WUNRN
SOMALI
CRISIS - WOMEN & GIRLS
Somalia displaced women, such as these in a Galkayo settlement, face the threat of rape daily. © UNHCR/B.Bannon
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AID
AGENCIES URGE WORLD NOT TO FORGET SOMALI CRISIS
26
Mar 2008
Source:
Reuters
NAIROBI,
March 26 (Reuters) - Forty aid agencies urged the world on Wednesday to focus
attention on Somalia's "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis where
hundreds of thousands of people are suffering from war, drought and food
shortages.
Their
statement, issued by Oxfam, said Somalia now had one million internal refugees,
their numbers swelled by an exodus of 20,000 a month from Mogadishu, where
Islamist insurgents are fighting the Ethiopian-backed government.
Record
high food prices, hyper-inflation and drought across the Horn of Africa nation
were exacerbating the situation and will worsen if seasonal rains due from
April fail as predicted.
"The
crisis engulfing Somalia has deteriorated dramatically while access to people
in need continues to decrease," the agencies said, citing attacks on aid
workers and looting of supplies.
Foreign
aid workers are increasingly frustrated at the lack of attention to Somalia, which
has suffered 17 years of near-incessant conflict since warlords toppled former
military ruler Mohamed Siad Barre.
In
Africa, the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region has overshadowed Somalia, even
though some U.N. officials say the humanitarian situation may be worse in
Somalia.
"For
too long, the needs of ordinary Somalis have been forgotten," the agencies
added.
"(We)
ask the international community and all parties to the conflict to urgently
focus their attention on the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Somalia."
The
250,000 people camped in a small corridor between Mogadishu and Afgoye to the
west are now considered the largest group of internally displaced people in the
world, the statement said.
"According
to (U.N. children's agency) UNICEF Somalia is the worst place in the world for
children. Approximately one in seven children under the age of five in Somalia
are acutely malnourished," it added. (Reporting by Lisa Ntungicimpaye,
Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Jon Boyle)
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