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As governments in the horn of Africa and other
parts of the continent declare famine, the question is whether the world
has learnt from previous droughts.
In 2014 hundreds of people lost their lives and livestock due to the untimely response… |
The UN chief has
urged international support to alleviate Somalia's worsening hunger
crisis during an emergency visit to the country.
Antonio Guterres
issued the appeal on Tuesday after witnessing the suffering of
malnourished Somalis and cholera victims during his first field trip
since becoming the UN chief.
He said the hunger
crisis requires a massive response as six million people, or almost half
of the population of the Horn of Africa country, need assistance.
"Every single
person we have seen is a personal story of tremendous suffering. There
is no way to describe it," Guterres said after seeing skeletal men,
women and children in a cholera ward in Baidoa, 243km northwest of the
capital, Mogadishu.
Somalia's prolonged drought has caused widespread hunger, and the shortage of clean water has resulted in cholera.
"People are dying. The world must act now to stop this," he said on Twitter on his arrival in Somalia.
"We need to make as
much noise as possible. Conflict, drought, climate change, disease,
cholera. The combination is a nightmare."
In Baidoa's cholera
wards, adults and children had sunken eyes and protruding ribs. Because
of the cholera-induced diarrhea, medical workers sprayed the wards with
chlorine to disinfect the areas.
Guterres also
visited a camp with hundreds of families displaced by the drought and
Somalia's battle against al-Shabab, the armed anti-government group.
He saw hungry families seeking shelter under flimsy plastic. The internally displaced persons
(IDPs) near Baidoa, said: "Over the past few weeks, more than 200
families have come here from other parts of Somalia because they ran out
of food back home.
"They are living
outside in makeshift tents, the temperature is already above 30C. This
is not the way any family wants to raise their children."
Guterres said he was moved by the misery. "It makes me feel
extremely unhappy with the fact that in today's world, with the ... the
richness that exists, that these things are still possible. It is
unbelievable," he said.
He wore personal
protection armour and was surrounded by African Union peacekeepers and
bodyguards to protect against possible suicide bombings and attacks.
Somalia is part of a $4bn aid appeal launched last month for four nations suffering from conflict and hunger.
The others are Nigeria, Yemen and South Sudan, where famine already has been declared in two counties.
US travel ban discussed
Somalia over the
weekend announced its first death toll since declaring a national
disaster last week, saying 110 people had died in a 48-hour period in a
single region.
Meeting the UN
chief, Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, also known as
Farmajo, said: "My first priority is to address this drought crisis, and
my main priority is to make an appeal to the international community to
help us."
Somalia is one of the six Muslim-majority countries affected by the revised travel ban ordered by US President Donald Trump.
Mohamed, himself a
dual Somali-US citizen, took Guterres' visit as an opportunity to speak
out against the new immigration order.
"Definitely we will
prefer to see that this travel ban should be lifted and, of course, we
have to communicate with the US government because as everyone knows we
have a large Somali community in the United States who I'm sure have
contributed to the US economy," Mohamed said in response to press
questions.
"We have to address the root cause, which is the security situation here and how to defeat al-Shabab here."
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