From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Dec 09 2009 - 06:49:34 EST
Somalia in turmoil
9-12-2009
'WORLD'S WORST HUMANITARIAN CRISIS'
More than one in 10 Somalis have been forced out of their homes by an insurgency that has been raging since the start of 2007. The fighting now is between government forces and gunmen loyal to hardline group al Shabaab. Years of anarchy since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, combined with frequent drought and rampant inflation, have turned Somalia into the world's worst humanitarian crisis, says the United Nations.
Over 3.6 million need aid
More than 1.2 million displaced
Infrastructure in tatters
Hopes that Somalia's Transitional Federal Government would extend its control and become more popular after a former Islamist rebel was elected president in January 2009 have largely been dashed. Insurgents control much of southern and central Somalia, and parts of the capital Mogadishu. The hardline rebels clash almost daily with pro-government forces and African Union peacekeepers.
Aid workers say Somalia has more than 1.2 million internally displaced people.
Six months of strict rule by the Islamists in 2006 brought relative peace to Mogadishu. That rule ended when troops from Ethiopia, a key U.S. ally, helped restore the transitional government. Foreign involvement fuelled opposition locally and internationally and appeared to boost support for the Islamists, with some analysts saying U.S. accusations of al Qaeda involvement became a self-fulfilling prophesy.
The last of the Ethiopian troops left in early 2009, having failed to stem the insurgency.
Violence has killed at least 18,000 civilians since the start of 2007, according to a local human rights group.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Mogadishu since the end of 2006. Aid agencies say the 15 km (10 mile) stretch of road between the capital and the town of Afgoye is probably the largest concentration of displaced people on the planet. In July 2009, more than 400,000 people were camped along the side of the road, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.
Somalia is the most pressing humanitarian emergency in the world - even worse than the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region, the UNHCR country representative said in 2008.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in September 2009 that 3.6 million people needed humanitarian aid. The shortages are caused by conflict, high inflation and frequent drought. But food distribution is hindered by pirate attacks on sea deliveries, roadblocks, and armed attacks on aid convoys.
Aid agencies rank Somalia one of the most dangerous places in the world to work, and few organisations base international staff there.
The African Union has deployed troops to replace the Ethiopian soldiers, but they complain they are under-funded and under-staffed.
President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has promised to forge peace with neighbours, tackle rampant piracy offshore and rein in hardline insurgents. But his attempts to reconcile with former allies in the Union of Islamic Courts have come to nought. Insurgents have seized Baidoa, the former seat of parliament, and the government is hemmed into a small part of Mogadishu.
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