Somalia crisis languishes in Darfur's shadow

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Blogged by: Nina Brenjo

Think of a humanitarian crisis in Africa. Among Western publics, the most popular response is likely to be Darfur. Thanks to campaigners, aid workers and the media, the conflict in Sudan's western region has been firmly placed on the international political agenda.

But, as is demonstrated time and time again, not all crises are created equal. Take Somalia, for example. As the New York Times reports, it's quickly earning the title of the worst humanitarian crisis on the continent. But the plight of its long-suffering people has gone unnoticed for years, and there's little to suggest that's changing.

Top U.N. officials told the NYT Somalia has higher malnutrition rates, more current bloodshed and fewer aid workers than Darfur. But international support remains way below what is needed.

The newspaper talked to Natheefa Ali - one of the tens of thousands who fled recent clashes in Mogadishu. Her 10-month-old baby was so malnourished she couldn't swallow any more, Ali said. "Look, her skin is falling off, too," she added.

Eric Laroche, the head of U.N. humanitarian operations in Somalia, told the NYT, "If this were happening in Darfur, there would be a big fuss. But Somalia has been a forgotten emergency for years."

The list of Somalia's misfortunes is never-ending, according to Britain's Economist magazine: a failed harvest - possibly the worst in the past 13 years - in central Somalia; over 1 million people dependent on humanitarian aid, with only a tiny proportion getting it; numerous pirate attacks on food aid ships; and a famine looming.

To top it all, international support for a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Somalia is low. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has described such a mission as unlikely, hoping instead for a "coalition of the willing" - countries that are prepared to step up and help Somalia sort out its mess. But the Economist points out: "At the moment there are just the unwilling".

In recent weeks, renewed fighting in the capital Mogadishu between the U.S.-backed transitional government, supported by Ethiopian troops, and Islamist insurgents, has made the humanitarian crisis worse.

There are now nearly 200,000 displaced people on the 30 km stretch of the road between the capital and the city of Afgooye, writes South Africa's Mail and Guardian, citing U.N. refugee agency figures.

"That is a world record. You won't find that level of refugee misery in any other country in the world," Christian Balslev-Olesen, Somalia representative for the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), tells German news website Spiegel Online.

Emergency aid to Somalia is less than $200 million, and there are only a handful of aid organisations operating in the country, according to the New York Times. The figures are paltry compared with Darfur's billion-dollar aid operation and more than 10,000 aid workers.

One reason is that Somalia is still largely a no-go zone. Anna Husarska from aid agency International Rescue Committee recounts her frustration about the appalling security in Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper. On a recent visit to the country, her team spent more time, effort and money on dealing with security issues than evaluating the acute humanitarian needs.

"And all this because of the U.S.-backed push into Mogadishu by Ethiopia...because Washington got scared of another Islamist government arising from the chaos of Somalia?" asks Alex Thomson, a news presenter for Britain's Channel 4, in his email about the Nov. 21 news programme.

"It certainly looks that way," he concludes.

SOURCE: Reuters, November 22, 2007

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