situation and the human misery there.
"What's critical at this state is to help people who have been dealing with price rises of some 270 percent. To either get the price of food down, or get them food so that they can feed their families," he said.
Even the food reserves from food aid programs are running out. Estimates say there is enough food to last until September. Meanwhile the UN estimates that one-third of the population of Somalia - some 2.5 million people - is extremely undernourished; no one has kept track of how many people there have died of malnutrition.
Requests for aid
Southern Somalia, where the drought is particularly bad, is controlled by the radical Islamic Al Shabaab militia, which hasn't allowed food aid to be delivered for a long time. But now, even they are requesting aid - further proof of how dire the situation there is, observers say.
"Every organization that wants to help victims of the drought is welcome - whether they are Muslim or non-Muslim," said a spokesman for Al Shabaab. "As long as the aid doesn't come with a hidden agenda, we will give them whatever support they need."
The UN welcomed this change of heart - but they are looking for security guarantees as well.
For Bowden, the UN humanitarian aid coordinator, the most important issue is stopping the flood of refugees. The trip to escape drought in southern Somalia is a dangerous one, he says.
Child mortality is soaring
"The risks of migration are really high. It is when people decide to move that they suffer even higher levels of mortality. … More children are turning up in a very very poor nutritional status in camps in Kenya or in Ethiopia."
Indeed, every week, thousands of people are arriving at longstanding UN refugee camps such as Dadaab in Kenya and Dollo Ado in Ethiopia. In Dadaab, one in four arriving children are malnourished, and in Dollo Ado, it is a shocking one in two. Many mothers report their children simply died along the way.
But so many are now arriving, said the UN refugee agency's Adrian Edwards, that aid workers can scarcely even count them all, let alone help everyone in need.
"The prognosis looks very poor indeed," Edwards said. "We are in a situation where we are struggling to keep pace with the sheer volume of arrivals."
Meanwhile outside the camps, Unicef's Marixie Mercado noted that a silent, unreported tragedy is unfolding too: child malnourishment.
"In Ethiopia the number of children who are at risk of death due to malnutrition has increased by 40 percent since 2009. In Somalia the proportion has increased by a third over the same period. Kenya has seen the most significant deterioration with an increase of 200 percent in the number of children who are severely malnourished since 2009."
At the same time World Health Organisation staff in the region are reporting outbreaks of measles and cholera, making the area a recipe for the fatal combination of hunger and disease.
Aid agencies are now begging for international intervention to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.
But the dire situation means people continue to flood into the refugee camps every day. Many of them have spent their last savings paying off human traffickers to help move them into the camps; these traffickers can take up to 150 dollars per person.
It is a desperate trade - and it appears likely to keep booming in the near future.
Authors: Antje Diekhans, Imogen Foulkes (jen)
Editor: Rob Mudge