Refugee Rights News
Volume 4, Issue 4
June 2008
Somalia: A Humanitarian Crisis Disregarded
On June 21, 2008, Hassan Mohamed Ali, head of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Somalia, was abducted near Afgooye, 30 kilometers west of Mogadishu. Prior to his abduction, he was finalizing plans for a distribution of basic supplies to approximately 40,000 internally displaced persons living in makeshift sites along the road from Mogadishu to Afgooye. Ali has served UNHCR in Somalia longer than any other member of the staff, and is well-known in Mogadishu as a humanitarian and human rights advocate. In 2007, he and his family became victims of displacement themselves as conflict engulfed the capital. Ali’s abduction is one of a stream of assaults on local and international humanitarian personnel, he joins eight other humanitarian aid workers currently being held hostage throughout the country. These assaults which are greatly hampering the distribution of much-needed humanitarian aid.
Flooding, drought, clan warfare and frequent assassinations are among the threats driving Somalis from their homes in the capital and throughout the country. One million Somalis, a number that includes 60% of Mogadishu residents, 50,000 of whom left between March and June 2008, have fled their homes. Aid workers estimate that 464,000 people have sought refuge in Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen and Djibouti, and according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), 2.6 million Somalis currently need assistance. This is expected to rise to 3.5 million people, or close to half of the total population, by the end of 2008 if the humanitarian situation does not improve.
The increasingly volatile situation in Somalia has seen a surge in malnutrition rates, disease prevalence and incidence of violent attacks - yet the number of aid workers in the country remains astoundingly low. Violent attacks on aid workers, human rights advocates, local NGOs and members of civil society exacted by armed militias as well as government forces, have kept aid operations at bay. In 2007, eight journalists were killed and several aid workers were abducted and murdered. The deleterious effects of these attacks are compounded by the international community and the media’s neglect of the situation in Somalia. While other conflicts on the continent garner consistent media attention, Somalia’s developing humanitarian crisis seems to be disregarded at best.
The state of humanitarian aid
The war-ravaged nation of Somalia is one with an intensely complex relationship with humanitarian aid. Since the 1977-78 Ogaden war between Somalia and Ethiopia over a territorial dispute fueled by Cold War tensions, which brought about the first big Somali refugee movement and resulted in an exploitation and manipulation of incoming aid resources, humanitarian aid organizations have had immense difficulty in navigating the entangled social and political dynamics of Somali society. This difficulty has been exacerbated by the demise of the state post-civil war in the early nineties when the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 resulted in years of anarchy. Due to increased insecurity and previously stable parts of the country, the autonomous Puntland region in particular, becoming no-go zones for international aid workers, the presence of international NGOs in Somalia has swiftly dwindled since 2006. The United Nations World Food Programme is the largest humanitarian agency in the country with 200 national and international staff, reaching 1.53 million Somalis in need in 2007.
In addition to the fighting, central and southern Somalia has been hit by the worst cereals harvest in 13 years. In late 2007, the United Nations classified Somalia “the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa.” Food distributions are hampered, leaving thousands without a basic food supply. The WFP Somalia food supplies come into Kenyan and Tanzanian ports after which they continue via road. In June 2007, however, food distributions in Mogadishu were stopped because of shooting incidents, and piracy severely threatened humanitarian assistance coming in via the various sea routes. By the end of 2007, the French navy escorted ships carrying relief food and Denmark took over in early 2008.
The insecure situation in Somalia presents immense obstacles to the delivery of aid and exposes hundreds of thousands internally displaced to hunger and lawlessness. Attacks on aid workers have also made it difficult to continue vital programs. The UNHCR is, under the division of labor of the UN system, the leader in responding to the IDP crisis in Somalia, but its ability to offer effective protection to IDPs has been hampered by the lack of field based staff. The kidnapping of the head of office on June 21 will only exacerbate this situation. MSF was forced to pull out its international staff, and eventually close its medical and nutritional programs near Bossasso. This pull-out severely limited capacity to address the health concerns of displaced persons, particularly malnutrition, which, according to the organization, was estimated in December 2007 to affect more than 25% of the population.
The vulnerable exposed
To date, approximately 20,000 civilians leave Mogadishu each month, joining the 600,000 people who already fled the capital in 2007. Refugees International, which conducted a field mission in early 2008 and published its findings in a report entitled “Somalia: Proceed With Caution,” estimates that 250,000 people are camped along a mere stretch of 18 miles between the capital and the town of Afgoye, making it “the most densely populated settlement of internally displaced people in the world.”
Children are particularly at risk. Grave child rights violations are being committed with the recruitment and use of child soldiers in the armed conflict. Peaceline, a Somali civil society group that monitors the situation of children, observed that the vast majority of the thousands seeking shelter in the displacement camps are in fact children. Not only do less than 24% of boys and 20% of girls attend primary school UNICEF noted that cases of rape and other sexual assaults against children significantly increased in 2007. As in other conflicts around the world children are affected and least able to cope.
Understanding the violence
Lawlessness, clan conflict and warlord politics are all features of Somalia’s current political landscape, making it difficult to navigate and effectively direct humanitarian relief.
Somalia was created in 1960 when the former British protectorate and an Italian colony merged. Territorial claims on Somali-inhabited areas of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti have since hindered the country’s development, and border disputes, especially with Ethiopia, evolved into hostilities. In a 1969 coup, Muhammad Siad Barre assumed power, declared Somalia a socialist state and nationalized most of its economy. His army invaded the Somali-inhabited Ogaden region in Ethiopia in 1977 and was pushed out with Soviet and Cuban backing for Ethiopia a year later. A peace accord with Ethiopia in 1988, however, did not bring peace to Somalia as power struggles between Somali clan warlords erupted and civilian killings continued after the ousting of President Barre in 1991.
In 1992, US Marines deployed to Mogadishu joining a UN peacekeeping force to restore order and safeguard relief supplies. After the killing of US Army Rangers in 1993 the US mission was aborted in March 1994. Failing their mission UN peacekeepers left Somalia in 1995, and warlords and clan leaders continue their disputes in a lawless society. In 2000, a Transitional National Government was formed with Abdulkassim Salat Hassan as its president. The government was soon opposed when Somali warlords backed by Ethiopia announce their intention to form a national government by the end of 2001. President Hassan's government collapsed and another transitional parliament was inaugurated at a ceremony in Kenya in 2004. During the first half of 2005, the government returns home from exile in Kenya but doesn’t have its first meeting until a year later, in February 2006. In the meantime, the Council of Islamic Courts, control of much of the south, including Mogadishu where fierce fighting between rival militias caused the worst violence in nearly a decade. The Council of Islamic Courts has been accused of being a militant Islamic and terrorist organization, in particular because leaders of its more militant wing, the Hisb'ul Shabaab, have reported links with al-Qaeda.
The Islamic Courts were, however, able to introduce a measure of security in southern Somalia, disarming and bringing on board certain clan leaders. The security was welcomed by much of the local population, even if it came at the cost of the Court's rather strict interpretation of Sharia. The Courts' leadership also stood against Ethiopian intervention in Somalia, which they saw as a threat to the continued existence of the state. At the end of 2006, forces loyal to the Transitional Federal Government, with the backing of Ethiopian troops, attacked the Islamic Courts. After brief fighting, the Council simply dissolved, reverting into factions, some of which continue to fight the government and allowing for previously disarmed clan and local leaders to reassert themselves, recreating the previous, factionalized environment in Mogadishu.
In December 2006 and President Abdullahi Yusuf entered the capital for the first time since taking office in 2004. Around the same time, the African Union (AU) and Arab League urged Ethiopia to pull out its troops and the UN Security Council authorizes a six-month AU peacekeeping mission for Somalia. In early 2007, the humanitarian crisis grows as AU peacekeepers arrive in Mogadishu. The Red Cross described this fighting as the worst in 15 years. In this environment of insecurity, an estimated 60% of Mogadishu residents have fled their homes.
Currently, a meager 2,400 troops from Uganda and Burundi are stationed in and around Mogadishu. However, the recent upsurge in violence has seemingly discouraged other AU countries from contributing troops, and financial backing from the United States and Europe hasn’t helped. The UN’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for the UN Security Council to consider sending 27,000 peacekeepers to Somalia, a number that is far greater than the 8,000 troops the AU has agreed to deploy.
From apathy to action
Yet, relief programming must be implemented to affect change in what top UN officials have touted to be Africa’s most pressing humanitarian crisis. Despite this UN declaration, media and NGO attention seems to have turned away from the strife in Somalia, focusing largely on other issues of concern, including the crisis in Darfur. There is a pressing concern for heightened media coverage and increased public and NGO understanding of the complex situation if the humanitarian crisis in Somalia is to be dealt with on an international level.
Resource-competition and fighting has caused civilians to lose their property and homes, displacing hundreds of thousands who now live as refugees or are internally displaced. In 2007 alone, three major displacements occurred, rendering 1.1 million internally displaced. Displaced Somalis are in need of food and water, and many lack even rudimentary shelter. The UN Food Security Assessment Unit estimates that currently 555,000 people are in humanitarian emergency and do not have enough food while 945,000 people are in acute food and livelihood crisis and are selling assets to buy food, leaving them vulnerable to further deterioration. Unfortunately, access to displaced persons and other beneficiaries is stifled in Somalia and is largely determined by irregular cycles of local security.
The international community clearly needs to do more to address the interrelated problems of security and humanitarian access. Security of humanitarian workers and civilians isclosely, linked, and more international attention is needed in order to create a safe environment to provide crucial aid. While challenging, overcoming insecurity to ensure the effective delivery of aid in Somalia is possible.
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