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Link to Full Article: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=32030&Cr=&Cr1=
SOMALIA - FOOD INSECURITY EXPECTED
TO WORSEN - UN
11 September 2009 – Food insecurity is expected to get worse
for the remainder of this year in some drought-affected regions of Somalia,
according the latest update from the United Nations humanitarian arm......Meanwhile,
the World Food Programme (WFP) is prioritizing life-saving
interventions such as targeted supplementary feeding programmes for many
affected people.
However, due to the precarious food aid pipeline, the agency will have to phase out support to maternal and child health nutrition programmes in 12 centres in three of Somalia’s regions.
______________________________________________________________
SITUATION OF WOMEN IN SOMALIA
AWID - ll/09/2009
Somalia has been in turmoil for the
past eighteen years. What is it like for women?
By Kathambi
Kinoti - AWID
Peace has
eluded Somalia since 1991 when the military regime of President Siad Barre was
ousted. No single central authority has yet been able to successfully govern
the state of Somalia. At least fourteen national reconciliation conferences
have been held, but none has brought absolute peace. The longest period of calm
the capital Mogadishu and the surrounding south and central Somalia have
experienced was the seven months from June to December 2006 when the Union of
Islamic Courts (UIC) was in control.
Hibo Yassin
is the Regional Representative of COSPE, an
international NGO that works in Somalia. She says that it is important to
interrogate what is meant by security. Although the UIC had support from
civilians who were tired of insecurity, they soon realised that the security
came at a cost. Women for instance, were subjected to severe punishment if they
did not strictly adhere to certain modes of dress.
An uneasy
Ethiopia, which shares Somalia’s western border, soon intervened.
Its United States-backed army fought to expel the UIC and install the
Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG) which continues to be besieged
by Al-Shabaab, a group that was formerly part of the UIC. The US says
that the group is linked to al-Qaeda and has put it on its terror list.
In the same
year that the war first erupted, Somaliland in the north-western region of the
country went its own way. It declared its independence, formed a government and
has been stable ever since. However, so far Somaliland has failed to secure
international recognition. The easternmost tip of Africa, where the Red Sea
meets the Indian Ocean lies in Puntland, a self-governing part of Somalia,
which even though it has not been entirely peaceful, has enjoyed more stability
than the central and southern part of the country.
In African
countries religious or ethnic homogeneity is rare. Somalia is an exception.
Almost all its people are Muslim and of the same ethnic extraction [1] But this
virtual homogeneity has not provided immunity against civil war. In Somalia’s
case, clan differences have fomented the conflict. Military interventions by
the United States in 1992 and the Ethiopian armed forces from 2006 to 2008 have
further exacerbated the situation, deepening divisions and "aggravating tensions that have erupted into
conflicts-within-conflicts."
The UN estimates
that there are 1.55 million internally displaced persons (IDPS) in Somalia, and
almost 350,000 Somali refugees in neighbouring countries. Although main cause
of displacement is the perpetual conflict, the ongoing drought and lack of
livelihoods are significant contributing factors. Food
shortages currently affect 3.8 million people, and according to the UN, Somalis live below the water poverty
level. Conflict and military interventions have degraded the country’s already
fragile environment and the general lawlessness has provided opportunities for
the dumping of toxic waste from pesticides used in Europe.
Somalia's maternal mortality rates are amongst the highest
in the world, at 1400 per 100,000 live births. Early marriages and teenage
pregnancies are common in Somalia; forty five per cent of women now aged 20-24 were married by
the age of 18. Girls who get married or give birth young have a greater
vulnerability to violence and health problems.
Violence
against women
The most
prevalent form of violence against women in Somalia is female genital
mutilation (FGM), estimated at about 98 per cent of all women and girls. Research conducted by women’s organisations in Somalia and
Somaliland indicates that there may be a link between insecurity and the form
of FGM practiced. In Hargeisa, the capital city of Somaliland, where there has
been stability since 1991, the incidence of infibulation has decreased. In
Somalia’s capital city Mogadishu the incidence of the practice has increased.
The research report says:
“Bearing in
mind the commonly cited reason for FGM, of the need to ‘protect’ the girl’s
virginity, this may reflect an increased perceived need to ‘protect’ their
daughters. It may additionally reflect the beginnings of behaviour cha.nge in
response to more exposure to campaigns against the practice in Hargeisa.”
Behaviour
change is also reflected in the fact that more girls and women say that they do
not intend to have their daughters undergo any form of circumcision. Many
Somalis believe that FGM is a religious obligation, a view not shared by
religious leaders, most of whom oppose infibulation on religious grounds
because of the physical harm that it causes. The report however urges caution
in regarding religious leaders as allies in eradicating FGM because a large
number of them are neutral towards the so-called “sunna” form of circumcision
which is regarded as less severe.
Rape is
widespread in Somalia, although being a taboo subject, it is under-reported. A
2009 UNDP report on human security in the Arab region says that
“war-time assaults on women take place in a context of lawlessness,
displacement and armed clashes such as those in …Somalia where gender roles are
polarized. In these theatres of conflict, men often compensate for their own
insecurities and loss of dominance through intensified aggression against
women.”
Yassin was
part of the group that facilitated the formation of the Somali Women’s Agenda,
a movement that has opened space for women’s engagement in crucial legislative
and policy processes. She says that women played a critical role in the
negotiations in Djibouti that led to the formation of the TFG and at one point
helped to break a stalemate that threatened to bring the talks to a halt. About
eight cent of members of Somalia’s parliament are women, and there are three
female cabinet ministers.
Keeping
the society going
In the
absence of a central government it is difficult to imagine how people can
survive in a war-torn country for 18 years. International NGOs have provided
critical humanitarian assistance and remittances from Somalis in the diaspora
have helped keep the country afloat. However, according to Yassin, the women of
Somalia have played the most significant role in keeping communities going. She
says that the conflict has facilitated a shift in gender roles, with many women
becoming the primary income earners. This means that women have acquired
greater economic power even though overall poverty levels remain high. They
have kept the economy going through small scale trade. Civil society
organisations - and mostly women’s organisations - have filled in for the
government by running schools and hospitals.
Somali women
have shown tremendous resilience throughout the conflict, and hopes are high that
the TFG will re-establish peace and security in Somalia. Women’s rights
advocates continue to press for greater inclusion of women in the leadership of
the country. “During the war, women have been running the country, they have
been the breadwinners,” says Yassin. “How can they not be in leadership when
the country is at peace?”
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1. There is a significant Somali Bantu ethnic minority in the South and Central
part of the country. They are disadvantaged and face exclusion and discrimination.
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