Somalia: 'Worse than Darfur'
Oxfam is providing water, shelter and other aid to displaced persons in Somalia
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Friday, 12, Jun 2009 04:59
Somalia faces a humanitarian crisis far worse than that suffered by Sudan's Darfur region, a senior aid worker tells inthenews.co.uk.
Hassan Noor, humanitarian coordinator for Oxfam in Somalia, told inthenews.co.uk that as half of the population required assistance aid the country faces a "crisis of monumental proportions".
Around 119,000 are thought to have fled the Somali capital, Mogadishu, after an offensive by insurgents plunged it into fighting.
Mortar shells and machine-gunfire were reported over the weekend as 35 people died.
Mr Noor visits Mogadishu regularly as part of his duties for Oxfam. Speaking from Nairobi in neighbouring Kenya, he tells inthenews.co.uk: "That is the most difficult place on earth for human being to live at all.
"Basically it's also the most worrying place you can imagine - a situation where there is conflict, hostility, insecurity. And everywhere, every human being is in danger of being killed."
The crisis extends beyond the capital, however. Earlier this month Oxfam reported the camp at Afgooye of internally-displaced people had swollen to 400,000 people.
People are using shallow wells to drink from despite the fact they have been contaminated. "They are at the same level as the latrines," Mr Noor says. Cholera is a constant problem as a result.
Beyond the camps, the situation remains bleak. Mr Noor has travelled around much of the country and claims hundreds of thousands are living without shelter or adequate food.
He has walked around, he says, looking "as far as the eye could catch" at half-constructed shelters made with anything available - "empty buckets, cartons, clothes, shirts, for the shelter".
"It's the worst kind of situation I have ever seen in many, many years. And comparatively speaking I have seen other places like Darfur where for instance. [there is a] significant crisis, but no way near the kind of catastrophic situation which Somalia is undergoing."
The comparison with Darfur is a striking one. The conflict in Sudan's western region has been well-publicised in the developed world but Mr Noor insists Somalia remains much more threatening.
"There are systematic problems in Darfur, indeed many problems. But if you compare it by and large, the Somalia crisis is much more problematic, much bigger in scale," he says.
"If you look at the human suffering - people in IDP camps [in Darfur] have something to sustain them.
"Here you have hundreds of thousands of people without shelter, without adequate water, adequate food, with children sick all over. I don't know, as a human being. this the worst humanitarian case I have ever seen."
Somalia has been without an effective government for nearly two decades and has suffered a slow, cumulative crisis as a result.
No faction has been able to establish an effective government during that period; in 2006 an Islamist group looked like doing just that but it was overthrown after a military intervention headed by Ethiopia.
An Iraq-style insurgency followed as the Islamists went underground. The transitional national government, propped up by peacekeepers, has struggled to stem the rising tide of Islamist progress. A reported merger between them and a group known as Al Shabab has increased the threat.
It's this alliance which has launched its offensive against Mogadishu in recent weeks. Both sides are reported to have committed atrocities in the capital. Mr Noor is worried by the impact ongoing fighting will have.
"I am very worried about the killings," Mr Noor admits. "If the kind of conflict seems to be going round between divisions and groups, in the city, civilians are unable to go back.
"If it continues with that kind of trend it is actually going to be difficult to deliver humanitarian aid, not to mention the consequences for civilians who are already getting the necessary support because of the scale of the problem we have."
Mobility around Somalia is already very difficult, with security risks to those working in its humanitarian corridor increasing every day. Somali aid workers are being targeted by the insurgents, Mr Noor claims.
"Many of them have been killed and if the problems continue this kind of scale of crisis, we are very worried."
Al-Shabab has received the backing of Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, reflecting the wider significance Somalia's collapse has for the world stage.
Pirates operate from its lawless coasts, creating a major security risk for freighters operating through the Gulf of Aden. Many fears the country is becoming a safe haven for terrorism.
The irony is it may be the security implications which attract western attention to the humanitarian crisis.
"This cannot go on unnoticed," Mr Noor presses. "The implications are far too serious for all people. There is a need for urgent action.
"It's no longer becoming a local [issue] - it requires much bigger, much more effective and urgent measures."
Will the international community listen? For now, at least, Somalia continues to drift slowly towards disaster.
Alex Stevenson