Markabley

Markabley Relief in helping destitute Somalis

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:16:50 +0000

MRDT Project on Video

admin — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 17:01:45 +0000

MRDT is already reaching Somalia and with the food, water and basic sanitation they desperately need to stay alive.

MRDT Projects On Video

admin — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:56:53 +0000

MRDT is already reaching families in Somalia with the food, water and basic sanitation they desperately need to stay alive.

Speed is crucial as Somalia faces biggest crisis in 10 years

admin — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:47:02 +0000

Adan Kabelo, the head of Oxfam GB’s work in Somalia, writes from Lower Juba in southern Somalia, where a devastating drought and ongoing conflict has left people facing starvation.

Newly-arrived refugees run away from a cloud of dust at a camp in Dadaab. Photo: REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

On the edge of Dobley town, there are hundreds of desperate people. Crowded together in makeshift shelters under the bare branches of acacia trees, they have come from all over southern Somalia – by foot and donkey cart – to try and cross the border into Kenya. Some have walked for two weeks to get here, and hundreds more people arrive every day. All of them have virtually nothing to eat.

On a small fire, a family is cooking a single mango to share between two or three children. Many people here are farmers whose crops have died after a year without rain. Others are pastoralists whose animals have perished. The situation here is truly shocking, and as the local elders warned me, we are facing a terrible human catastrophe unless the world acts quickly.

Conflict, drought and rising prices

There have been two seasons of no or inadequate rain – the last good rainfall was in April 2010 – so now there is hardly any water or pasture left. Food is scarce, and when it is available it is too expensive. Since January the price of local staples such as maize and sorghum has almost doubled.

The ongoing conflict and insecurity in Somalia makes the crisis even worse. Malnutrition rates are rising, yet the only hospital in Dobley was bombed and destroyed during fighting a few months ago. There is no access by road to other parts of Somalia, so no food can be transported from areas where it is available. The only place people can move to safely is Kenya.

Amazingly, Dobley is considered better off than other places in the Lower Juba region. A little rain fell here last month – while other areas have remained bone dry – meaning the town’s two boreholes are now able to pump some water. Oxfam’s team and local Somali partners are working around the clock to keep them running. But in the early morning, as we head out to the water points, it is clear that this has brought other problems.

Animal carcasses litter the road to the borehole and the stench of dead cattle is in the air. When we arrive there are hundreds of people and about 15,000 emaciated cows, camels, sheep and goats crowded around trying to get water to stay alive. The animals are in such bad condition it is hard to imagine how they can survive more than a couple of months.

They have come from dry areas miles around, where no rain has fallen. Other than this, the nearest working water point is 80km away. The boreholes are pumping for more than 20 hours a day, increasing the risk of breakdown and making it difficult for our engineers to maintain them. There is simply not enough water to meet the demand, and people are facing critical shortages.

An old man I spoke to said this is the worst situation he can remember since 1995. People are no longer talking about their animals dying – they are talking about people dying soon.

The threat of a major crisis

Families are fleeing the conflict and the drought – but it is not clear where they will end up, or what they will find there. One elderly man reminded me of a Somali proverb: “You use your feet to escape during war and drought.” Many of them told me they are fleeing to Kenya. But parts of northeastern Kenya, just across the border, have had as little rain as Somalia and also face severe food and water shortages.

Others go to the Dadaab refugee camps – the largest in the world, where more than 300,000 Somalis have fled two decades of war. But the camp is seriously overcrowded, and almost 10,000 people a week are now arriving. A vital camp extension, known as Ifo II, that has been built to take care of new arrivals and ease the overcrowding, has been shut down by the Kenyan government. As a result, thousands of newly arrived families are sheltering in desperate conditions outside.

People fleeing war and drought must not be turned away by Kenya. But people inside Somalia also need help. Humanitarian access and open roads needs to be guaranteed by parties to the conflict. And donors – sometimes reluctant to fund humanitarian projects in Somalia – must release funds to ensure agencies can respond now, before it is too late.

Deadly drought hits south Somalia

admin — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 14:44:13 +0000

Serious droughts in many parts of southern Somalia have claimed the lives of both humans and livestock.

WFP says that malnutrition rates among children under five in southern Somalia are as high as 20%. Local aid agencies and the Somali Red Crescent Society in Gedo region have found that more than 22 small villages and towns are suffering badly. Food aid is now reaching some of the villages and towns in the region, but local elders say it is not enough. At least two children, boys aged five and seven, have died of starvation in Fah-fah-dhun village, 80km west of Bardhere district of Gedo region in the past five days according to the village chief, Mr Ali Adam Warabeh.

Migration
The chief told the BBC via HF radio that more two-thirds of people in his village have left in search of pasture and water for their herds and themselves. “Fah-fah-dhun village had about 1,500 families, but now there are fewer than 500 families remaining,” he said. “Most of those families have moved to the Hagar and Afmadow towns where there is some grazing land for the herds.”

Abdi Mohamed Abdulle, chief of the village of El-Addeh, told the BBC by radio that the shallow hand-dug water wells of his village and that of El-Gudud village have dried up because of the drought.

“Forget about cattle – the camels and goats are now on the brink of death,” he said. “We lost more than 30% of our herds to the drought already,” he said. In those villages, tanker trucks collect the water for the people from Bardhere town, some 80km east of Fah-fah-dhun village, and each barrel of water, 200 litres, is sold for about $7. The chief said very few people could afford this.

Mr Shire Abdi Mohamed, the Somali Red Crescent Society coordinator in Gedo region, told me on the phone that he observed during their trip in the region that both the animals and people are fed with sorghum, a donation from the CARE-International aid agency. “The animals have nothing on the land for them to graze, so they should be fed just like the people,” he said.

The many other villages such as Khadijo Haji, Dhamaso, Harer Tur, Barwaqo and others are likewise suffering because of the drought and their village chiefs are crying out for help.

By Hassan Barise 
BBC