UN Declares Official Famine In Somalia

[earlycuyler]

40% of the u.s. corn crop is diverted to making ethanol. A crime in itself.

It is, especially when you dont need corn or grain of any type to make it. You could even make the fuel out of rotten food.

 

[Ropey]

^ Yes, the discussion over US corn --> Ethanol has been one I have been involved with for years. It's patently distasteful to me.

 

[kola_yusuf]

Lack of leadership continentally

 

[High_Gravity]

Famine Hit Somalia Faces Malaria Outbreak

The United Nations (UN) has warned of a potential malaria outbreak in Somalia where two million people are already suffering from drought, famine and conflict. Urgent measures are needed.

The combined conditions of drought, famine and conflict put people at a higher risk of contracting the disease during the current rainy season. The UN has called on its partners to escalate their response measures to prevent a malaria outbreak in the African country.

Sikander Khan, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Somalia representative, said the health of many Somalis is already extremely compromised due to the drought and famine, especially children who are suffering from malnutrition. “With the rains come an increased risk of malaria,” Khan said.

“We must act as swiftly as possible to prevent deaths due to this deadly disease. We are working with our partners on prevention as well as providing treatment services as necessary,” he stated, adding that in order to prevent malaria deaths, humanitarian organizations must act swiftly.

Malaria, which is caused by a parasite transmitted to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes, kills nearly 800,000 people around the world every year with most of the deaths occurring in Africa.

UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners have engaged in a large-scale campaign which consists of distributing protection kits according to each region’s needs and educating people on the ways to prevent and treat the disease.

In the next weeks, 280,000 long-lasting insecticide treated nets will be distributed in drought-affected regions such as Hiran, Lower Shabelle, Middle Shabelle, Lower Juba and Middle Juba in south-central Somalia. Over 140,000 households will receive the kits in addition to the 79,000 nets which have already been distributed since July.

In the Somali capital of Mogadishu, where nets are not practical, 45,000 households will receive indoor spraying which will protect them for three to four months, and will be re-sprayed in March and April next year.

In addition, health facilities throughout high-risk areas will be equipped with 560,000 doses of anti-malaria drugs as well as with the ability to provide one million rapid diagnostic tests and the capacity to treat cases.

Famine Hit Somalia Faces Malaria Outbreak - Irish Weather Online

 

[High_Gravity]

Somalia: Gunmen Kidnap American, Danish Aid Workers, Officials Say

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Gunmen abducted a 32-year-old female American aid worker in northern Somalia on Tuesday along with a Danish and a Somali colleague as their convoy headed to the airport. The kidnappings come only weeks after four Europeans were seized by suspected Somali gunmen in neighboring Kenya.

A self-proclaimed Somali pirate said that pirates had captured the three. The captors would not harm the three but will want a ransom for their release, he said. The claim could not be independently verified.

The three employees work for the Danish Demining Group, whose experts have been clearing mines and unexploded ordnance in conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East.

"As a first priority, we have been concentrating on the ongoing investigations. We are keeping close contact with the family members, who are deeply concerned, just as we are," said Ann Mary Olsen, head of the Danish Refugee Council's international department.

Activities of the Danish Refugee Council, which runs the Danish Demining Group, have been suspended in the area. The group provided no other details and asked media outlets "to respect the need for confidentiality as investigations are ongoing."

A Nairobi-based security official said the demining group was traveling in a three-car convoy, including one vehicle of armed guards, but that the guards did not resist the kidnapping.

The three are believed to be on their way to a former pirate stronghold on the Somali coast, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Ahmed Mohamed, a police officer in the Somali town of Galkayo, said the aid workers had been heading to the airport when they crossed into a southern section of the city that is under clan control. The northern section of Galkayo is under the control of the semiautonomous region of Puntland.

Two Nairobi-based officials said the American woman is 32 and the Danish man is 60. The woman is a former school teacher, one official said.

Bile Hussein, the self-proclaimed pirate, said the three were abducted with the help of "insiders." Hussein has provided reliable information about pirate activities in Somalia to The Associated Press in the past. He said that capturing ships off East Africa is becoming harder – ships are using stronger self-defense measures – so pirates are looking for other ways to earn ransoms.

"They are now on the way to Gan town, and we shall treat them humanely and kindly. Our aim is all about a ransom, not harming them," Hussein said.

Christian Friis Bach, Denmark's minister for development cooperation, told Danish broadcaster DR that the demining group was working to help Somalis.

"That's why it's both sad and tragic that they have been struck by this kidnapping, and I hope their strong network and a collected effort also by the Foreign Ministry can resolve the situation quickly.," he said.

The kidnapping comes only weeks after the seizure of two women working for Doctors Without Borders from a refugee camp in neighboring Kenya, as well as the kidnappings of two European tourists from Kenya's coast – one of whom later died. Somali gunmen were suspected in those attacks.

Somalia: Gunmen Kidnap American, Danish Aid Workers, Officials Say

 

[High_Gravity]

Somalia’s Agony Tests Limits of Aid

BENADIR HOSPITAL is a chunky block of a building in downtown Mogadishu, built in the 1970s by the Chinese. It has cracked windows, ceiling fans that don’t turn and long, ghostly hallways that stink of human excrement and diesel fuel — all that the nurses have to wash the floors. Each morning, legions of starving people trudge in, the victims of Somalia’s spreading famine. Many have journeyed from hundreds of miles away. They spent every last dollar and every last calorie to make it here, and when they arrive, they simply collapse on the floor. Benadir’s few doctors and nurses are all volunteers and all exhausted, and many wear tattered, bloodied smocks. The minute I walked in, I had a bad feeling I would find what I was looking for.

As the East Africa correspondent for The New York Times, my assignment has been to chronicle the current famine in Somalia, one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the last two decades, hitting one of the most forlorn and troubled countries in modern times. My job is to seek out the suffering and write about it and to analyze the causes and especially the response, which has been woefully inadequate by all accounts, though not totally hopeless.

In Benadir, there is a room full of old blue cots, one after another, where the sickest children lie. On each bed, a little life is passing away. Some children cry, but most are quiet. The skin on their feet and hands is peeling off. All their bones show, like skeletons covered in parchment. I was standing just a few feet away from Kufow Ali Abdi, a destitute nomad, as he looked down on his dying daughter, and when the time came, there was no mystery, no fuss.

I watched Mr. Kufow carefully unhook the I.V. that was attached to her shriveled body and then wrap her up in blue cloth. Her name was Kadija and she was 3 years old and probably not more than 20 pounds. Mr. Kufow walked out of the room, lightly carrying Kadija’s body in his arms.

At least five children died that day in Benadir. At a camp not far away, where people are housed in twig huts and stare listlessly at the road, hoping for an aid truck to arrive, I was told that 10 had died. Across Somalia, it’s hundreds a day.

Much of Africa, Somalia in particular, has had a tough time since independence in the 1960s, becoming synonymous with staggering levels of misery and leading many people to simply shrug and mutter “here we go again” when they hear of a new drought or a new war. But this current crisis in Somalia is on a different order of magnitude than the typical calamity, if there is such a thing. Tens of thousands of people have already died, and as many as 750,000 could soon starve to death, the United Nations says, the equivalent of the entire populations of Miami and Pittsburgh.

One reason the situation has gotten this grim is that most of the big Western aid agencies and charities, the ones with the technical expertise and so-called surge capacity to rapidly distribute aid, have been blocked from working in the famine zones. At a time when Somalia is suffering from the worst drought in 60 years, a ruthless militant group called the Shabab, which is essentially a Qaeda franchise, is on such an anti-Western tirade that it has banned Western music, Western dress, soccer, bras and even Western food aid. The Shabab are a heavily armed complication that differentiates this crisis from previous famines in Somalia, Ethiopia or Sudan and from other recent natural disasters like the tsunami in Indonesia or Haiti’s earthquake, where aid groups were able to rush in and start saving lives within a matter of hours.

That said, it is not as if American or European aid agencies are simply giving up on Somalia. It’s the opposite. They’re stepping up operations and scrambling to find ways to get around the Shabab restrictions, turning to new technologies like sending electronic money by cellphone so people in famine zones can buy food themselves from local markets.

Western charities are also teaming up with the new players on the aid scene, like Turkish groups and other Muslim organizations that are allowed into Shabab areas. It all calls for more hustle and definitely more imagination: in Somalia there are a million impediments to the aid business — the Shabab, the broken-down state, dilapidated ports and airports, American government sanctions, a legacy of corruption and the sheer dangers of working in full-fledged anarchy haunted by militias, warlords, glassy-eyed gunmen and even 21st-century pirates. But charity groups say they are beginning to turn this famine around. They just need more resources and more time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/g...rrounded-by-death-and-disease.html?ref=africa

 

[High_Gravity]

Somalia: Al Shabab Bans Aid Groups, Including UN Agencies

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The Somali militant group al-Shabab on Monday banned 16 aid groups – including a half dozen U.N. agencies – from central and southern Somalia, a decision likely to harm Somalis already suffering from drought and famine.

The banning of the aid groups falls in line with the group's skeptical view of the outside world, but will worsen the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have come to depend on aid in the Horn of Africa country's worst famine since 1991-92.

A year without rain wiped out crops and animal herds in southern Somalia, killing tens of thousands of people the last six months and forcing tens of thousands more to flee as refugees.

The al-Qaida-linked militant group's decision seemed to be rooted in the belief that aid groups are serving as spies for outside countries or as vehicles to undermine support for al-Shabab's harsh and strict interpretation of Islam.

Witnesses in the towns of Beldweyne and Baidoa said armed, masked men entered aid offices Monday and seized equipment. The United Nations was preparing a statement in response to al-Shabab's closures but didn't have an immediate comment.

Al-Shabab said in long statement in English that a "meticulous yearlong review and investigation" had been carried out by what it said was a committee called the Office for Supervising the Affairs of Foreign Agencies. The committee documented in a report "the illicit activities and misconducts of some of the organizations."

Al-Shabab accused the 16 aid groups of disseminating information on the activities of Muslims and militant fighters, financing, aiding and abetting "subversive" groups seeking to destroy the basic tenants of the Islamic penal system, and of "persistently galvanizing the local population" against the full establishment of Shariah law, a harsh and punitive interpretation of Islam.

Al-Shabab carries out amputations, stonings and beheadings as punishment. The group also frequently recruits child fighters.

Because of its policies limiting the work of aid groups in its territory – especially the work of the World Food Program – areas under its control were declared famine zones by the U.N. in July. Some of those famine declarations have since been downgraded, but the U.N. says 250,000 still face the immediate risk of starvation.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday condemned al-Shabab for seizing property and equipment belonging to several non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies earlier in the day.

"This brazen act prevents these organizations from providing lifesaving assistance," Ban said in a statement released by his office. He demanded that al-Shabab "vacate the premises and return seized property to the affected agencies and NGOs."

Among the agencies al-Shabab banned on Monday were UNICEF, the World Health Organization, UNHCR, the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Danish Refugee Council, German Agency For Technical Cooperation (GTZ), Action Contre la Faim, Solidarity, Saacid and Concern.

The al-Shabab statement accused the groups of misappropriating funds, collecting data, and working with "international bodies" to promote secularism, immorality and the "degrading values of democracy in an Islamic country."

Somalia: Al Shabab Bans Aid Groups, Including UN Agencies

 

[Ropey]

It's a sad situation that has been compounded by deadly decades of civil war, consecutive years of failed rains, unregulated deforestation, and high food prices. Somalis are dying and there is little anyone seems to be able to do about it.

Shabab says, "Only Allah can lessen the impact of famine of this scale".

 

[High_Gravity]

It's a sad situation that has been compounded by deadly decades of civil war, consecutive years of failed rains, unregulated deforestation, and high food prices. Somalis are dying and there is little anyone seems to be able to do about it.

Shabab says, "Only Allah can lessen the impact of famine of this scale".

The bottom line is the only way the international community is really going to be able to help the Somalis is to send in a Military force to remove Shabab from these areas and distribute the food and aid, the thing is nobody wants to send their Military into this country and the AU seems powerless to really stop the Shabab, maybe the Kenyans and Ethiopians can step up? thats all I have at this point.

 

[Ropey]

It's a sad situation that has been compounded by deadly decades of civil war, consecutive years of failed rains, unregulated deforestation, and high food prices. Somalis are dying and there is little anyone seems to be able to do about it.

Shabab says, "Only Allah can lessen the impact of famine of this scale".

The bottom line is the only way the international community is really going to be able to help the Somalis is to send in a Military force to remove Shabab from these areas and distribute the food and aid, the thing is nobody wants to send their Military into this country and the AU seems powerless to really stop the Shabab, maybe the Kenyans and Ethiopians can step up? thats all I have at this point.

An International force is necessary imo HG. And a full out International force declaring war on al-Shabab.

 

[High_Gravity]

It's a sad situation that has been compounded by deadly decades of civil war, consecutive years of failed rains, unregulated deforestation, and high food prices. Somalis are dying and there is little anyone seems to be able to do about it.

Shabab says, "Only Allah can lessen the impact of famine of this scale".

The bottom line is the only way the international community is really going to be able to help the Somalis is to send in a Military force to remove Shabab from these areas and distribute the food and aid, the thing is nobody wants to send their Military into this country and the AU seems powerless to really stop the Shabab, maybe the Kenyans and Ethiopians can step up? thats all I have at this point.

An International force is necessary imo HG. And a full out International force declaring war on al-Shabab.

No doubt it has to but I don't see too many people coming forward, it would be interesting to see some Muslim countries stepping up to the plate to help their poor Muslim brothers but that will never fucking happen, either the West steps in and helps out or no one else will.

 

[High_Gravity]

Somalia: Al Shabab Aid Ban Will Bring Disaster, Groups Warn

NAIROBI, Kenya — Aid workers and Somali residents expressed outrage Tuesday, a day after the militant group al-Shabab banned 16 aid groups from its territory, a decision officials said puts tens of thousands of sick mothers and malnourished children at risk.

Tens of thousands of Somalis have already died from drought and famine-related causes this year, and the U.N. estimates that 250,000 people still face starvation in a country plagued by violence.

Somalis expressed sadness and anger at al-Shabab's decision, one that could further damage a group highly unpopular in many Somali circles because of its strict social rules and harsh punishments like amputations and stonings.

Al-Shabab on Monday ordered UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the Danish Refugee Council, among others, to leave.

"Without their help, our children will return to starvation and malnutrition," said Ahmed Awnor, a community leader in Hiraan in west-central Somalia.

Aid groups warned of disaster if the ban stays in place. UNICEF said thousands of children could die if its operations are stopped. UNICEF supports health centers treating tens of thousands of malnourished children, provides access to clean water and carries out vaccinations against measles.

"We are extremely concerned as any disruption to our assistance is like unplugging life support for many children, especially for the 160,000 severely malnourished children in south-central Somalia," said Jaya Murthy of UNICEF Somalia.

Al-Shabab began banning aid groups like the World Food Program in 2009, though it allowed some to operate. The militant force has long accused outside groups of spying and on Monday accused the 16 groups of misappropriating funds, collecting data, and promoting secularism, immorality and the "degrading values of democracy in an Islamic country."

"It's a disgusting decision. It will force us back to famine and misery again," said Ahmed Khalif, a Somali elder in Baidoa town. "The difficult tasks the aid agencies have done to fight the famine are only half-done."

Al-Shabab said it carried out a "meticulous yearlong review and investigation" that documented "the illicit activities and misconducts of some of the organizations."

Rashid Abdi, a Somalia analyst with the International Crisis Group, said al-Shabab's action could be motivated by "anger at the West's acquiescence to Kenya's intervention" in Somalia. Hundreds of Kenyan forces moved into Somalia last month to fight al-Shabab.

Abdi also said al-Shabab may have failed to extract the benefits and concessions it wanted from the agencies operating in areas under its control. The militants have been known to force aid groups to pay "taxes" or other fees.

The Danish Refugee Council said militants took over its offices in Belet Weyne and Bulo Burte in Hiraan region. The group called al-Shabab's decision "a sad development" as Somalis are "in dire need of humanitarian aid due to drought and years of armed conflict." The group provides shelter, aid packages and daily meals for tens of thousands of internally displaced people in the capital, Mogadishu.

"The struggling people of Somalia need all the help they can get, therefore we hope and trust that we and the other organizations involved are soon again able to resume our humanitarian operations," said Ann Mary Olsen, the head of the council's international department.

Al-Shabab boasts several hundred foreign militants among its ranks, including veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and U.S. citizens. The foreign fighters are known to take hardline stances inside the group.

Somalia: Al Shabab Aid Ban Will Bring Disaster, Groups Warn

 

[High_Gravity]

Somalia Famine: Have U.S. Counterterrorism Policies Contributed To The Crisis In The Horn Of Africa?

When Al Jazeera's staff met Ibrahim Aden in Kenya's Dabaab refugee camp, he had just lost his one-year-old son. Five days earlier, he had buried another of his sons. A third child, sick and exhausted, was taking shelter in a nearby tent.

At least 450,000 Somalis have crossed the country's border with Kenya in recent months, fleeing one of the worst famines East Africa has seen in decades. For many, help came too late. US officials estimate that more than 29,000 children under the age of five have died in the crisis. Tens of thousands Somalis have been killed, and at least 250,000 people are still facing the threat of starvation.

In the first episode of its new season, Al Jazeera's Fault Lines traveled to Somalia to investigate why saving the famine-stricken region has proven so difficult.

Somalia faces four harsh realities, Fault Lines explains; the most severe drought Eastern Africa has seen in 60 years; 4 million people facing starvation; Al Shabaab militants, who control large parts in the south and center of the country, blocking aid from reaching those in need; and huge travel distances for those seeking aid. "Access to the crisis is so bad that the UN says it doesn't know how many people died," Al Jazeera notes. "But it's certainty in the tens of thousands, most of those children."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...us-counter-terrorism_n_1119415.html?ref=world

 

[Ropey]

Somalia: Al Shabab Aid Ban Will Bring Disaster, Groups Warn

NAIROBI, Kenya — Aid workers and Somali residents expressed outrage Tuesday, a day after the militant group al-Shabab banned 16 aid groups from its territory, a decision officials said puts tens of thousands of sick mothers and malnourished children at risk.

Tens of thousands of Somalis have already died from drought and famine-related causes this year, and the U.N. estimates that 250,000 people still face starvation in a country plagued by violence.

Somalis expressed sadness and anger at al-Shabab's decision, one that could further damage a group highly unpopular in many Somali circles because of its strict social rules and harsh punishments like amputations and stonings.

Al-Shabab on Monday ordered UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the Danish Refugee Council, among others, to leave.

"Without their help, our children will return to starvation and malnutrition," said Ahmed Awnor, a community leader in Hiraan in west-central Somalia.

Aid groups warned of disaster if the ban stays in place. UNICEF said thousands of children could die if its operations are stopped. UNICEF supports health centers treating tens of thousands of malnourished children, provides access to clean water and carries out vaccinations against measles.

"We are extremely concerned as any disruption to our assistance is like unplugging life support for many children, especially for the 160,000 severely malnourished children in south-central Somalia," said Jaya Murthy of UNICEF Somalia.

Al-Shabab began banning aid groups like the World Food Program in 2009, though it allowed some to operate. The militant force has long accused outside groups of spying and on Monday accused the 16 groups of misappropriating funds, collecting data, and promoting secularism, immorality and the "degrading values of democracy in an Islamic country."

"It's a disgusting decision. It will force us back to famine and misery again," said Ahmed Khalif, a Somali elder in Baidoa town. "The difficult tasks the aid agencies have done to fight the famine are only half-done."

Al-Shabab said it carried out a "meticulous yearlong review and investigation" that documented "the illicit activities and misconducts of some of the organizations."

Rashid Abdi, a Somalia analyst with the International Crisis Group, said al-Shabab's action could be motivated by "anger at the West's acquiescence to Kenya's intervention" in Somalia. Hundreds of Kenyan forces moved into Somalia last month to fight al-Shabab.

Abdi also said al-Shabab may have failed to extract the benefits and concessions it wanted from the agencies operating in areas under its control. The militants have been known to force aid groups to pay "taxes" or other fees.

The Danish Refugee Council said militants took over its offices in Belet Weyne and Bulo Burte in Hiraan region. The group called al-Shabab's decision "a sad development" as Somalis are "in dire need of humanitarian aid due to drought and years of armed conflict." The group provides shelter, aid packages and daily meals for tens of thousands of internally displaced people in the capital, Mogadishu.

"The struggling people of Somalia need all the help they can get, therefore we hope and trust that we and the other organizations involved are soon again able to resume our humanitarian operations," said Ann Mary Olsen, the head of the council's international department.

Al-Shabab boasts several hundred foreign militants among its ranks, including veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and U.S. citizens. The foreign fighters are known to take hardline stances inside the group.

Somalia: Al Shabab Aid Ban Will Bring Disaster, Groups Warn

Enough with the expressing of outrage. Action is necessary. How many years of expressing outrage while the Shabab systematically rape the country and allow the people to die by withholding what they make AND stopping the aid coming in as well.

 

[High_Gravity]

Somalia: Al Shabab Aid Ban Will Bring Disaster, Groups Warn

NAIROBI, Kenya — Aid workers and Somali residents expressed outrage Tuesday, a day after the militant group al-Shabab banned 16 aid groups from its territory, a decision officials said puts tens of thousands of sick mothers and malnourished children at risk.

Tens of thousands of Somalis have already died from drought and famine-related causes this year, and the U.N. estimates that 250,000 people still face starvation in a country plagued by violence.

Somalis expressed sadness and anger at al-Shabab's decision, one that could further damage a group highly unpopular in many Somali circles because of its strict social rules and harsh punishments like amputations and stonings.

Al-Shabab on Monday ordered UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the Danish Refugee Council, among others, to leave.

"Without their help, our children will return to starvation and malnutrition," said Ahmed Awnor, a community leader in Hiraan in west-central Somalia.

Aid groups warned of disaster if the ban stays in place. UNICEF said thousands of children could die if its operations are stopped. UNICEF supports health centers treating tens of thousands of malnourished children, provides access to clean water and carries out vaccinations against measles.

"We are extremely concerned as any disruption to our assistance is like unplugging life support for many children, especially for the 160,000 severely malnourished children in south-central Somalia," said Jaya Murthy of UNICEF Somalia.

Al-Shabab began banning aid groups like the World Food Program in 2009, though it allowed some to operate. The militant force has long accused outside groups of spying and on Monday accused the 16 groups of misappropriating funds, collecting data, and promoting secularism, immorality and the "degrading values of democracy in an Islamic country."

"It's a disgusting decision. It will force us back to famine and misery again," said Ahmed Khalif, a Somali elder in Baidoa town. "The difficult tasks the aid agencies have done to fight the famine are only half-done."

Al-Shabab said it carried out a "meticulous yearlong review and investigation" that documented "the illicit activities and misconducts of some of the organizations."

Rashid Abdi, a Somalia analyst with the International Crisis Group, said al-Shabab's action could be motivated by "anger at the West's acquiescence to Kenya's intervention" in Somalia. Hundreds of Kenyan forces moved into Somalia last month to fight al-Shabab.

Abdi also said al-Shabab may have failed to extract the benefits and concessions it wanted from the agencies operating in areas under its control. The militants have been known to force aid groups to pay "taxes" or other fees.

The Danish Refugee Council said militants took over its offices in Belet Weyne and Bulo Burte in Hiraan region. The group called al-Shabab's decision "a sad development" as Somalis are "in dire need of humanitarian aid due to drought and years of armed conflict." The group provides shelter, aid packages and daily meals for tens of thousands of internally displaced people in the capital, Mogadishu.

"The struggling people of Somalia need all the help they can get, therefore we hope and trust that we and the other organizations involved are soon again able to resume our humanitarian operations," said Ann Mary Olsen, the head of the council's international department.

Al-Shabab boasts several hundred foreign militants among its ranks, including veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and U.S. citizens. The foreign fighters are known to take hardline stances inside the group.

Somalia: Al Shabab Aid Ban Will Bring Disaster, Groups Warn

Enough with the expressing of outrage. Action is necessary. How many years of expressing outrage while the Shabab systematically rape the country and allow the people to die by withholding what they make AND stopping the aid coming in as well.

I agree, "expressing out rage" means nothing to people like the Shabab, they don't care how upset we get they are going to do whatever they want. The only thing that will stop them is an international military force going into Somalia headed by a Military that means business, like the US, but nobody wants to commit to something like that after what happened in 1993.

 

[Ropey]

Somalia: Al Shabab Aid Ban Will Bring Disaster, Groups Warn

Somalia: Al Shabab Aid Ban Will Bring Disaster, Groups Warn

Enough with the expressing of outrage. Action is necessary. How many years of expressing outrage while the Shabab systematically rape the country and allow the people to die by withholding what they make AND stopping the aid coming in as well.

I agree, "expressing out rage" means nothing to people like the Shabab, they don't care how upset we get they are going to do whatever they want. The only thing that will stop them is an international military force going into Somalia headed by a Military that means business, like the US, but nobody wants to commit to something like that after what happened in 1993.

This is used as an excuse, much like the Lebanon outcome. An all out attack by Western coordinated forces would have finished al-Shabab. The same with Lebanon all those years ago.

The US ran away from both events. Then they say it's too troublesome to deal with.

The US administrative policy of bugging out when heavily attacked rather than responding to the attack is the fundamental issue regarding no fear of the US imo.

 

[High_Gravity]

Enough with the expressing of outrage. Action is necessary. How many years of expressing outrage while the Shabab systematically rape the country and allow the people to die by withholding what they make AND stopping the aid coming in as well.

I agree, "expressing out rage" means nothing to people like the Shabab, they don't care how upset we get they are going to do whatever they want. The only thing that will stop them is an international military force going into Somalia headed by a Military that means business, like the US, but nobody wants to commit to something like that after what happened in 1993.

This is used as an excuse, much like the Lebanon outcome. An all out attack by Western coordinated forces would have finished al-Shabab. The same with Lebanon all those years ago.

The US ran away from both events. Then they say it's too troublesome to deal with.

The US administrative policy of bugging out when heavily attacked rather than responding to the attack is the fundamental issue regarding no fear of the US imo.

I agree with you, when events happen like the US Marines barracks bombing and the Black Hawk down event, politicians in the US start getting nervous and think about re-elections and how these things will effect their campaigns, and they start withdrawing troops. Same thing happened in Fallujah in 2004, Bush with held a full assault on the city until his re-election was guaranteed, than US Marines and US Army Troops assaulted the city and took it in November 2004, politics and war should not mix like that imo.

 

[Ropey]

I agree, "expressing out rage" means nothing to people like the Shabab, they don't care how upset we get they are going to do whatever they want. The only thing that will stop them is an international military force going into Somalia headed by a Military that means business, like the US, but nobody wants to commit to something like that after what happened in 1993.

This is used as an excuse, much like the Lebanon outcome. An all out attack by Western coordinated forces would have finished al-Shabab. The same with Lebanon all those years ago.

The US ran away from both events. Then they say it's too troublesome to deal with.

The US administrative policy of bugging out when heavily attacked rather than responding to the attack is the fundamental issue regarding no fear of the US imo.

I agree with you, when events happen like the US Marines barracks bombing and the Black Hawk down event, politicians in the US start getting nervous and think about re-elections and how these things will effect their campaigns, and they start withdrawing troops. Same thing happened in Fallujah in 2004, Bush with held a full assault on the city until his re-election was guaranteed, than US Marines and US Army Troops assaulted the city and took it in November 2004, politics and war should not mix like that imo.

 

[waltky]

Lil' kids is starvin' in Africa...

Over 1 Million Children in Sahel Face Malnutrition
December 09, 2011 - The United Nations Children's Fund warns an estimated 1.25 million children in the Sahel region of Africa are facing severe and life threatening malnutrition during the coming year. UNICEF is launching a multi-million dollar appeal to provide the emergency therapeutic care needed to save these children's lives.

The U.N. Children's Fund reports the largest number of children at risk of severe and acute malnutrition is in Niger. It says an estimated 330,600 children under five are in danger. The government of Niger reports more than half of the country's villages are vulnerable to food insecurity. Spokeswoman for the U.N. Children's Fund, Marixie Mercado, says children in seven other countries and regions also will require specialist treatment in clinics for malnutrition. They include Chad, northern Nigeria, the north of Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and northern Senegal.

"Our nutrition teams warn that there is very little time," said Mercado. "Malnutrition rates have already surpassed emergency thresholds in some regions of Chad and parts of Niger, for example. The poor rains and the harvest mean that the lean season could begin months earlier for Niger and some other countries. It is critical to make sure that the health facilities and health workers have the supplies and the resources they need now."

UNICEF is urgently appealing for nearly $66 million. The money primarily will be used for nutrition and health interventions and supplies. Mercado says the amount of money requested will be increased substantially to make sure supplies are able to meet the desperate needs. "Our offices are also emphasizing that it is possible to avert a catastrophe," added Mercado. "In 2010, a predicted famine was turned around in Niger. This will take early concerted action. UNICEF is obviously not in a position to issue a famine warning. What we are warning is a serious nutritional crisis in the Sahel that is affecting more countries and more people. It is a chronic crisis that has just got worse."

Mercado says UNICEF has begun releasing emergency supplies including therapeutic foods to health authorities, as well as to its partners. Besides nutritional care, she says UNICEF also will provide clean water, sanitation at feeding centers, as well as emergency education and protection for children displaced with their families.

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[High_Gravity]

For Somali Women, Pain of Being a Spoil of War

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The girl’s voice dropped to a hush as she remembered the bright, sunny afternoon when she stepped out of her hut and saw her best friend buried in the sand, up to her neck.

Her friend had made the mistake of refusing to marry a Shabab commander. Now she was about to get her head bashed in, rock by rock.

“You’re next,” the Shabab warned the girl, a frail 17-year-old who was living with her brother in a squalid refugee camp.

Several months later, the men came back. Five militants burst into her hut, pinned her down and gang-raped her, she said. They claimed to be on a jihad, or holy war, and any resistance was considered a crime against Islam, punishable by death.

“I’ve had some very bad dreams about these men,” she said, having recently escaped the area they control. “I don’t know what religion they are.”

Somalia has been steadily worn down by decades of conflict and chaos, its cities in ruins and its people starving. Just this year, tens of thousands have died from famine, with countless others cut down in relentless combat. Now Somalis face yet another widespread terror: an alarming increase in rapes and sexual abuse of women and girls.

The Shabab militant group, which presents itself as a morally righteous rebel force and the defender of pure Islam, is seizing women and girls as spoils of war, gang-raping and abusing them as part of its reign of terror in southern Somalia, according to victims, aid workers and United Nations officials. Short of cash and losing ground, the militants are also forcing families to hand over girls for arranged marriages that often last no more than a few weeks and are essentially sexual slavery, a cheap way to bolster their ranks’ flagging morale.

But it is not just the Shabab. In the past few months, aid workers and victims say, there has been a free-for-all of armed men preying upon women and girls displaced by Somalia’s famine, who often trek hundreds of miles searching for food and end up in crowded, lawless refugee camps where Islamist militants, rogue militiamen and even government soldiers rape, rob and kill with impunity.

With the famine putting hundreds of thousands of women on the move — severing them from their traditional protection mechanism, the clan — aid workers say more Somali women are being raped right now than at any time in recent memory. In some areas, they say, women are being used as chits at roadblocks, surrendered to the gunmen staffing the barrier in the road so that a group of desperate refugees can pass.

“The situation is intensifying,” said Radhika Coomaraswamy, the United Nations’ special representative for children and armed conflict. All the recent flight has created a surge in opportunistic rapes, she said, and “for the Shabab, forced marriage is another aspect they are using to control the population.”

In the past two months, from Mogadishu alone, the United Nations says it has received more than 2,500 reports of gender-based violence, an unusually large number here. But because Somalia is a no-go zone for most operations, United Nations officials say they are unable to confirm the reports, leaving the work to fledgling Somali aid organizations under constant threat.

Somalia is a deeply traditional place, where 98 percent of girls are subject to genital cutting, according to United Nations figures. Most girls are illiterate and relegated to their homes. When they venture out, it is usually to work, trudging through the rubble-strewn alleyways wrapped head to toe in thick black cloth, often lugging something on their back, the equatorial sun burning down on them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/w...of-women-and-girls.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=world