RSS
Digg | 
Del.icio.us
In case you missed Jeffrey Gettleman's stunning expose of the near-famine conditions in Somalia, it is worth a read:
Somalia -- and much of the volatile Horn of Africa, for that matter -- was about the last place on earth that needed a food crisis. Even before commodity prices started shooting up around the globe, civil war, displacement and imperiled aid operations had pushed many people here to the brink of famine.But now with food costs spiraling out of reach and the livestock that people live off of dropping dead in the sand, villagers across this sun-blasted landscape say hundreds of people are dying of hunger and thirst.
This is what happens, economists say, when the global food crisis meets local chaos.
"We're really in the perfect storm," said Jeffrey D. Sachs, a Columbia economist and top United Nations adviser, who recently visited neighboring Kenya.
There has been a collision of troubles throughout the region: skimpy rainfall, disastrous harvests, soaring food prices, dying livestock, escalating violence, out-of-control inflation, and shrinking food aid because of many of these factors.
The UN has branded the situation in Somalia a "humanitarian emergency" -- the final step before an official famine, which is likely just weeks away. This news only further accentuates the need for a credible peacekeeping force in Somalia, as well as continued investment in both humanitarian assistance and political negotiations. As Gettleman's article reminds us, the ramifications of famine cannot be divorced from the panoply of other factors exacerbating Somalia's plight. Across the border in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, there are signs that the Ethiopian government is manipulating an equally dire food crisis to snuff out an insurgency. In Somalia's violent landscape, such a tactic is unfortunately not far from the realm of possibility.
Comments
Genocide in Ogaden,but little is known about it,why humanitarian agences keep silence why do not they comment the attrocities in Ogaden.
the history will tell the so called U.N and its blindly assitance to the tyant Regime of TPLF .
we will defend our dignity and you will now that people's will work.
Posted by: ahmed at May 20, 2008 2:52 AM
Its better for us to put people first than other issue.There many children and women who have become serious victims of famine.The United nations and its member states a nd regional organisations in peace building efforts consider hunger and poverty as breach to human security.Poverty and hunger are both drivers of civil war.There is need to strenghten the capacity of the malnourished children in the region by supply of food,medical, water and sanitation.
There is need to consider and commitment of the somalia people and its government request for peace keeper to provide humanitarian service,peace keeping and support political dialoque with the other parties involved in the conflicts.
Thankyou,
Opio moses korsuk
UNF/BWC
Posted by: Opio moses korsuk at May 22, 2008 3:52 AM