The Oxford Analytica released following report on “The effect of a growing food emergency on security in the Horn of Africa”.
SIGNIFICANCE: Poverty, drought and food insecurity are well known in the Horn of Africa. This latest emergency occurs at a time of global increases in the price of food and fuel and when regional conflicts threaten to destabilise the region.
ANALYSIS: The sharp increase in food and energy prices globally has hurt the poorest and most food insecure regions of the world particularly hard. According to the US Agency for International Development’s latest estimates, as many as 16.3 million people in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti) are in need of emergency assistance or face food insecurity. Hunger and security. This latest food...
In
Africa,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Development Issues,
Health,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Somali Islamic Revolution,
Col. Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed,
Somalia,
drought,
food crisis,
humantarian emergency
PRESS RELEASE 0020/2008
Nairobi, 13 August 2008 – The United Nations Special Representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, said he was very pleased that the two main Committees in the Djibouti Agreement are being convened this weekend. After consultations with the Transitional Federal Government and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, it was agreed that the Joint Security Committee (Article 8.) and the High Level Committee (Article 9) will meet in Djibouti from 16 – 18 August.
The two sides will have delegations attending each meeting. The Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein as well as the leaders of the ARS, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan plan to attend.
The international community, including diplomats from several countries and regional...
In
News,
Warlords,
National Security,
Arab World,
Terrorism,
Somali Foreign Policy,
Somali Diaspora,
Somalia Islamic Courts,
Ethiopian Invasion,
UN,
Balkanizing Somalia,
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah,
Somalia peace process,
The United Nations Special Representative for Somalia,
UN Political Office,
Africa,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Somali Islamic Revolution,
Col. Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed
Following is the latest news dispatch from the Somali besieged capital:
A former Somali commander and five other ministers, who had resigned after criticizing President Yusuf’s policies, have been killed. Colonel Ibrahim Hassan Isse, the ex-commander of Bali-Doogle Air Base and five other members of the cabinet who resigned four days ago, have been killed by masked gunmen in Afgoye town on Friday, Press TV Correspondent reported. Hassan Isse refused to work with the government on the grounds that the President was a puppet of the Ethiopians.
Source: Press......
The Relief Web released following short statistical report on northern regions of the Somali Republic.
Investments by returning refugees and remittances from those still abroad provide a lifeline to millions in the breakaway Somaliland Republic.
Here are some details about Somaliland:
GEOGRAPHY: Somaliland is about the size of England and Wales with an area of 137,600 sq km (68,000 sq. miles). It shares borders with Republic of Djibouti to the west, Ethiopia to the south and Somalia to the east.
POPULATION: The population of Somaliland is estimated at around 4.0 million.
CAPITAL: Hargeisa is the capital of Somaliland with an estimated population of 0.45 million. The other main towns are Burao, Borama, Berbera, Erigabo and Las Anod.
LANGUAGE: Somali is the official language. Arabic and...
In
Dar ul- Islam,
Somali Peace Process,
News,
Warlords,
National Security,
Somali Foreign Policy,
Ethiopian Invasion,
Balkanizing Somalia,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Somali Islamic Revolution
IRIN News reports:
Much of Somalia’s displaced population has scattered across rural villages, which are hard to reach because of rampant insecurity and limited resources, an international agency said, impeding aid delivery. CARE International, which distributed some 900MT of food to 12,000 IDPs in the southern town of Beletweyne two weeks ago, said its staff had failed to access rural areas. Instead, they relied on local partner agencies to do assessments. “The IDP population is mixed, with some households previously displaced from Mogadishu [the capital], and then there are [those] recently displaced out of Beletweyne town by fighting,” CARE said. Some of them were reportedly returning but others were moving farther away, as far as Tayeeglow district in Bakool region....
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO):
The general food security situation in Somali Region has deteriorated over the last two months due to cumulative effects of three failed consecutive rainy seasons, poor terms of trade coupled with the progressing dry “hagga” season. Humanitarian partners and elders are comparing the current drought situation to that of 1999/2000. The recently completed DPPA led multi-agency pastoral assessment team reported critical food security problems with records of massive livestock and human migration, reduced livestock births and production as well as increased prices of food.
Click here to view the full report by FAO. You may also like to click here more FAO reports on......
In
Pan Somalism,
Add new tag,
Greater Somalia,
Somali Peace Process,
National Security,
Ethiopian Invasion,
Balkanizing Somalia,
Africa,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Health,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Somali Islamic Revolution,
Col. Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed
According to a Press Pelease by the European Commision:
The European Commission has allocated a further €21 million in humanitarian aid for the Horn of Africa: Assistance is being provided to vulnerable populations in Somalia (€13m), Eritrea (€4m) and Ethiopia (€4m). So far in 2008, the Commission has provided nearly €120 million in humanitarian aid, including food aid, to needy people in the Horn of Africa (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda). The funds are channelled through the Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO), under the responsibility of Commissioner Louis Michel.
The Press Release went on by saying:
The Commission’s assistance will focus on rural populations and internally displaced people (IDPs). It addresses core humanitarian needs, with emergency relief...
In
Immigration,
Humanitarian Aid,
News,
Warlords,
National Security,
Somali Foreign Policy,
Somalia Islamic Courts,
Ethiopian Invasion,
Africa,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Development Issues,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Somali Islamic Revolution,
Somalia
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:
Acute malnutrition is a chronic emergency all over the country. Families who have been displaced for years due to the political conflict require urgent assistance. Pastoralists in some areas have lost half of their herds. In southern Somalia, historically the country’s breadbasket, production of staple foods (such as sorghum and maize) has fallen by up to 50 percent because of the protracted drought.
With a $3 million CERF allocation, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is treating acute malnutrition in displaced children under five and vulnerable host Populations by handing out Plumpy’doz (a compound of vegetable fat, peanut paste, sugar, skimmed milk powder, malto-dextrine, and complex vitamins and...
In
Gender and Dev.,
Personal,
Somali Peace Process,
News,
Warlords,
National Security,
Somalia Islamic Courts,
Ethiopian Invasion,
Africa,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Development Issues,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Somali Islamic Revolution,
Col. Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed
TFG troops supporting the continuation of the Ethiopian occupation of Somalia came under heavy fire in north Mogadishu as the country is thrown more into anarchy at the cost of more civilian lives.
Click here to view the full dispatch by the Press TV.
Click here for further news dispatches from......
In
Dar ul- Islam,
Warlords,
National Security,
Arab World,
Terrorism,
Somali Foreign Policy,
Somalia Islamic Courts,
Ethiopian Invasion,
Africa,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Somali Islamic Revolution,
Col. Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed
Click here to view a transcript from a meeting held on 19 June 2008 at Chatham House, London,......
In
Commentary,
Pan Somalism,
Dar ul- Islam,
Somali Peace Process,
Warlords,
National Security,
Arab World,
Ethiopian Invasion,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Somali Islamic Revolution,
Col. Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed
“The international community must put Somalia at the top of its agenda and press for change before it is too late. We call on all authorities in Somalia to help us reach those in need and urge donors not to give up on this country.”
Peter Goossens,
WFP’s Country Director for......
According to the United Nations:
High levels of malnutrition and the difficulties of delivering aid make Somalia the world’s most pressing humanitarian crisis, the U.N. refugee agency’s representative there said on Tuesday. More than 1 million people have fled their homes in Somalia, which is convulsed by fighting between Ethiopian-backed government forces, Islamist insurgents and an assortment of warlords. “I’ve never seen anything like Somalia before,” Guillermo Bettocchi, representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said during a visit to London. “The situation is very severe. It is the most pressing humanitarian emergency in the world today — even worse than Darfur,” he told reporters, referring to the war in western...
Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times sent a dispatch from the Somali caiptal and says:
The trouble started when government soldiers went to the market and, at gunpoint, began to help themselves to sacks of grain last week. Islamist insurgents poured into the streets to defend the merchants. The government troops took heavy casualties and retreated all the way back to the presidential palace, supposedly the most secure place in the city. It, too, came under fire. Mohamed Abdirizak, a top government official, crouched on a balcony at the palace, with bullets whizzing over his head. He had just given up a comfortable life as a development consultant in Springfield, Va. His wife thought he was crazy. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
“I feel this slipping away,” he said.
By its own...
According to the United Nations News Srvice:
About 90,000 children in war-ravaged Somalia could die in the next few months without immediate supplementary nutrition and therapeutic feeding, an official with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today, calling for stepped-up international support.
Due to a lack of adequate funding, the agency – which is urgently appealing for $10 million for nutritional, water and sanitation programmes – said it maybe be forced to close its nutritional centres and cease delivering drinking water in two weeks.
Click here to view the full story on the UN News......
Xan Rice, East Africa correspondent of the Guardian News paper writes:
The Islamist-led resistance in Somalia is growing in scale and aggression, with insurgents openly taking on Ethiopian troops and African Union peacekeepers in the capital Mogadishu, in fighting that has killed dozens, possibly hundreds, in the past three weeks.
Mr. Rice went on saying:
Few people believe that the situation is about to get better. Several experts interviewed by the Guardian say that the insurgents are becoming more powerful. A military analyst and a western diplomat to Somalia, neither of whom wished to be named, warned that the angry mood and conditions that allowed an Islamist movement to defeat a gang of warlords and take power in Mogadishu last year were returning. “We are on a merry-go-round...
In
Islamic World,
Pan Somalism,
Somali Peace Process,
National Security,
Terrorism,
Somali Foreign Policy,
Somalia Islamic Courts,
Ethiopian Invasion,
Africa,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Somali Islamic Revolution,
Col. Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed
In an editorial the Dubai based Khaleej Times newspaper says:
WITH Ethiopian military incursions into the Somalian territory, in the name of fighting Islamic militants, the situation in the Horn of Africa is getting increasingly dangerous. Regional peace is under serious threat. And it looks like Somalia, one of the hotspots of the continent, would now be used for a proxy war between largely-Christian Ethiopia and its bitter rival, Eritrea, a nation that backs the Islamists.
The paper continued by saying:
Ethiopian incursions are now undermining these efforts. Amid the rolling in of the Ethiopian tanks and the air strikes that followed, the bitter memories of the past two wars have come to haunt the people. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s stand that his government has a ‘legal and moral...
In
Cali Maxmed Geedi,
Islamic World,
Commentary,
Pan Somalism,
Somali Peace Process,
News,
Warlords,
National Security,
Arab World,
Terrorism,
Somalia Islamic Courts,
Ethiopian Invasion,
Africa,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Somali Islamic Revolution,
Col. Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed
Simon Tissdall of the Guardian newspaper writes:
Watching Somalia right now is like standing on a beach, waiting for a category five hurricane to hit. The storm is approaching fast, there seems little that can be done, and the ensuing destruction will be terrible - and far-reaching. The looming Somali cataclysm threatens to spark a regional war, suck in east African and Arab actors, and create a dangerous new theatre in the polarising, global contest between western power and Islamist jihadism. Somalia has the potential to make Darfur look like a little local difficulty.
Mr. Tisdall went on by saying:
Three outcomes were possible at this juncture, the western source said. One was that UN-backed, on-off talks between the UIC and Baidoa government resumed, the African protection force...
In
Cali Maxmed Geedi,
Islamic World,
Commentary,
Pan Somalism,
Somali Peace Process,
News,
Warlords,
National Security,
Arab World,
Terrorism,
Somali Foreign Policy,
Somalia Islamic Courts,
Ethiopian Invasion,
Africa,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Development Issues,
Somali Islamic Revolution,
Col. Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed
Fox News reports:
Floods caused by torrential rain in parts of southern Somalia have killed more than 23 people and displaced thousands over the past five days, aid workers and residents said Tuesday. The death toll is partly based on figures given by residents in different parts of southern Somalia contacted by The Associated Press by two-way radio, the most common means of communication in this Horn of Africa nation, which has had no effective central government for 15 years.
Click here for the full......
Sheikh Farah Mo’alim, the governor of Hiiraan was quoted as saying:
The floods have displaced around 80 percent of the population of the eastern part of the town and 20 percent of the western part.
The Governor continued by saying:
Most of those displaced are now camped at Jenta Kundishe, 15 km to the northeast of Beletweyne, which is on a higher elevation.
Click here to view the full dispatch on the......
Mogadishu is once again a key entry point for getting food stocks into the country. The reopening of the port makes it easier for us to reach more than one million people across the country who rely on our assistance.
Leo van der Velden
Somalia Acting Country Director
UN World Food Program......
In
NFD,
Somali Peace Process,
News,
Warlords,
National Security,
Somali Foreign Policy,
Somalia Islamic Courts,
Africa,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Development Issues,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Somali Islamic Revolution
To date contributors to WFP’s Somalia programme in 2006 are:
United States: US$26.2 million
UK Department for International Development: US$9.64 million
The Netherlands: US$5.3 million
Saudi Arabia: US$3 million
Canada: US$1.3 million
Ireland: US$1.2 million
Italy: US$1.17 million
Sweden: US$1.16 million
United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund: US$851,000
Australia: US$752,000
Belgium: US$643,000
Finland: US$605,000
African Development Bank: US$500,000
Switzerland: US$379,000
Turkey: US$300,000
Norway: US$206,000
US Friends of WFP: US$74,000
Private donations: US$55,000
WFP needs a total of US$37 million to assist 1.1 million people in Somalia until July 2007.
Click here for more on this. You may also click here to learn more about WFP....
In
NFD,
Somali Peace Process,
News,
Warlords,
National Security,
Terrorism,
Somalia Islamic Courts,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Development Issues,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Somali Islamic Revolution
The Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEW) paint a grim prospect for Somalia by saying:
Prospects for the 2006 main “gu” cereal crops, for harvest from August, are poor due to insufficient rains; the rainy season is complete, with patchy results. This would lead to the third consecutive season of below average harvest. Despite some heavy rains at the beginning of the season, large areas in Gedo, Bakol, Hiran, Bay, Lower Shabelle, Lower and Middle Juba, Galgadud, Toghdeer, Sool, Sanaag and Bari received below normal rains (see map). The gu is the main rainy season (April–June) with about 70 to 80 percent of annual cereal production in normal years.
Despite favourable rains in several drought-affected regions of Somalia, the food security situation of about 2.1 million...
In
Last Word...,
NFD,
Islamic World,
Commentary,
Pan Somalism,
Somali Peace Process,
News,
Warlords,
National Security,
Arab World,
Somalia Islamic Courts,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Development Issues,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Somali Islamic Revolution
Click here to view the full report (PDF)....
David Gollust of VOA writes:
The Bush administration is again urging the main parties in the Somalia conflict to commit to dialogue for a unity government, and it is calling on Somalia’s neighbors to avoid any actions that might complicate those efforts. The U.S. appeal followed reports Wednesday that a Kazakh cargo plane carrying arms from Eritrea for Islamic militants had arrived in the Somali capital Mogadishu, and news accounts last week that Ethiopia had sent troops to shore up the country’s transitional government based in Baidoa. Both Eritrea and Ethiopia have denied intervening in the long-running Somali conflict and officials here say they cannot verify the news reports. However, the State Department is taking the accounts seriously. At a news briefing, State...
In
Prez Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed,
Islamic World,
Commentary,
Somali Peace Process,
News,
Warlords,
National Security,
Arab World,
Terrorism,
Somali Foreign Policy,
Somali Diaspora,
Somalia Islamic Courts,
Ethiopian Invasion,
Africa,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Somali Islamic Revolution
The Reuters’ AlertNet reports:
The United Nations warned of a looming food crisis in Somalia on Wednesday, brought on by patchy seasonal rains and rising military tensions. “Somalia is in deep crisis. Additional tension or conflict would be disastrous,” said Henri Josserand, a senior official at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
“We are watching the situation very closely.”
For the third consecutive season, the FAO added in a statement, little rainfall earlier in the year meant the harvest of the main cereal crops in August was expected to be poor. At the same time, rising tensions between armed groups and reports of a military build-up around the seat of the transitional government in Baidoa were seen as a major threat. Fighters loyal to a union of Islamic...
The Kuweiti news agency (KUNA) reports:
The Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) announced on Saturday dispatching humanitarian relief aid to the Somali people, based on directives from the Kuwaiti leadership. Relief officer Msaed Al-Enezi told Kuna today that 10,000 one-month long subsistence (food and medical supply) family packs were distributed to the needy in the stricken areas. He described as difficult and hard the living conditions in the war-hit Somalia, noting that the KRCS coordinated with the Somali Red Crescent Society when distributing the aid for mitigating the sufferings of the Somali people. The KRCS delegations week-long visit aimed at assessing needs of the stricken areas in addition to embarking opn visits to the Somali major residential areas. He said head of the...
Antonio Guterres; chief of the UNHCR was quoted as saying:
What we appeal to the international community, both in Somalia as in everywhere else, is to do its best to create conditions for a peaceful settlement of the problems and an adequate political solution.
Click here to view article about Antonio Guterres press conference on the Pakistani Daily Times....
In
PM Cali Geedi,
Prez Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed,
Islamic World,
Pan Somalism,
Somali Peace Process,
News,
National Security,
Somali Foreign Policy,
Somalia Islamic Courts,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Somali Islamic Revolution
Jan Egeland, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, said in a statement:
At a time when people most need medical care and surgical attention, the occupation of Keysaney hospital by armed fighters constitutes a gross violation of international humanitarian law.
Mr. Egeland went on by saying:
The recent indiscriminate shelling in Mogadishu and spreading fighting in the environs of the capital have resulted in enormous human suffering.
Mr. Egeland concluded by saying:
This is a potential disaster area, at least from the humanitarian perspective, if it is not contained in the near......
Following is the entire text of a Press Release by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Press release
01 June 2006
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Press invitation: Annika Söder to meet Somalia’s Minister of Planning and International Cooperation. State Secretary Annika Söder and Abdirizak Osman Hassan, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation in Somalia’s transitional government, will hold a press conference at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on Friday 2 June at 12.30. The press conference is being arranged in conjunction with a visit to Stockholm by members of the parliament and government of Somalia. The purpose of the visit is to discuss the arrangements for development assistance coordination and to plan a donor conference for Somalia.
Time and place:
Friday...
Following is the text of today’s (May 31.06) Press Statement delivered by Acting Security Council President Pascal Gayama ( Congo):
The members of the Security Council received a briefing on 30 May 2006 from the Department of Political Affairs, related to the recent developments in Somalia. They strongly condemned the resumption of fighting in Mogadishu. The members of the Security Council expressed their deep concern over the loss of life, suffering and the renewed violence against the civilian populations. The members of the Security Council called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and urged both sides to find solutions to the problems in Mogadishu, within the framework of the Transitional Federal Charter.The members of the Security Council also called on all parties to...