WUNRN
Somalia Faces Renewed Food Crisis - Women &
Children
Somali women and children sit under a tree at
a refugee camp in Dolo, Somalia while waiting for food rations.
May 02, 2014 - The United
Nations says Somalia is facing a renewed food crisis due to a lack of rain,
rising food prices and continued insecurity.
The U.N.'s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) says 860,000
Somalis are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. It says the crisis is
especially critical in rural areas of south-central Somalia and among
internally displaced persons.
In a report released Friday, the agency said more than 200,000 Somali children
under the age of 5 are acutely malnourished.
FSNAU technical adviser Daniel Molla says many of those children are in
northeastern Somalia, where people are dealing with a severe water shortage.
"We have seen rising childhood illnesses and also reduced access to milk
for children in pastoral households, as livestock has to go to different places
in search of pastures and water," he said.
Molla also says a government offensive to push al-Shabab militants from their
remaining strongholds has inadvertently cut off some food supplies.
"Following the offensives, the insurgents who have been routed out of some
of these areas are preventing the flow of trade, mostly food commodities, into
the areas that have been liberated by the Somali government," he said.
"That’s leading to a significant increase in prices and causing localized
food shortages.”
Somalia was hit with prolonged drought in 2011 and 2012 that drove thousands of
Somalis into neighboring countries in search of food and water.
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http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsId=48617
OVER ONE MILLION SOMALIS IN
DANGER AS FOOD CRISIS WORSENS, WARNS UN AGENCY
2 September 2014 - Poor
rains, conflict, trade disruptions and reduced humanitarian assistance have led
to a worsening of the food security situation across Somalia, the United
Nations warned today, adding that acute malnutrition increased in many areas, particularly
among children.......
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International
Crisis Group
Full
Critique: http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/africa/horn-of-africa/somalia/b099-somalia-al-shabaab-it-will-be-a-long-war.aspx
SOMALIA
UPDATE - CONTINUED TENSIONS
26 June 2014 - Despite the recent military
surge against Somalia’s armed Islamist extremist and self-declared al-Qaeda
affiliate, Al-Shabaab, its conclusive “defeat” remains elusive. The most likely
scenario – already in evidence – is that its armed units will retreat to
smaller, remote and rural enclaves, exploiting entrenched and ever-changing
clan-based competition; at the same time, other groups of radicalised and
well-trained individuals will continue to carry out assassinations and
terrorist attacks in urban areas, including increasingly in neighbouring
countries, especially Kenya. The long connection between Al-Shabaab’s current
leadership and al-Qaeda is likely to strengthen. A critical breakthrough in the
fight against the group cannot, therefore, be achieved by force of arms, even
less so when it is foreign militaries, not the Somalia National Army (SNA),
that are in the lead. A more politically-focused approach is
required............
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