Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
1 April 2008
Mogadishu — The Somali humanitarian crisis has deteriorated dramatically, with some 360,000 people newly displaced and an additional half a million reliant on relief assistance, 40 non-governmental organisations said.
There are now more than one million internally displaced people in Somalia as access to people in need continues to decrease, the organisations warned in a joint statement Wednesday.
Intense conflict in Mogadishu continues to force an average of 20,000 people from their homes each month. This, combined with record high food prices, hyperinflation and drought in large parts of the country is leaving communities struggling to survive. Extreme water and food shortages are expected to worsen across the country if the seasonal rains (April - June) fail, as predicted.
"As the crisis worsens, Somali and international aid agencies are unable to respond adequately to the needs. Attacks on, and killings of, aid workers, the looting of relief supplies, and a lack of respect for international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict have left two million Somalis in need of basic humanitarian assistance," the NGOs said.
On Tuesday, Somali gunmen kidnapped two foreign aid workers attached to the United Nations. "One British and one Kenyan working for the U.N.'s FAO were kidnapped by clan militiamen somewhere between Bule and Sakow towns in Middle Jubba province," a Somali aid worker told Reuters.
The 40 NGOs said the international community and all parties to the conflict should urgently focus their attention on the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the failed state. "They must ensure access for humanitarian supplies, live up to their responsibility to protect civilians and address the environment of impunity."
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