This is all caused by the U.S.-backed invasion of Somalia by the butcher of east Africa, Meles Zenawi.
(The Associated Press) UNITED NATIONS: The humanitarian situation in Somalia is deteriorating faster than expected with the number of people in need of emergency aid increasing from 315,000 to 425,000, the U.N. humanitarian office said Friday, quoting two U.S.-funded groups that monitor food security.
The Nairobi-based Food Security Analysis Unit, which focuses on Somalia and is managed by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, a lead organization in predicting food security problems in sub-Saharan Africa, also reported that the number of newly displaced people in Somalia increased from 705,000 to 745,000, the U.N. office said.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, said three key factors contributed to the deterioration: an extremely harsh dry season from January to March with higher temperatures than normal and unusually dry winds, the growing lack of security, and the increasingly high inflation rate.
The most severely affected areas are Galgaduud and Mudug in central Somalia, Hiraan and coastal Shabelle in the south, and pockets in Sool, Nugal and Hawd in the north, OCHA said.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, sinking the poverty-stricken nation of 7 million into chaos. Its weak U.N.-backed transitional government, supported by Ethiopian Woyanne troops, is struggling to quash an Islamic insurgency, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians.
OCHA said the deteriorating security situation all over the country is slowing the delivery of humanitarian aid and affecting the ability of aid agencies to help people in need. It cited clashes between Ethiopian Woyanne-backed government troops and anti-government forces in the past week in many parts of south central Somalia.
In the south central region, it said, the price of locally produced maize and sorghum has increased by 300-400 percent in the last 12 months and the price of imported food including rice and vegetable oil has gone up 150 percent. At the same time the value of the Somali shilling has depreciated by an average of 65 percent.
OCHA reported an outbreak of acute diarrhea in the Dhahar district of Sanaag in northern Somalia caused by contaminated underground water, resulting in 300 cases and 7 deaths since March 10. Diarrhea is now spreading to rural settlements in the district and health authorities are not able to deal with the caseload because of limited staff, it said.
“The situation in Somalia is part of the continuation of unusually dry conditions in the Horn of Africa in general, including Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and parts of Kenya which are further aggravating food insecurity, water and pasture shortages and outbreaks of drought associated diseases,” OCHA said.
Djibouti has declared a state of emergency due to high rates of malnutrition which exceed the critical threshold of 15 percent, it said.
But OCHA said the “full-blown impact of a drought” will only be felt in certain areas of the greater Horn of Africa in July and August, according to food security analysts and weather forecasters.