Somali Rebels Say Famine Exaggerated

[LAfrique]

Somali rebels ban aid and claim "the declaration of famine is political and is a lie with hidden agendas" - Somali rebels maintain aid ban, reject famine - Yahoo! News


Remembering that the scramble for Africa all began with so-called missionaries infiltrating Africa in the name of God, I think the Somali rebels just may be right. While some have forgotten, African thinkers have not.

Therefore, I agree with the Somali rebels that these agencies coming to Africa for alleged aid purposes may very well be agents of their various governments seeking to gain intelligence. Besides, I find it hard to believe that Africans in Africa have become so mentally impoverished that a drought would immediately result in famine.

 

[LAfrique]

If anyone truly seeks to reach-out to Africans, then give them the tools and technology to help them help themselves. The people of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya need tools and technology, not daily fractions of bread and fish.

 

[High_Gravity]

If anyone truly seeks to reach-out to Africans, then give them the tools and technology to help them help themselves. The people of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya need tools and technology, not daily fractions of bread and fish.

Let me guess, you believe those Shabab faggots right? all those Somalis flooding to refugee camps in Kenya are just there for summer break? and why would we give technology to Islamic militants in Somalia you dumb fuck?

 

[waltky]

Drought and famine in Somalia causes much suffering...

Nurse struggles to save starving Somali children
Jul 29,`11 - Nurse Serat Amin works in the world's largest refugee camp treating the stream of starving children coming into Kenya from famine-struck Somalia, and although he has painful memories of the children who have died, watching the weak get stronger gives him the courage to carry on. "You can see if a child is getting better just from the face of the parent," he said. "Making a difference is what keeps me here."

Amin works at a stabilization ward at the International Rescue Committee hospital in the Dadaab refugee camp, where dozens of tiny children with stick-thin limbs and oversize heads loll on plastic mattresses. Mothers use their fringed shawls to flap the humid aid around their babies' faces while patient nurses poke intravenous needles into tiny hands. Amin, walking about the ward in his yellow T-shirt, knows them all. "Most come in here very sick. Mihag was unconscious when he came," said Amin, speaking of a tiny 7-month-old the same size as an infant. "But today he is picking up a bit." The child, which weighed as much as a newborn when he arrived, has put on 3.5 ounces (100 grams) in the past few days. The wailing babies are weighed in a wicker basket suspended from the ceiling.

The U.N. says parts of Somalia held by Islamist rebels are suffering from famine, and a total of 11.3 million people in the Horn of Africa need aid. Amin said the situation is the worst he's seen it - they've had up to 42 babies in his ward for malnourished babies at a time, a sevenfold increase at the hospital since the beginning of the year. The hospital is just one of three treating Somalis refugees in Dadaab camp. Most of the children are also suffering from pneumonia and other diseases after hunger weakened their immune systems. That's particularly painful for Amin: his own cousin lost his eyesight after suffering from malnutrition and measles. It's what led him into nutritional medicine in the first place. Now the wards are full of hungry babies with medical complications. On Friday, there were eight more patients than beds, so women had to share overnight. "I've asked UNICEF to come with some tents so we can set them up outside and start treating more people," said Amin.

The children come in with two types of malnutrition: marasmus, or straightforward starvation where the child is so thin its skin stands up in folds when pinched, and kwashiorkor, where the child has had food but no protein or nutrients. Habiba Dubow's son Abdirahman is one year old and weighs nearly 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms). He should weigh 22 pounds (10 kilograms). He is so thin his tiny ribs are clear through his skin and they barely lift with his breathing. When his mother takes his shirt off, his limbs flop back onto the bed and his eyes roll back in his head until only the whites are showing. He is too weak to cry. "We walked here for 20 days after we lost all our cattle," she said. "He got sick on the way."

The kwashiorkor children often have peeling skin or sores, swelling of the limbs or stomach and reddish hair, like Hamud Mohamed Abdi. The 2-year-old also weighs only half what he should for his age, but doctors say he is improving and might go home next week if he can get extra food every day. His parents are rail-thin themselves. The weakest children can't even hold onto their mothers' breasts to get milk and are fed through tubes in their noses. The U.N. says it is the worst emergency in Somalia since the famine in the early 90s that triggered an international intervention that ended after two U.S. Blackhawk helicopters were shot down. "This influx of severe cases we have not seen before," Abdi said.

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[LAfrique]

If anyone truly seeks to reach-out to Africans, then give them the tools and technology to help them help themselves. The people of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya need tools and technology, not daily fractions of bread and fish.

Let me guess: You believe those Shabab faggots, right? All those Somalis flooding to refugee camps in Kenya are just there for summer break? And why would we give technology to Islamic militants in Somalia, you dumb fuck?

Belligent Drunk, did you know that "Technology" simply means know-how? By the way, why would we indefinitely give daily ration of food to people, rather than teach them how to seek food for themselves?

 

[High_Gravity]

If anyone truly seeks to reach-out to Africans, then give them the tools and technology to help them help themselves. The people of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya need tools and technology, not daily fractions of bread and fish.

Let me guess: You believe those Shabab faggots, right? All those Somalis flooding to refugee camps in Kenya are just there for summer break? And why would we give technology to Islamic militants in Somalia, you dumb fuck?

Belligent Drunk, did you know that "Technology" simply means know-how? By the way, why would we indefinitely give daily ration of food to people, rather than teach them how to seek food for themselves?

So? if the US didn't send any food you would criticize that as well you hypocritical bastard, why don't you move to Mogadishu and join those Shabab fags?

 

[waltky]

Children suffer the most...

Horn of Africa Children Exposed to Lifetime Trauma
July 29, 2011 - Drought, famine, and warfare have profound physical and psychological impacts on children, especially those three years old and under. Malnutrition and disease at these vulnerable ages leave a lasting mark that stretch into adulthood. Around 500,000 children in the Horn of Africa are in need of immediate, life-saving help.

Abdi, 1, is beginning his life in a nightmare. He is dangerously malnourished, a condition aggravated by chronic diarrhea. During a brief interview with VOA, he and his mother, Qaali Abdi, 30, cannot stop coughing. "We are suffering. I'm sick, the children are sick, their father is sick - we have nothing," said Qaali Abdi. "My husband is now in the hospital." The mother of six explains that Abdi and her family's health woes began when they fled Somalia. "Where would we sleep? We had no place to sleep. On the road, we were suffering. We have nothing, the wind was blowing heavily, the sun was hot. Many people died along the way," she added.

Abdi and his brothers and sisters have been living for the past month in the Dadaab refugee camp, where tens of thousands of children like him have been streaming in over the past few months. Malnourished and sick children are showing up in Dadaab and all across the Horn of Africa, poignant reminders of the cruelty of drought, famine, and war. The problem is daunting, with malnutrition rates skyrocketing. An estimated half-million children in the Horn of Africa need immediate, life-saving assistance. Olivia Yambi is a representative of the United Nations' children's agency in Kenya.

"The threshold for an emergency is around 15 percent global acute malnutrition," said Yambi. "In most areas highly affected, we are recording rates of over 35 percent, including in the parts we are visiting in the northern belt of Kenya. Most of the children who are severely malnourished are very young children, children under the age of three." And that has serious, long-term implications, says Roselyn Mullo, the European Commission's nutrition expert in charge of the Horn of Africa.

"They will have challenges when it comes to academic proficiency in the future," Mullo explained. "It would even roll down to, when they reach adulthood, governments will not be able to have productive workers. It will also have an impact on them, particularly girls - when they become mothers, they will not be able to give birth to well-nourished children, something known as the low birth weight children." Mullo adds that there is need for long-term programs and services to help children develop physiologically and perhaps reverse some of the effects of what they are going through now.

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See also:

UN: One-Third of Somalis Needing Aid Are Children
July 29, 2011 : The United Nations children's agency says about one-third of Somalis in need of aid in the drought-struck southern part of the country are children.

UNICEF said Friday that some 1.25 million children are among the 3.7 million Somalis in urgent need, as the country experiences its worst drought in 60 years. Also Friday, a second plane from the U.N.'s World Food Program landed in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, with a load of nutritional supplements.

On Thursday, fighting broke out in Mogadishu, a day after the first U.N. airlift of 14 tons of food arrived. At least 10 people were killed and some 30 were wounded as African Union and government troops fought militants who were trying to stop food aid from being dispersed.

The al-Qaida-linked group al-Shabab has banned U.N. aid. The militants are trying to turn Somalia into a staunchly Islamic state and already control much of the country.

The U.N. has declared a famine in two sections of southern Somalia, both of which are al-Shabab strongholds. The U.N. is expected to airlift more aid this week to eastern Ethiopia and northern Kenya, near the Somali border, where thousands of Somalis are filling overcrowded refugee camps.

Source

 

[LAfrique]

Let me guess: You believe those Shabab faggots, right? All those Somalis flooding to refugee camps in Kenya are just there for summer break? And why would we give technology to Islamic militants in Somalia, you dumb fuck?

Belligent Drunk, did you know that "Technology" simply means know-how? By the way, why would we indefinitely give daily ration of food to people, rather than teach them how to seek food for themselves?

So? if the US didn't send any food you would criticize that as well you hypocritical bastard, why don't you move to Mogadishu and join those Shabab fags?

No one is asking the US to send food to Somalia or any African nation. As a matter of fact, Somalis and other Africans would fair better without US "intervention."

 

[LAfrique]

Waltky, sorry to inform you UNICEF as well as WHO are out to reduce world population. These entities are of the opinion that the world is over-populated and they seek to reduce world population by inducing inhumane conditions and diseases, which can all be easily accomplished via Hi-Tech.

Remember Swine-flu? What happened to swine-flu? How did that dreadful swine-flu that was going to kill everyone, unless we were all vaccinated, just disappear? UNICEF and WHO want to reduce world population, and this goal can be accomplished by introducing harsh conditions until the affected perish.

 

[waltky]

Famine, conflict, drought, and misery in the Horn of Africa...

Catastrophe in the Horn: Causes and responses
July 27th, 2011 - The area straddling Somalia, Ethiopia and northern Kenya, has been dubbed the “triangle of death” as the worst drought in more than fifty years grips the area.

An estimated thirty percent of children are malnourished, many arriving in refugee camps so “emaciated and with skin lesions so deep that you could see their bones showing in their skulls and arms.” According to testimony by State Department official Reuben Brigety, acute malnutrition has reached 50% and 40%, respectively, in Ethiopia and Kenya—far above the 15% threshold for an international humanitarian emergency. The causes of this emergency are complex, and the international effort to address the situation is well-intentioned, but the crisis demands a broader and dramatic reaction, which sadly, remains improbable.

Somalis have not been governed by a central government since 1991, which has aggravated a number of the famine’s contributing factors beyond the oft-cited violent conflict and drought. Over the last year, fuel and food price increases have surpassed 300 percent in the Somali capital. Regional deforestation has devastated traditional ecosystems, eliminating trees, grazing land, and water and rendering the tri-nation area “more or less dry.” Much of the productive farmland has been leased to China, Saudi Arabia, and India, so desperately needed food has been exported to foreign markets. Finally, local farmers lack machinery and fertilizer, leading to low agricultural outputs and the absence of food reserves to sustain people during droughts or other shocks.

On Monday, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) announced a plan to airlift food aid into Somalia, and the United Nations has raised $1 billion to address the issue. While this may temporarily stem the number of deaths, it is unlikely to address the economic and climatological forces underlying the disaster. Furthermore, foreign food aid itself—while life-saving—risks exacerbating the underlying problem.

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See also:

Doctors Battle Psychological Trauma in Dadaab Refugee Camps
July 28, 2011 - In humanitarian crises, the immediate focus is often on providing food, shelter and medical treatment to those in need. But in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camps, there is a small but concerted effort to help treat the psychological trauma suffered by refugees who have fled a lifetime of conflict.

In the Doctors Without Borders hospital at the Dagahaley camp in Dadaab, Kenya, clinical psychologist Bethuel Isoe-Nyachieng’a tries to calm an hysterical patient who has recently arrived from Somalia. His name is Abdi Ibrahim, a 21-year-old who, until just a few weeks ago, was perfectly normal. His brother explained that Ibrahim began complaining nearly five months ago of worsening headaches and body pains. During the journey to the Dagahaley camp, his condition suddenly deteriorated. One night, Ibrahim woke up screaming and trying to remove his clothes. This is the first time Isoe-Nyachieng’a has seen Ibrahim, but at first glance he believes the young refugee’s illness has been triggered by some sort of post-traumatic stress. On their way to Dadaab, Ibrahim and his brother were robbed by bandits, though neither would explain exactly what happened. Ibrahim’s brother says Ibrahim has lately acted very violently, forcing him to bind Ibrahim’s hands with a lock and chains.

The chains do not shock the psychologist, who says he sees them quite often in his work around the camps. “These patients who are captured with mental illness are those ones who are very agitated," he said. "Those ones that somebody can see they want to fight back, they want to run away and they are in chains. That is when we are called immediately for management.” The imprisonment of refugees with mental health issues is a stark reminder of the need for a more comprehensive approach to treating victims of famine and war. While chaining victims of trauma and mental illness seems cruel at first glance, many families in the camps do so out of concern for their suffering relatives.

VOA witnessed one woman suffering from schizophrenia who had been chained to her house by her brother. The brother said the woman would regularly wander off from the house into the Dagahaley market and had been raped multiple times without being able to defend herself. She was chained, said her brother, in order to protect her from further abuse. And for those without serious mental illness, the public nature of the camps often prevents victims of trauma from recovering without the help of mental health workers. Janet Ndoti-Ndila is a counselor for CARE International at the Dagahaley camps. Ndoti-Ndila says CARE speaks with over 50 people per day in Dagahaley alone who feel they cannot turn to their family or friends for support.

“If you tell one person about something, everybody in the community will know," she said. "So instead of being stigmatized and being discriminated, you decide not to tell anyone. You are given a name, you are the raped one.” Both CARE and Doctors Without Borders estimate they see around 1,400 people in the Dagahaley camp alone. While the CARE counselors do not diagnose patients, Isoe-Nyachieng’a of Doctors Without Borders says they see a range of problems from depression and anxiety to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and manic depression. Perhaps the most common is post-traumatic stress disorder, which the psychologists say many suffer from the harrowing journey across Somalia, fighting both starvation and threats from armed bandits and the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab.

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[High_Gravity]

Waltky, sorry to inform you UNICEF as well as WHO are out to reduce world population. These entities are of the opinion that the world is over-populated and they seek to reduce world population by inducing inhumane conditions and diseases, which can all be easily accomplished via Hi-Tech.

Remember Swine-flu? What happened to swine-flu? How did that dreadful swine-flu that was going to kill everyone, unless we were all vaccinated, just disappear? UNICEF and WHO want to reduce world population, and this goal can be accomplished by introducing harsh conditions until the affected perish.

No moron, it is the Shabab faggots that don't want international intervention, the starving Somali people welcome any aid they can get idiot.

 

[LAfrique]

Waltky, sorry to inform you UNICEF as well as WHO are out to reduce world population. These entities are of the opinion that the world is over-populated and they seek to reduce world population by inducing inhumane conditions and diseases, which can all be easily accomplished via Hi-Tech.

Remember Swine-flu? What happened to swine-flu? How did that dreadful swine-flu that was going to kill everyone, unless we were all vaccinated, just disappear? UNICEF and WHO want to reduce world population, and this goal can be accomplished by introducing harsh conditions until the affected perish.

No moron, it is the Shabab faggots that don't want international intervention, the starving Somali people welcome any aid they can get idiot.

Belligerent Drunk, neither the Somali people nor any other African people need your daily fraction of bread and fish to survive: These people need tools and the technology to help them help themsleves. Got it? And do not forget that most of the crowd shown are often African nomads and/or people in shelters.

 

[High_Gravity]

Waltky, sorry to inform you UNICEF as well as WHO are out to reduce world population. These entities are of the opinion that the world is over-populated and they seek to reduce world population by inducing inhumane conditions and diseases, which can all be easily accomplished via Hi-Tech.

Remember Swine-flu? What happened to swine-flu? How did that dreadful swine-flu that was going to kill everyone, unless we were all vaccinated, just disappear? UNICEF and WHO want to reduce world population, and this goal can be accomplished by introducing harsh conditions until the affected perish.

No moron, it is the Shabab faggots that don't want international intervention, the starving Somali people welcome any aid they can get idiot.

Belligerent Drunk, neither the Somali people nor any other African people need your daily fraction of bread and fish to survive: These people need tools and the technology to help them help themsleves. Got it? And do not forget that most of the crowd shown are often African nomads and/or people in shelters.

Bullshit, Africa is basically a welfare continent at this point, without aid from the outside world they wouldn't last 6 months.

 

[LAfrique]

No moron, it is the Shabab faggots that don't want international intervention, the starving Somali people welcome any aid they can get idiot.

Belligerent Drunk, neither the Somali people nor any other African people need your daily fraction of bread and fish to survive: These people need tools and the technology to help them help themsleves. Got it? And do not forget that most of the crowd shown are often African nomads and/or people in shelters.

Bullshit, Africa is basically a welfare continent at this point, without aid from the outside world they wouldn't last 6 months.

While also fault of Africans, Africa is in its current sorry state because of meddling by Western imperialists. Africa would be okay were our world imperialists still dreaming of colonial days to leave Africa alone.

Just leave Africa alone! While false propaganda has obviously caused several Africans to become mentally impoverished, those Africans will thrive if they are given tools and technology to do for themselves.

 

[High_Gravity]

Belligerent Drunk, neither the Somali people nor any other African people need your daily fraction of bread and fish to survive: These people need tools and the technology to help them help themsleves. Got it? And do not forget that most of the crowd shown are often African nomads and/or people in shelters.

Bullshit, Africa is basically a welfare continent at this point, without aid from the outside world they wouldn't last 6 months.

While also fault of Africans, Africa is in its current sorry state because of meddling by Western imperialists. Africa would be okay were our world imperialists still dreaming of colonial days to leave Africa alone.

Just leave Africa alone! While false propaganda has obviously caused several Africans to become mentally impoverished, those Africans will thrive if they are given tools and technology to do for themselves.

Leave Africa alone, and it will turn into Dawn of the Dead over there. They can't feed themselves without international aid. What you are saying is hypocritical anyways since you say Africans can survive alone but they need the west to give them the tools to do it.

 

[LAfrique]

If it were not for Western imperialists, Africa and developing nations would be A-okay! And by the way, I said if anyone seeks to reach-out to Africans, then he/she can do so by giving Africans needed tools and technology to thrive for themselves. Handing people daily portion of food, rather than equipping them, does not help them overcome situation.

 

[High_Gravity]

If it were not for Western imperialists, Africa and developing nations would be A-okay! And by the way, I said if anyone seeks to reach-out to Africans, then he/she can do so by giving Africans needed tools and technology to thrive for themselves. Handing people daily portion of food, rather than equipping them, does not help them overcome situation.

You are saying Africans don't need any help but at the same time you say the West needs to give Africans the tools to help themselves.

 

[LAfrique]

If it were not for Western imperialists, Africa and developing nations would be A-okay! And by the way, I said if anyone seeks to reach-out to Africans, then he/she can do so by giving Africans needed tools and technology to thrive for themselves. Handing people daily portion of food, rather than equipping them, does not help them overcome situation.

You are saying Africans don't need any help but at the same time you say the West needs to give Africans the tools to help themselves.

Africans only need help from Western nations because Africans have been lied to by Western nations for so long about their abilities and potentials that most have come to believe those lies and now assume they are wards. There is no good reason for Africans in Africa to live in poverty. Therefore, I say:

Please, leave Africans alone! Those seeking to reach out to the mentally impoverished Africans should do so by simply providing them with tool and technology to thrive for themselves. Africans and people in poverty do not need indefinite daily portion of fish and bread. Teach the poor how to fish, and then help them with appropriate tool and technology to fend for themselves.

 

[High_Gravity]

If it were not for Western imperialists, Africa and developing nations would be A-okay! And by the way, I said if anyone seeks to reach-out to Africans, then he/she can do so by giving Africans needed tools and technology to thrive for themselves. Handing people daily portion of food, rather than equipping them, does not help them overcome situation.

You are saying Africans don't need any help but at the same time you say the West needs to give Africans the tools to help themselves.

Africans only need help from Western nations because Africans have been lied to by Western nations for so long about their abilities and potentials that most have come to believe those lies and now assume they are wards. There is no good reason for Africans in Africa to live in poverty. Therefore, I say:

Please, leave Africans alone! Those seeking to reach out to the mentally impoverished Africans should do so by simply providing them with tool and technology to thrive for themselves. Africans and people in poverty do not need indefinite daily portion of fish and bread. Teach the poor how to fish, and then help them with appropriate tool and technology to fend for themselves.

You are a selfish little bastard, Africa relies on billions of dollars of international aid to feed its people, and you tell us to leave them alone? Fuck you. If Africa was cut off and left on its own right now, they would be feeding on each other for nourishment and there would be choas and anarchy that would make Rwanda in 1994 look like a picnic. There will be a time in the future when Africa will be able to stand on its own 2 feet I hope, but right now is not it, the Africans need our help and I am glad we are giving it to them. You can go fuck yourself.

 

[LAfrique]

You are saying Africans don't need any help but at the same time you say the West needs to give Africans the tools to help themselves.

Africans only need help from Western nations because Africans have been lied to by Western nations for so long about their abilities and potentials that most have come to believe those lies and now assume they are wards. There is no good reason for Africans in Africa to live in poverty. Therefore, I say:

Please, leave Africans alone! Those seeking to reach out to the mentally impoverished Africans should do so by simply providing them with tool and technology to thrive for themselves. Africans and people in poverty do not need indefinite daily portion of fish and bread. Teach the poor how to fish, and then help them with appropriate tool and technology to fend for themselves.

You are a selfish little bastard, Africa relies on billions of dollars of international aid to feed its people, and you tell us to leave them alone? Fuck you. If Africa was cut off and left on its own right now, they would be feeding on each other for nourishment and there would be chaos and anarchy that would make Rwanda in 1994 look like a picnic. There will be a time in the future when Africa will be able to stand on its own 2 feet I hope, but right now is not it, the Africans need our help and I am glad we are giving it to them. You can go fuck yourself.

Africa, my dear ignorant belligerent drunk man, needs no "aid" from the international community to survive. You conveniently forget that these so-called developed nations get their wealth from Africa:

Just hours ago, the US delivered batch of fighter jets to Morocco in which African Morocco will be coughing up approximately US $2.4 billion (enough to close up the US deficit) - Morocco takes delivery of F-16 jets - Yahoo! News