Rome: emergency summit on famine in Somalia

This week an emergency summit has been called by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, to discuss the devastating drought in the Horn of Africa. Tens of thousands of Somalis have died over the last few months from causes related to malnutrition and millions more are at risk. Last week the United Nations declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia.

A CAFOD statement explains that 'famine' is a technical term: it is declared when at least two adults or four children per 10,000 people are dying of hunger every day and when 30% of the population is acutely malnourished. This is the first time a famine has been declared in Somalia since 1992.

"What this means in practice is that millions of people are on the verge of starvation," says CAFOD's Nyika Musiyazwiriyo. "If we don't act now, they will die. More than 100,000 people have already fled Somalia in search of food and water, but many more are in a desperate situation. That's why we're working with a trusted partner in Somalia to deliver live-saving aid to the most vulnerable."

The money you've donated is going directly to support children admitted to feeding centres and children and other patients admitted to hospitals in one of the worst affected areas of Somalia. We never direct money through governments and can guarantee that none of your money will be channeled through the government of Somalia.

2.85 million Somalis are in need of emergency humanitarian aid. 61% of them are in South Central Somalia, where our partner is working.

Ministers and other representatives of the FAO 191 member countries, are meeting in Rome to evaluate measures to improve aid delivery to the populations facing the highest risk, particularly in Somalia, where the conflict between the government and insurgents makes assistance extremely difficult.

The meeting has been organized at the initiative of France, current president of the G-20. The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked the international community to give USD 1.6 billion to address the emergency in Somalia.

However, even the extraordinary help of the international community will not solve the recurring humanitarian crises in the region, said a senior adviser to the UN. "We can not solve these problems with routine work. We must resolve them through prevention" said Jeffrey Sachs, an American economist and special adviser to Ban Ki-moon, during a press conference in Nairobi, Kenya.

He said: "we alerted the world over the drought in Africa almost every day, but nobody in Europe or the United States, would listen. And now, everybody is rushing to do something. If we continue to respond to the drought crises in this way, they will never end, the aid will always be too weak and will always come too late."

The origins of the increasingly frequent drought in East African countries, said Sachs, are climate change and the poverty constraint on development.

To donate to CAFOD's East Africa Appeal see: https://cafod.secure.force.com/donate/?id=701C0000000MW5wIAG

Source: Missionary News Service/CAFOD