05 Aug 2011 – Morning headlines
Key Headlines:
- Somalia: emergency relief for over a million people
- MSF distributes relief to families in Jilib
- Al Shabaab demand money from farmers in Middle Jubba
- Prime Minister vows to continue fighting against al-shabaab
- Somalia famine has killed ‘29000 children’
- Terror risk worst in Somalia
- Logistics complicate food aid transport to Somalia
PRESS STATEMENT
Somalia: emergency relief for over a million people
04 Aug- Source: ICRC – 429 words
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is scaling up its emergency operation in central and southern Somalia to assist an additional 1.1 million drought- and conflict-affected people. The organization is asking donors for 67 million Swiss francs in additional funding, bringing its total 2011 budget for Somalia to over 120 million francs (more than 155 million US dollars). “The move comes in response to a situation that is becoming ever more desperate,” said Jakob Kellenberger, the president of the ICRC. “Hundreds of thousands of Somalis face life-threatening food and water shortages.” The situation is the result of 20 years of armed conflict compounded by severe drought. The effects of previous dry spells, high inflation and the worldwide rise in food and fuel prices have further aggravated the long-standing crisis since the beginning of the year. “In the central and southern parts of the country especially, where only a small number of humanitarian organizations are present on the ground, the need for aid cannot be overstated,” said Mr Kellenberger. “Despite the difficulty of operating in one of the most conflict-riven countries in the world, we cannot let people down. We are confident that we can deliver assistance successfully, in close cooperation with our partners from the Somali Red Crescent.” The ICRC is active in all provinces of central and southern Somalia and able to carry out largescale distributions. The budget extension will enable the ICRC to further expand its therapeutic feeding programmes and its food distributions to help people get by during the extremely difficult period until the next harvest in December. Some 49,000 malnourished children and 24,000 pregnant and lactating women will benefit from the supplementary and the therapeutic feeding programmes. “A first round of food distributions completed this week by the ICRC covers the needs of 162,000 people in central and southern Somalia for the coming month,” said Mr Kellenberger. “The distributions were carried out as planned and without delay.” In addition, the ICRC and the Somali Red Crescent have started to expand services in existing outpatient therapeutic feeding centres and health-care facilities. In central and southern Somalia, the ICRC has provided over 250,000 people with household essentials and made clean water available for 400,000 people since April. Food distributions constitute an emergency response to the most urgent needs. They are complemented by sustainable aid aimed at enabling the population to carry on their livelihoods with no outside help. Examples are the upgrading of wells and boreholes, irrigation schemes and other cash-for-work infrastructure projects to reduce farmers’ vulnerability to extreme weather conditions.
http://www.icrc.org/eng/
MSF distributes relief to families in Jilib
04 Aug- Source: MSF- 274 words
Over 3,600 people who have found temporary shelter in the southern-Somali town of Jilib (Lower Juba Valley) received plastic sheeting, mosquito nets and soap. The goods were provided by our team that runs a large therapeutic programme for malnourished children and a hospital in the nearby town of Marere.
“We walked for 15 days…”
“I heard that in Jilib there is a camp [for displaced people] with food distributions and that made us start our trip to Jilib,”said a recently arrived mother of six, who walked for most of the 230 km to reach the camp. “We wanted to go to the Kenyan refugee camps, but we were not able to pay the high price of the transportation to the camps. Instead, we arrived in Jilib, hoping to get some assistance,” she explained. “We used to have cows but our livestock got devastated [by drought] four months ago. When we lost our last two cows, we travelled from our village on foot and it took us 15 days to reach Jilib.” The distribution of relief items aims to provide highly needed shelter to people who are forced to live in open terrain while the mosquito nets are to prevent the spreading of malaria.
In the Marere facility an increased number of patients is being treated for this disease. As per 4th August, the therapeutic feeding programme in Marere has admitted 101 severely malnourished children with medical complications in its intensive feeding program, while more than 740 other malnourished children are admitted in various ambulatory feeding centers in and around Marere. We are trying to expand our medical and nutritional services to deal with the high needs.
http://www.msf.org.uk/
SOMALI MEDIA
Al Shabaab demand money from farmers in Middle Jubba
04 Aug- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 171 words
Al Shabaab’s newly appointed Bu’ale district commissioner, Ma’alim Dahir Abu Ayman has ordered local farmers in middle Shabelle to pay $30 for every hectare of irrigated land along the bank of River Jubba, the only source of water for the farmers in the area.
Banadir provincial administration seeks support for government troops
04 Aug- Source: Radio Bar-kulan, Radio Mogadishu- 103 words
Banadir’s provincial commissioner Mohamed Ahmed Noor Tarsan has pointed out the importance of rallying behind government troops in order to help them restore law and order in the country and stamp out al Shabaab in Somalia.
Astray bullet kills journalist in Mogadishu
04 Aug- Source: Radio Mogadishu, Radio Bar-kulan- 124 words
Farah Abdi, a journalist working with Simba FM, was killed by a stray bullet in Mogadishu yesterday as he was trying to take equipment for repair from the station’s broadcasting centre inside the Bakara market. The station has been off air for the last few days after some of its equipment was damaged by recent fight between TFG troops and al Shabaab.
Prime Minister vows to continue fighting against al-shabaab
04 Aug- Source: Radio Mogadishu-29 words
Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Moahmed Ali said that it’s necessary to eliminate al- shabaab from the country and vowed the Somali government will continue the offensive against the insurgents.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Kenya: Locals propose ICC for Somalia
04 Aug- Source: Nairobi Star- 173 words
There should be a judicial mechanism in Kenya where perpetrators of violence in Somalia can be tried, the Kenyan parliamentary committee on defence has said. The committee chairman, Aden Keynan, also called on the international community to establish safe havens for the Somali refugees to prevent them from entering Kenya.
Kuwait media offers outstanding coverage to Somalia aid campaign
04 Aug- Source: Kuwait News Agency- 282 words
Kuwait media teams are doing their best to offer outstanding daily coverage of the campaign to help famine-plagued Somali people, the Ministry of Information’s Assistant Undersecretary for News and Political Programs Youssef Mustafa said yesterday, pointing out that a media team is accompanying the Kuwait Red Crescent Society mission there.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/
Somalia famine has killed ‘29,000 children’
04 Aug- Source: Al Jazeera – 449 words
US officials say that the famine in Somalia has killed more than 29,000 children in the last 90 days. Separately, the UN has declared that three new regions in Somalia are famine zones, making a total of five regions affected by famine thus far in the Horn of Africa country. The UN had said last month that two regions were suffering from famine.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Terror risk worst in Somalia
04 Aug- Source: Reuters- 263 words
Somalia is most at risk from terrorist attack, followed by Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan and the new nation of South Sudan, according to a ranking by global analysts Maplecroft.
http://af.reuters.com/article/
Logistics complicate food aid transport to Somalia
04 Aug- Source: VOA- 307 words
The logistics of transporting aid to famine-stricken Somalia is daunting. Meticulous planning and funding are needed for such a massive effort. Kenya is serving as a transit point for the emergency and longer-term supplies being into Somalia, with the past month seeing a stream of shipments by air, road, and sea.
Somalia famine relief effort hit harder by food aid delays than by rebels
04 Aug- Source: The Guardian- 786 words
Famine relief efforts in Somalia are being hampered as much by delays in procuring food aid and raising funds as by difficulties in accessing Islamist-controlled areas, according to humanitarian organisations working there.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Murky world of Somalia’s Islamist insurgents
04 Aug- Source: The Guardian – 729 words
An appeal by a senior UN official, Augustine Mahiga, for all Somalis inside and outside the country to work together in the face of a growing famine is unlikely to cut much ice with hardline elements of al Shabaab. A report by AP from Mogadishu provides a grim picture of how some militants are dealing with those trying to flee areas under their control, which also happened to be the first regions declared to be in famine by the UN last month.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/