The prime minister of Somalia's transitional federal government on Tuesday charged international aid agencies, including those of the United Nations, with not properly assisting his drought-displaced citizens.
Abdiweli Mohamed Ali made the comments during a fleeting visit to the several camps for drought-displaced people in the districts of Wadajir, Waberi, and Hamarweyne of the capital Mogadish.Accompanied by members of his cabinet, the mayor of Mogadishu and police, Ali walked through the camps to observe the situation of the displaced residents.“We will launch full and tough accountability measures to trace how the aid agencies are assisting those who are in desperate need for help,” the prime minister told reporters at a camp near Mogadishu’s international airport where 1,800 drought-affected people are encamped.
“They [aid agencies] are given money claiming they will help Somalia, despite that the people who arrived at Mogadishu are dying of hunger and that is unacceptable absolutely,” he explained, citing the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other organizations in Mogadishu as examples.The prime minister’s statement comes a day after Mogadishu Mayor Mohamoud Ahmed Nur disclosed that more than 85,000 people, who had fled from drought-hit regions, had reached the capital in search of food and water.
After al Shabaab banned aid agencies from operating in the areas they control, some UN and local organizations moved into the government controlled areas in Mogadishu.
The prime minister said the government, with the collaboration of Arab nations such as Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Qatar, has managed to relocate and help thousands of drought-hit people in the capital. Aid is delivered to the camps but Ali noted UN agencies, which the prime minister said have some aid stored in Mogadishu, have yet to distribute it.No comments were immediately available from aid agencies. AHL
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Saudi Government grants $60 million aid to Somalia
The Saudi government has announced that it would donate $60 million aid package to the drought and famine-stricken population in Somalia.The king of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullahi bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, who was chairing an emergency ministerial meeting in Riyadh ordered an immediate speed-up of Saudi’s efforts in dealing with the ravaging drought situation in Somala. After the cabinet meeting, Saudi’s information minister, Abdullaziz Qowja, who read the ministerial meeting’s communiqué, said that $50 million out of the $60 million aid package will be used to provide an emergency humanitarian food to the drought victims in Somalia while the remaining $10 million will be used to provide medicines and other nutritious food items to the severely malnourished children in Somalia.The minister said his government will work with the UN World Food Programme and the World Health Organisation in delivering food and medicines to the needy people of Somalia.The Saudi king also ordered dates deliveries to the Somali people before the Holy month of Ramadan to allow them meet their religious obligation during the Holy month.Meanwhile, the Saudi government has urged the Al-Shabaab militia fighting the Somali government to unconditionally cease hostilities to pave way humanitarian aid to reach to the drought and famine victims in the country.
WFP Airlift Aid Delayed By Clearance Issues
IDP Family Waiting for Aid Gedo region
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday said it failed to embark on its much-anticipated airlift aid mission to Somalia due to “layers of clearances” imposed upon them by airport, customs and security officials.The plan to airlift aid followed a decision by the UN to aid millions of Somalis from suffering the effects of the worst drought to have hit the horn of Africa region in 60 years, particularly in Mogadishu and Gedo region.WFP’s Horn of Africa Spokesperson Challiss McDonough told terror free somalia that they have been delayed by a number of clearances.“We have been trying to get clearances from the airport authorities, customs official as well as security clearances,” said Ms. McDonough. Despite the delays, the WFP is preparing a plane to immediately delivery aid once the green light is given by the authorities."As we speak, we are loading one of our planes with food. We are expecting to be cleared by Wednesday,” she said. The first plane is expected to carry highly nutritious food, including a peanut paste, for children under the age of five, suffering from acute malnutrition. Other flights will carry between 14-19 metric tons of high energy food to combat malnutrition. Once cleared, some of the flights will land in Dolo Ado, Ethiopia and the food will be transported by road across the Somali border into Gedo region. The UN last week officially declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia and said that an estimated 3.7 million people living in Somalia are facing starvation as thousands more take the risky and long journey to the neighboring countries of Ethiopia and Kenya.
UN to set airlifting food to Somalia
The United Nations World Food Programme is set on Tuesday to start airlifting food to Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya after an emergency meeting in Rome on the drought-stricken Horn of Africa region.WFP chief Josette Sheeran said her organisation will start airlifting food to the Somali capital Mogadishu, as well as aid flights to Dolo in Ethiopia on the border with Somalia and to Wajir in northern Kenya, which has been badly hit by drought.After visiting Mogadishu and the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya over the weekend, Josette Sheeran said that the plight of children in Somalia is the worst she has ever seen, saying many of the children arriving he camps are in stage-four-malnutrition.Head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Jacques Diouf, told participants at Monday’s Rome meeting that the catastrophic situation in Somalia demands massive and urgent international aid to stop the famine declared by the UN in two Al-Shabaab held regions in southern Somalia.Officials at Monday’s meeting said the UN needs a billion more by the end of the year to cope with the emergency after it has received about $1 billion since first launching an appeal for the region in November 2010.The World Bank on Monday also pledged more than $500 million, with the bulk of the money set to go towards long-term projects to aid livestock farmers while $12 million would be for immediate assistance to those worst hit by the crisis.An estimated 3.7 million people in Somalia — around a third of the population — are on the brink of starvation and millions more in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda have been struck by the worst drought in the region in 60 years.
UN officials say the drought has killed tens of thousands of people in recent months, forcing hundreds of thousands of desperate survivors from the worst-affected areas of Somalia to walk for weeks in search of food and water.Source: Capital FM
Via Abdirahman Warsame
Terror Free Somalia
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