# UN Declares Official Famine In Somalia



## High_Gravity

UN Declares Official Famine In Somalia 









> WASHINGTON -- The United Nations has officially declared the food crisis in parts of Somalia a "famine" and reiterated its desperate call for more aid from donor countries.
> 
> If we dont act now, famine will spread to all eight regions of southern Somalia within two months, due to poor harvests and infectious disease outbreaks, said Mark Bowden, the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, in a statement. We still do not have all the resources for food, clean water, shelter and health services to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Somalis in desperate need."
> 
> Despite the fact that it is commonly used to refer to widespread hunger situations, famine is actually a carefully used term of art in the humanitarian world, indicating that hunger-related deaths have reached 2 per 10,000 per day and acute malnutrition rates are at 30%.
> 
> The UN said today that in some of the most-affected parts of Somalia the acute malnutrition rate has reached fifty percent, and 5 children per 10,000 die every day from lack of food.
> 
> A famine has not been formally declared since 1984, when conditions in Ethiopia and Somalia caused the deaths of more than a million people.
> 
> In a statement released early this morning, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was "deeply concerned by the humanitarian emergency in the Horn of Africa" and pointed to the more than $400 million in aid delivered to the region by the United States.
> 
> "But it is not enough," she went on. "The need is only expected to increase and more must be done by the United States and the international community."
> 
> There are currently more than 11 million people in need of food aid in the Horn of Africa, where the most severe drought in half a century occurred this spring, nearly wiping out crops that were already depleted.
> 
> Rajiv Shah, the head of the US Agency for International Development, visited a refugee camp in Kenya on Wednesday, where thousands of Somalis arrive every day seeking food. He reported horrible conditions among the refugees, especially children.



UN Declares Official Famine In Somalia


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## Mad Scientist

Who and where are Somalias leaders? They've been in Civil War since 1991 and there are no leaders to speak of? Sending them bags of food won't do anything if they continue to be a failed state.

If the UN *really* cared, they'd invade Somalia rather than Libya.


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## High_Gravity

Mad Scientist said:


> Who and where are Somalias leaders? They've been in Civil War since 1991 and there are no leaders to speak of? Sending them bags of food won't do anything if they continue to be a failed state.
> 
> If the UN *really* cared, they'd invade Somalia rather than Libya.



Somalia is a death trap, the UN did go into Somalia before and it was a disaster, I agree with you that just sending food won't help in the long run but invading them won't do anything either.


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## waltky

The famine in Somalia is part of the larger Horn of Africa drought...

*U.N.: Somalis dying in world's worst famine in 20 years*
_20 July`11 &#8212; Tens of thousands of Somalis are feared dead in the world's worst famine in a generation, the U.N. said Wednesday, and the U.S. said it will allow emergency funds to be spent in areas controlled by al-Qaida-linked militants as long as the fighters do not interfere with aid distributions._


> Exhausted, rail-thin women are stumbling into refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia with dead babies and bleeding feet, having left weaker family members behind along the way.  "Somalia is facing its worst food security crisis in the last 20 years," said Mark Bowden, the U.N.'s top official in charge of humanitarian aid in Somalia. "This desperate situation requires urgent action to save lives &#8230; it's likely that conditions will deteriorate further in six months."
> 
> The crisis is the worst since 1991-92, when hundreds of thousands of Somalis starved to death, Bowden said. That famine prompted intervention by an international peacekeeping force, but it eventually pulled out after two American Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in 1993.  Since then, Western nations have mainly sought to contain the threat of terrorism from Somalia &#8212; an anarchic nation where the weak government battles Islamic militants on land and pirates hijack ships for millions of dollars at sea.
> 
> Oxfam said $1 billion is needed for famine relief. On Wednesday, the U.S. announced an additional $28 million in emergency funding on top of the $431 million in assistance already given this year.  Most importantly, as long as the Islamists don't interfere with aid distributions, those new U.S. funds aren't restricted under rules implemented in 2009 that are designed to keep food and money from being stolen by the insurgency.
> 
> "If (the insurgents) are willing to allow access we are willing to stand fully with the humanitarian actors," said Dr. Raj Shah, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development.  Aid groups have repeatedly called for the restrictions to be lifted and say the rules severely limited their operations in the past two years. U.S. humanitarian contributions in Somalia fell from $237 million in 2008 to $29 million last year.
> 
> MORE



See also:

*UN declares famine in Somalia: How to help*
_July 20, 2011 - The UN officially declared a famine in some parts of southern Somalia today. The UN alone says it needs $300 million in the next two months to provide adequate aid. Here's how you can help._


> The United Nations has officially declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia and warned that without action, famine-level conditions could soon spread to the rest of the south. More than 100,000 Somalians have fled to refugee camps in Kenya to escape the famine, brought on by the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in half a century.
> 
> According to Mark Bowden, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, about half of its population (3.7 million people) is in crisis and about 10 million people in the Horn of Africa region are at risk for famine. Somalia is worst-off because of perpetual government instability and the threat of Islamist militant group Al Shabab, which have made delivery of aid challenging, CNN reports.
> 
> Mr. Bowden appealed for more aid on Wednesday, saying that the UN would need $300 million in the next two months to provide an adequate intervention.
> 
> MORE


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## High_Gravity

Somalia Famine Partly To Blame On War And Corruption








> MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somali soldiers beat back desperate families with gun butts Thursday as they fought for food supplies in front of a weeping diplomat, a day after the U.N. declared parts of the country were suffering from the worst famine in a generation.
> 
> "I will knock on every door I can to help you," the African Union envoy to Somalia, Jerry Rawlings, told the gathered families in the capital of Mogadishu.
> 
> Somalia's 20-year-old civil war is partly to blame for turning the drought in the Horn of Africa into a famine. Analysts warned that aid agencies could be airlifting emergency supplies to the failed state 20 years from now unless the U.N.-backed government improves.
> 
> "Corruption is a major part of the problem in Somalia," said Rashid Abdi, a Somalia analyst at the International Crisis Group. "This drought did not come out of nowhere, but the (Somali) government did not do anything to prepare for it. Instead they spent all their time fighting each other."
> 
> The U.N. has appealed for $300 million to over the next two months and aid agencies warn it will take at least $1 billion to provide emergency food, medicine and shelter for 11 million people in East Africa until the end of the year. Pictures of skeletal children and grief-stricken mothers stare out from Western newspapers in mute appeal.
> 
> The suffering is real. The U.N. believes tens of thousands have already died in the inaccessible interior, held by al-Qaida linked Islamist rebels who denied many aid agencies access for two years. The thorny scrub around the overflowing refugee camps in Kenya is littered with tiny corpses abandoned by mothers to weak to even dig their children a grave.
> 
> But Somalis will continue to suffer unless the international backers who support the Somali government also demand that it does a better job, said Abdirazak Fartaag, who headed the government's finance management unit until he fled the country after writing a report detailing tens of millions of dollars in missing donations from Arab nations.
> 
> "The Somalis are very grateful for what the international community is doing for them, but they need to be a bit more forceful in holding our politicians to account," Fartaag said.
> 
> Currently, the government only holds half of the capital with the help of 9,000 African Union peacekeepers. The salaries of 10,000 Somali soldiers are paid by the U.S. and Italy, and the police are paid by the European Union.
> 
> Story continues below
> Advertisement
> The rest of south-central Somalia is held by insurgents who kidnap children to use as child soldiers and carry out stonings and amputations. Last year, the group claimed responsibility for their first international terror attack, killing 76 people in Uganda.
> 
> Abdi said some Somali politicians continued to be corrupt because they gambled that the international community would not withdraw its support and allow the Islamists to take over the whole of southern Somalia.
> 
> "They know they're the only game in town," he said.
> 
> There may be some small signs of progress. This week, Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed announced a new cabinet  the third in less than a year  and said his government had deposited $500,000 for drought relief in a public account that any donations can be sent to. Some displaced families in the capital said the government had distributed bananas and dried food.



Somalia Famine Partly To Blame On War And Corruption: Analysts


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## Mr. H.

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


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## Kiki Cannoli

off topic, but somewhat close to home.



> government did not do anything to prepare for it. Instead they spent all their time fighting each other



HG - what can be done?


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## Tank

Black people starving in Africa, whats new?


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## hortysir

How many billions is the UN *requiring* everyone to give?


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## Kiki Cannoli

Tank you do have a point.  And that is precisely the problem.

ETA:  the problem isn't that you have a point!    It is that the problem has been pervasive for decades.


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## Tank

We feed them, they breed them.


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## CitizenPained

It's just now official? Somehow I've been under the impression that Somalia has been in a famine for several years.


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## High_Gravity

CitizenPained said:


> It's just now official? Somehow I've been under the impression that Somalia has been in a famine for several years.



Somalia has always had a problem with famine but now its actually worse because they haven't been getting alot of rain and what little crops they did have are gone, add that in with no infrastructure, very little government and a choatic society and this is what you get.


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## High_Gravity

Kiki Cannoli said:


> off topic, but somewhat close to home.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> government did not do anything to prepare for it. Instead they spent all their time fighting each other
> 
> 
> 
> 
> HG - what can be done?
Click to expand...


I really wish I knew Kiki, sending in a Military force won't do much good because the people will reject it like they did in 1993. Just throwing food and money at the Somalis is a short term solution to a long term problem, because we will be right back at this again in 10 years. I would like to see the Somalis build on what little government they have and try to expand it, but of course these things are obviously easier said than done.


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## KissMy

Mr. H. said:


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



If Africa & the Middle East would sell US Oil at a reasonable price then we would sell them food at a reasonable price. If we got cheap oil from them then we would not burn their food.


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## High_Gravity

According to Al Shabab everything is fine folks, nothing to see here.

Somalia Famine Tag Is Propaganda: al-Shabab Militant Group








> MOGADISHU, Somalia -- A spokesman for Somalia's most dangerous militant group says it won't allow banned aid workers into the areas it controls.
> 
> Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage is calling the U.N.'s declaration of famine in parts of Somalia politically motivated and pure propaganda.
> 
> Tens of thousands of hungry Somalis have fled on foot to neighboring Kenya.
> 
> A prolonged drought turned into famine in part because neither the Somali government or aid agencies can fully operate in areas of southern Somalia controlled by the group al-Shabab.
> 
> The U.S. agreed to allow emergency aid to be spent in areas controlled by al-Shabab so long as the militants didn't disrupt distribution efforts. But the al-Shabab spokesman said late Thursday aid workers were still banned.



Somalia Famine Tag Is Propaganda: al-Shabab Militant Group


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## High_Gravity

Somalia: Famine, Al-Shabaab Complicate U.S. Food Delivery In Face of Severe Malnutrition 








> WASHINGTON  International organizations working to mitigate the devastating famine conditions in Somalia are actively looking for alternative solutions to work around rigid American restrictions on delivering funds to terrorist organizations, several officials said Thursday.
> 
> The portions of Somalia that are most desperately in need of assistance are mainly areas controlled by al-Shabaab, an Islamist militant group that has been formally designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. Delivering aid to these regions had been virtually impossible until last week, when al-Shabaab put out a call for international assistance.
> 
> In a feisty press conference late on Wednesday, Mark Bowden, the head of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Somalia, told reporters that the time had come for Western nations to set aside their concerns about the political risks of working with al-Shabaab, and focus on getting aid to the nearly four million people estimated to be in danger of severe malnutrition in the country.
> 
> "The risks involved with working with al-Shabaab have been a matter of considerable discussion here," Bowden said. "No operation in Africa, and particularly Somalia, is risk free, but what we're saying is that donors have to share some of the risk that organizations already working there are dealing with."
> 
> Bowden added that since the U.S. imposed new restrictions on the delivery of aid to al-Shabaab-controlled areas of Somalia two years ago, it has dropped from the country's number one donor to "number seven or eight."
> 
> "In previous years they were a very important donor and I hope they can find methods to get assistance to Somalia, either across the border or by other means," Bowden said. "It is important that all donors are increasing their levels of support, but more important that they make their support more available."
> 
> Asked about this at a later press conference on Wednesday, Susan Rice, the American ambassador to the U.N., said the blame fell with al-Shabaab, which, until its recent about-face, had made humanitarian work in the country dangerous -- if not impossible.
> 
> "The challenge has been access for the humanitarian agencies, particularly in the south and the central region, and it's been blocked deliberately as a matter of policy by al-Shabaab," Rice said. "And al-Shabaab is principally responsible for exacerbating the consequences of the drought situation by preventing its own people from being able to access critically needed assistance."
> 
> Donald Steinberg, the deputy administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development, said in a press conference on Wednesday that the U.S. was intent on finding ways to deliver aid to southern Somalia that wouldn't break existing American law.
> 
> But Steinberg added that this would only be possible if the U.N. and other NGOs could "tell us affirmatively" that aid workers could operate safely, and that no funds would be siphoned off or taxed by al-Shabaab.
> 
> The U.N., and OCHA in particular, have long made little secret of their frustrations with the American approach to foreign humanitarian aid and the country's self-imposed restrictions on working with groups that have been designated as terrorists.
> 
> "He's been frustrated for a long time," Stephanie Bunker, a spokeswoman for OCHA in New York, said of Bowden on Thursday. "He is the humanitarian coordinator for this country [Somalia], he's trying to coordinate the aid and he hasn't had enough aid to coordinate. He's been banging the drum about this for a long time. And we feel that the world has not been listening hard enough."
> 
> Several people experienced in the delivery of humanitarian aid in strife-ridden third-world countries told The Huffington Post that the conditions levied by USAID may prove difficult to overcome, particularly the prohibition on paying any bribes or taxes.
> 
> Under-the-table exchanges are just part of the cost of doing business, and are often worth it when lives are at imminent risk, they said.



Somalia: Famine, Al-Shabaab Complicate U.S. Food Delivery In Face of Severe Malnutrition


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## editec

Damned if we do and damned uf we do, I think, in the case of Somalia.


Apparently its not safe for humanitarian workers to go in to distribute food, and if they aren't in charge of distribution, the food doesn't go to the people, it goes onto the market and the local warlords pocket the profits.

Perhaps this is a problem that we can solve by insisting that the Somalis cut capital gains taxes and deregulate the stranglehold that the warlords have on businesses?

I don't really know, but that seems to be _the solution_ for every social ill  according to some WONKS I hear on the media.


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## High_Gravity

editec said:


> Damned if we do and damned uf we do, I think, in the case of Somalia.
> 
> 
> Apparently its not safe for humanitarian workers to go in to distribute food, and if they aren't in charge of distribution, the food doesn't go to the people, it goes onto the market and the local warlords pocket the profits.
> 
> Perhaps this is a problem that we can solve by insisting that the Somalis cut capital gains taxes and deregulate the stranglehold that the warlords have on businesses?
> 
> I don't really know, but that seems to be _the solution_ for every social ill  according to some WONKS I hear on the media.



Maybe we should just let the African union take care of this and stay out? I don't want any of our moneys or food going to those Al Shabab cock suckers.


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## Kiki Cannoli

And the people suffer at the hands of "leaders"...


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## WillowTree

Can You say "Black Hawk Down"?


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## WillowTree

Kiki Cannoli said:


> And the people suffer at the hands of "leaders"...



But they always blame the USA. Even when bags of corn and rice are imprinted with USA,, they still blame the USA.


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## Kiki Cannoli

WillowTree said:


> Kiki Cannoli said:
> 
> 
> 
> And the people suffer at the hands of "leaders"...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> But they always blame the USA. Even when bags of corn and rice are imprinted with USA,, they still blame the USA.
Click to expand...


Sad but true.


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## Kiki Cannoli

But then again if all the 'first world' nations came together and actually used powers for good, these issues could be eradicated.  Unfortunately there is no profit in good deeds.


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## Tank

But then again if all the 'third world' nations came together and actually used powers for good, these issues could be eradicated. Unfortunately there is no profit in good deeds.


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## Kiki Cannoli

Thus we have identified the core difference between first and third worlds; expectations and abilities vs. corruption and ignorance. Hmmm, maybe there is no difference after all.


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## Anachronism

Sorry folks, any sympathy I might have had for these people died with 19 US soldiers two decades ago.


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## Tank

The only difference between Somalia blacks and American blacks, the American blacks are closer to the food.

AKA white people


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## waltky

Drought disaster in East Africa...

*The forgotten victims of the East Africa famine*
_July 22, 2011 - As aid organizations and governments ship food and supplies to the relief camps to deal with the worst famine in decades, uncounted refugees are still seeking help far from the camps._


> Fini, a village so small it doesnt appear on any maps, is growing every day. In tired groups, carrying their few belongings, people trek in from the wilderness, their livestock nearly all dead, their ability to cope exhausted.  They are coming to this cluster of three dozen stick shacks by a rarely used sandy track because they have heard someone is bringing water. Out on the empty plain, parched to dust by a drought stretching back three years, there is no water. There is no pasture for their animals.
> 
> Even for a hardy people who have adapted for generations to survive in this arid emptiness, this drought is daunting. Like 11.5 million others across Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia, they may starve to death unless outside help reaches them.  On July 20, the United Nations, which had warned of this looming crisis in January, said that parts of Somalia were now in a state of famine. Famine was last declared in 1984, when almost a million Ethiopians died, and again in 1991-92, in part of Somalia.
> 
> International aid agencies, governments, and the UN are appealing for a total of $1.6 billion to deliver supplies to help the worst affected in this latest drought to sweep the Horn of Africa.  Already, one Boeing 747 has landed in Kenya full of food, medicine, and tents. More aid is expected. In Somalia, UNICEF has sent supplies by plane to an airstrip thats been off-limits for more than a year, under a deal with Islamist rebels there.
> 
> Ships carrying tens of thousands of tons of corn from warehouses in Kuwait have docked in Djibouti, to the north, and Mombasa, to the south. More food is on its way. Theres no doubt that lives have been lost, but there are many, many more that will be saved if the world responds as it must, says Mark Bowden, the UNs humanitarian coordinator for Somalia.  The US State Department has announced partial easing of laws that prohibit it from funding appeals if there is any risk that supplies could benefit terrorists.  There is a growing sense that the world response is gearing up.
> 
> *Real crisis lies outside camps*



See also:

*East Africa's famine, by the numbers*
_July 22, 2011 - From the number of refugees fleeing Somalia to the amount of money needed in the next two months, the numbers paint a dire picture._


> The United Nations declared a famine in parts of Somalia on July 20, a move it rarely makes and only in the most severe circumstances. The following numbers help convey the severity of the situation:
> 
> 11.5 million  People needing urgent help across the Horn of Africa
> 
> 78,000  Somali refugees who have fled to Kenya or Ethiopia since May
> 
> 6 per 10,000  Children dying daily in Somalias famine-hit regions
> 
> 30  Percentage of population so malnourished they need special feeding
> 
> 20  Percentage of fresh billion-dollar aid appeal funded so far
> 
> $300 million  Funds needed just for Somalia in the next two months alone
> 
> 60  Years since it was this dry in some areas
> 
> 9  Months since early-warning systems predicted potential disaster
> 
> 4  Months until rain is expected
> 
> Source


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## CitizenPained

Why can't we pay South Africa to send Somalia food? It's aid money that benefits South Africa and Somalia.


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## High_Gravity

CitizenPained said:


> Why can't we pay South Africa to send Somalia food? It's aid money that benefits South Africa and Somalia.



The South Africans don't give a shit about Somalia.


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## High_Gravity

Somalia Famine Intervention Gets Desperate As UN Races To Feed Refugees 









> DOLO, Somalia -- The U.N. will airlift emergency rations this week to parts of drought-ravaged Somalia that militants banned it from more than two years ago  a crisis intervention to keep hungry refugees from dying along what an official calls the "roads of death."
> 
> The foray into the famine zone is a desperate attempt to reach at least 175,000 of the 2.2 million Somalis whom aid workers have not yet been able to help.
> 
> Tens of thousands already have trekked to neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, hoping to get aid in refugee camps.
> 
> Some  like Isaac Bulle and his family  have nearly nothing left.
> 
> "I hope we can cross to Ethiopia, but if we can get help here, we will stay here," said Bulle, who traveled with his two wives and 14 children for 25 days by donkey cart to reach this border town. "Our aim is just to get food. Not to leave the country."
> 
> Restarting the aid effort is a huge challenge for the World Food Program, whose workers were previously banned from the region by the al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab. Fourteen WFP employees have been killed in Somalia since 2008. New land mines have severed a key road to Dolo. A landing strip has fallen into disrepair. Old employees must be found and rehired.
> 
> The new feeding efforts in the four districts of southern Somalia near the border with Kenya and Ethiopia could begin by Thursday, slowing the flow of tens of thousands of people who have fled their homes in hope of reaching aid.
> 
> The Bulle family is parked under the thorny branches of an acacia tree one river crossing from refugee camps in the Ethiopian town of Dollo Ado. They sleep on two tiny straw mats, although the youngest are bedding down on the rocky sand.
> 
> Bulle once had 50 cattle, some goats and grew sorghum. But the rains stopped two years ago, and food supplies stored in a cellar lasted the family a year. Then the animals began to die, forcing him to pack up.
> 
> When asked how much money he had, Bulle pulls out a thick wad of Somali shillings  bills that add up to the equivalent of only 80 cents. His only sign of wealth is a wristwatch.
> 
> His whole family survived the journey with no one getting hurt, killed or left behind.
> 
> U.N. worker Abdi Nur said that although Bulle was "clever" to pack just enough food to make it, he pointed to the farmer's young children gathered under the acacia tree.
> 
> "The kids are getting thinner. You can see," Nur said. "They are getting malnourished."
> 
> Nearby, hundreds of women with small children lined up over the weekend to register for the food distribution.
> 
> At a separate, less-organized site in the center of Dolo, a scrum of crying children and women in bright scarves pushed, pulled and shoved to register for this week's food distribution.
> 
> Dolo is the kind of sleepy African town where little children don't wear pants. Craggy sticks form fences between mud huts. Although a wide, muddy river flows here, the rocky and sandy soil supports little vegetation.
> 
> The U.N. says two regions of Somalia are suffering from famine and that 11 million people are in need of aid. But as of Aug. 1, the U.N. is set to declare all of southern Somalia  including Dolo  a famine zone.
> 
> In Rome, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said a coordination conference would be held Wednesday in Kenya.
> 
> The U.N. is pressing its efforts to gather $1.6 billion in aid in the next 12 months, with $300 million of that coming in the next three months.
> 
> Ertharin Cousin, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.'s Rome-based food agencies, told reporters she didn't immediately know if the U.S. would boost its contribution on top of what it has already given.
> 
> Last week, the U.S. pledged an additional $28 million in aid for the drought crisis on top of more than $431 million in emergency assistance to the Horn of Africa this year.



Somalia Famine Intervention Gets Desperate As UN Races To Feed Refugees


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## KissMy

Even the Somalia animals are starving.


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## LAfrique

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

Somali Rebels Maintain Famine Is Exaggerated - Somali rebels maintain aid ban, reject famine - Yahoo! News


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## Zander

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN7ehccspao]&#x202a;Sam Kinnison on World Hunger&#x202c;&rlm; - YouTube[/ame]


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## High_Gravity

Somalia Famine Aid Defended From Al Qaeda By African Union Offensive








> MOGADISHU, Somalia -- African Union forces have launched an offensive in Somalia's capital so aid agencies can get emergency food supplies to thousands of starving people without coming under attack from al-Qaida-linked militants, an official said Thursday.
> 
> The al-Shabab fighters already have killed men who tried to escape the famine with their families, saying it is better to starve than accept help from the West.
> 
> Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda said Thursday that AU peacekeeping forces have conducted a "short tactical offensive operation" in Mogadishu.
> 
> "This action will further increase security ... and ensure that aid agencies can continue to operate to get vital supplies to internally displaced," he said.
> 
> The devastating famine in the Horn of Africa threatens al-Shabab's hold on areas under its control, with the militants fearing that the disaster will drive away the people they tax and conscript into military service.
> 
> In the past, the militants have blocked aid workers from helping those in need in Somalia, fearing that foreign assistance would undermine their control.
> 
> A World Food Program plane with 10 tons of peanut-butter paste landed Wednesday in Mogadishu, the first of several planned airlifts in coming weeks.
> 
> That will help, but Lt. Col. Kuamurari Katwekyeire, the civil-military coordination chief for the African Union Mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM, said the U.N. and other aid groups need to do more.



Somalia Famine Aid Defended From Al Qaeda By African Union Offensive


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## Tank

Feeding these ******* is getting old


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## High_Gravity

Tank said:


> Feeding these ******* is getting old


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## Trajan

High_Gravity said:


> CitizenPained said:
> 
> 
> 
> It's just now official? Somehow I've been under the impression that Somalia has been in a famine for several years.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Somalia has always had a problem with famine but now its actually worse because they haven't been getting alot of rain and what little crops they did have are gone, add that in with no infrastructure, very little government and a choatic society and this is what you get.
Click to expand...


I hear Pirating is a growth industry 

you get this cool hat and learn to 'swash' buckle...


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## High_Gravity

Trajan said:


> High_Gravity said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> CitizenPained said:
> 
> 
> 
> It's just now official? Somehow I've been under the impression that Somalia has been in a famine for several years.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Somalia has always had a problem with famine but now its actually worse because they haven't been getting alot of rain and what little crops they did have are gone, add that in with no infrastructure, very little government and a choatic society and this is what you get.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> I hear Pirating is a growth industry
> 
> you get this cool hat and learn to 'swash' buckle...
Click to expand...


Alot of the top guys in charge of the pirating don't even live in Somalia anymore, they stay in Kenya.


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## High_Gravity

Famine In Africa: U.S. Eases Terrorism Rules To Speed Aid To Somalia 









> WASHINGTON  The Obama administration sought to assure aid groups Tuesday that they can deliver desperately needed food to famine-stricken parts of Somalia without fear of prosecution, even if some assistance is diverted to al-Qaida linked extremists blamed for helping deliver hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of starvation.
> 
> Administration officials said the U.S. has issued new guidelines on laws prohibiting material assistance to al-Shabab, which have been criticized by humanitarian organizations as a contributing factor the crisis. Charities must only pledge their best efforts to combat attempts by al-Shabab to hoard aid or collect taxes on supplies, they said.
> 
> The officials briefed reporters on condition of anonymity because details of the changes haven't been finalized.
> 
> Drought has left some 12 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia needing help, though official famine zones are only in Somali areas controlled by al-Shabab. That has challenged aid groups because of al-Shabab's hostility to them and the perceived threat of American prosecution in cases of inadvertent support for a U.S.-designated terrorist body.
> 
> No U.S. law specifically prevents aid to southern and central Somalia, where the U.N. food agency says it cannot reach 2.2 million Somalis in areas under al-Shabab's control and fears that tens of thousands may have already perished. But bribes, tolls and other typical of costs of doing business in the largely lawless and chaotic country could have been punishable, even if extracted under coercion, after the State Department officially declared al-Shabab a terrorist organization in 2008.
> 
> The officials said the focus now should be on getting food to those in need as fast as possible. While some al-Shabab officials have suggested that relief groups are welcome to return, one official said it was unlikely that any "grand bargain" could be struck that would open up all of Somalia for operations with U.S. government-funded aid. Targeted, piecemeal interventions are more likely, directed toward areas where the level of security and acquiescence of local authorities is deemed acceptable.
> 
> The shift could allow more U.S. aid to be directed toward the World Food Program's operations in Somalia. The U.N. said Tuesday that unless it sees a massive increase in donations, the famine will spread inside Somalia. It called for another $1.4 billion in support.
> 
> Somalia has been mired in conflict since 1991 when dictator Siad Barre was overthrown by warlords who then turned on each other. Islamist militants led by al-Shabab are trying to overthrow the weak U.N.-backed government that is being propped up by about 9,000 African Union peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi.



Famine In Africa: U.S. Eases Terrorism Rules To Speed Aid To Somalia


----------



## High_Gravity

Somalia Drought Spreads As Fighters Warn Of Militant Cruelty








> MOGADISHU, Somalia  The former al-Shabab foot soldiers assigned to a drab cement housing bloc are young  too young. One is only 9, yet they were enforcers of harsh edicts from Islamist militants who are preventing thousands of Somalis from escaping famine.
> 
> The Associated Press obtained rare access to the former fighters at a government rehabilitation facility in Mogadishu last week, providing a unique view into the workings of the al-Qaida-linked group whose presence in much of Somalia is stymieing international efforts to provide emergency aid. Millions risk starvation amid Somalia's worst drought in 60 years.
> 
> The U.N. declared three new regions in Somalia famine zones on Wednesday and said the crisis is likely to spread across all of southern Somalia in coming weeks. Getting aid to the country has been difficult because al-Shabab controls much of the country's most desperate areas.
> 
> The hardline militant group routinely recruits young teenagers, kidnapping them from schools and forcibly removing them from homes. Last week three teenage fighters surrendered to the African Union military force during a military offensive.
> 
> The most recent arrival at the rehab center, 17-year-old Abshir Mohammed Abdi, said "there was no life, no prospects" inside al-Shabab, which he belonged to for 1 1/2 years before escaping to the camp last week. Abdi is from the country's south  Kismayo  where Somalia's famine is hitting hardest.
> 
> Abdi said many there are suffering, with al-Shabab fighters trying to stop the flow of refugees toward food, an outflow that threatens to diminish the population from which al-Shabab draws its conscripts and collects its taxes. Al-Shabab has denied a famine is taking place.
> 
> "Even with women and children suffering from drought, al-Shabab would stop them, stop them, stop them until they couldn't stop them anymore," Abdi said, suggesting that the wave of famine refugees was too much for the militants to stanch.
> 
> Somalis who have fled the famine zones and reached Mogadishu told AP that militants are threatening refugees who leave the south and often stopping  and sometimes killing  the men, leading to a disproportionate number of women and children in displaced-persons camps in the capital. One of the young former fighters, who spoke to AP through an interpreter while standing under a shade tree at the rehabilitation facility, said al-Shabab also uses threats to keep Somali men within the famine zones.
> 
> "What they would tell the men is that your women and children would be killed if you leave," said Ali Hassan, who like many of the former teen fighters wore a colorful track suit that looked like it was made by Nike but instead said "Nile Sports."



Somalia Drought Spreads As Fighters Warn Of Militant Cruelty


----------



## High_Gravity

29,000 Somali Children Under 5 Dead In Famine: U.S. Official 








> NAIROBI, Kenya -- A U.S. official says the famine in Somalia has killed more than 29,000 children under the age of 5.
> 
> The United Nations has said that tens of thousands of people have died in the Horn of Africa's drought and famine, but the U.S. estimate is the first precise death toll offered in the crisis.
> 
> Nancy Lindborg, an official with the U.S. government aid arm, told a congressional committee in Washington on Wednesday that the U.S. estimates that more than 29,000 children under age 5 have died in the last 90 days in southern Somalia.
> 
> The U.N. on Wednesday declared three new regions in Somalia famine zones. Out of a population of roughly 7.5 million, the U.N. says 3.2 million Somalis are in need of immediate lifesaving assistance.



29,000 Somali Children Under 5 Dead In Famine: U.S. Official


----------



## High_Gravity

Somalis Waste Away as Insurgents Block Escape From Famine








> MOGADISHU, Somalia  The Shabab Islamist insurgent group, which controls much of southern Somalia, is blocking starving people from fleeing the country and setting up a cantonment camp where it is imprisoning displaced people who were trying to escape Shabab territory.
> 
> The group is widely blamed for causing a famine in Somalia by forcing out many Western aid organizations, depriving drought victims of desperately needed food. The situation is growing bleaker by the day, with tens of thousands of Somalis already dead and more than 500,000 children on the brink of starvation.
> 
> Every morning, emaciated parents with emaciated children stagger into Banadir Hospital, a shell of a building with floors that stink of diesel fuel because that is all the nurses have to fight off the flies. Babies are dying because of the lack of equipment and medicine. Some get hooked up to adult-size intravenous drips  pediatric versions are hard to find  and their compromised bodies cannot handle the volume of fluid.
> 
> Most parents do not have money for medicine, so entire families sit on old-fashioned cholera beds, with basketball-size holes cut out of the middle, taking turns going to the bathroom as diarrhea streams out of them.
> 
> This is worse than 1992, said Dr. Lul Mohamed, Banadirs head of pediatrics, referring to Somalias last famine. Back then, at least we had some help.
> 
> Aid groups are trying to scale up their operations, and the United Nations has begun airlifting emergency food. But many seasoned aid officials are speaking in grim tones because one of Africas worst humanitarian disasters in decades has struck one of the most inaccessible countries on earth. Somalia, especially the southern third where the famine is, has been considered a no-go zone for years, a lawless caldron that has claimed the lives of dozens of aid workers, peacekeepers and American soldiers, going back to the Black Hawk Down battle in 1993, spelling a legacy that has scared off many international organizations.
> 
> If this were Haiti, we would have dozens of people on the ground by now, said Eric James, an official with the American Refugee Committee, a private aid organization.
> 
> But Somalia is considered more dangerous and anarchic than Haiti, Iraq or even Afghanistan, and the American Refugee Committee, like other aid groups, is struggling to get trained personnel here.
> 
> It is safe to say that many people are going to die as a result of little or no access, Mr. James said.
> 
> This leaves millions of famished Somalis with two choices, aside from fleeing the country to neighboring Kenya or Ethiopia, where there is more assistance. They can beg for help from a weak and divided transitional government in Mogadishu, the capital. Just the other day there was a shootout between government forces at the gates of the presidential palace. Things happen, was the response of Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, Somalias new prime minister.
> 
> Or they can remain in territory controlled by the Shabab, who have pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda and have tried to rid their areas of anything Western  Western music, Western dress, even Western aid groups during a time of famine.
> 
> Much of the Horn of Africa, which includes Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, has been struck this summer by one of the worst droughts in 60 years. But two Shabab-controlled parts of southern Somalia are the only areas where the United Nations has declared a famine, using scientific criteria of death and malnutrition rates.
> 
> People from those areas who were interviewed in Mogadishu say Shabab fighters are blocking rivers to steal water from impoverished villagers and divert it to commercial farmers who pay them taxes. The Shabab are intercepting displaced people who are trying to reach Mogadishu and forcing them to stay in a Shabab-run camp about 25 miles outside the city. The camp now holds several thousand people and receives only a trickle of food.
> 
> I was taken off a bus and put here, said a woman at the camp who asked not to be identified.
> 
> Several drought victims who have succeeded in making it to Mogadishu said that the Shabab were threatening to kill anyone who left their areas, either for refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, or for government zones in Somalia, and that the only way out was to sneak away at night and avoid the main roads.



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/world/africa/02somalia.html?ref=africa


----------



## Tank

As with blacks in America, can't we just give them food stamps?


----------



## High_Gravity

Tank said:


> As with blacks in America, can't we just give them food stamps?



Food stamps is only a Western thing, in most other countries if you don't have money, you don't eat.


----------



## Tank

Shit, the black folks in Africa are dying from starvation, and the black folks in America are dying from obesity.

Ain't that a bitch?


----------



## High_Gravity

Tank said:


> Shit, the black folks in Africa are dying from starvation, and the black folks in America are dying from obesity.
> 
> Ain't that a bitch?



Well the food that Black Americans eat usually has high calories, the soul food dishes like fried chicken, corn bread, pork chops with gravy, greens, biscuits etc can get you fat if you don't regulate your diet and/or work out, people in Africa don't eat the same food as Blacks here in the US and don't have access to as much even if they wanted to. I met a kid from Eritrea in high school and he said he would make due with some bread and cheese with a cup of tea for dinner usually, unless his family would get lucky and get some meat, chicken or fish for them to eat. People here really don't know how lucky they are.


----------



## Tank

You mean blacks in America don't know how lucky they are.

Us white folks know luck has nothing to do with it.


----------



## High_Gravity

Tank said:


> You mean blacks in America don't know how lucky they are.
> 
> Us white folks know luck has nothing to do with it.



Well I think it goes both ways, whites in the US are definently better off than whites in places like Slovakia, Romania, Albania or Tazikistan.


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## Tank

Ya but, no one is doing as poorly as blacks in black countries


----------



## percysunshine

Why is the U.N. always about 30 years behind the curve on what happens on the planet earth?


----------



## High_Gravity

percysunshine said:


> Why is the U.N. always about 30 years behind the curve on what happens on the planet earth?



The UN is a useless paper tiger, it lets thugs like Al Shabab dictate all the terms on the ground.


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## Tank

I don't know what good it does to feed them, they will just breed more and then there will be even more to feed


----------



## St.Blues

Kiki Cannoli said:


> And the people suffer at the hands of "leaders"...



look at Haiti............................ I'm sure corrupt politicians here in the US got a cut along with the Hollywood fucks.


----------



## St.Blues

High_Gravity said:


> Tank said:
> 
> 
> 
> You mean blacks in America don't know how lucky they are.
> 
> Us white folks know luck has nothing to do with it.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Well I think it goes both ways, whites in the US are definently better off than whites in places like Slovakia, Romania, Albania or Tazikistan.
Click to expand...


No disrespect, The reasons are obvious.


----------



## High_Gravity

Tank said:


> I don't know what good it does to feed them, they will just breed more and then there will be even more to feed



I hate to say it but you are correct, if we just hand out food and spend billions we will be back in 20 years doing the same thing. We have been through this drill before with Somalia in the early 90s, obviously just giving money and food is a short term solution to a long term problem.


----------



## High_Gravity

Somalia: Famine Helps Al-Shabaab To Find New Recruits 








> GENEVA  Islamic militants in Somalia who deny there's famine and block most aid are enjoying a boon in recruitment by giving people money at a time of rising food prices, United Nations officials said Friday.
> 
> The hardline militant group al-Shabab, whose control of much of southern Somalia and ties to al-Qaida discourages Western aid, is boosting its ranks as other options dwindle for Somali families who cannot find handouts or afford to pay for food, the U.N. refugee agency said.
> 
> The U.N. says tens of thousands of people have died from malnutrition in Somalia in recent months. But for al-Shabab, whose ban on outside aid groups except the International Committee of the Red Cross has contributed to the famine, the unfolding tragedy brings some advantages.
> 
> Bruno Geddo, the U.N. refugee agency's representative in Somalia, said a scarcity of food is triggering an uptick in recruitment by al-Shabab, which also is blocking groups of people from moving past its roadblocks, only allowing individuals to move past.
> 
> The militant group recruits young teenagers, kidnapping them from schools or forcibly removing them from their homes, while trying to stop the flow of refugees toward food, since the militant group draws its conscripts and taxes from the population.
> 
> "Because of the increase in food prices, this has been a boon for al-Shabab's recruitment campaign because when you don't have purchasing power to buy the food, you will be encouraged to be recruited because then you will be saved, and you can use that salary or you could be given food," Geddo said by telephone to reporters in Geneva. "It looks like quite a reality."
> 
> But the flow of famine refugees out of Somalia continues to increase. Ethiopia opened a fourth camp Friday to receive up to 15,000 arrivals from Somalia now living in an overcrowded transit center in the Dollo Ado area of eastern Ethiopia, said Andrej Mahecic, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
> 
> Mahecic said some 1,500 Somalis arrived in Kenya daily during the first four days of August, up from 1,300 a day in July, and health workers have reported an outbreak of measles in the Dollo Ado camps that has claimed about a dozen lives so far.
> 
> The U.S. estimates the drought and famine in Somalia have killed more than 29,000 children under the age of 5 in the last 90 days in southern Somalia alone. Millions face the risk of starvation amid Somalia's worst drought in 60 years.
> 
> The U.N. says 640,000 Somali children are acutely malnourished, suggesting the death toll of small children will rise, and the crisis is likely to spread across all of southern Somalia in coming weeks.



Somalia: Famine Helps Al-Shabaab To Find New Recruits


----------



## High_Gravity

Somalia Famine: U.S. Set To Announce $100 Million In Aid 








> DADAAB, Kenya  Hundreds of thousands of Somali children could die in East Africa's famine unless more help arrives, a top U.S. official warned Monday in the starkest death toll prediction yet. To highlight the crisis, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden visited a refugee camp filed with hungry Somalis.
> 
> Jill Biden is the highest-profile U.S. visitor to East Africa since the number of refugees coming across the Somali border dramatically increased in July. Biden, who traveled to the camp in a C-130 military transport plane, said she wants to raise awareness and persuade donors to give more.
> 
> "One of the reasons to be here is just to ask Americans and people worldwide, the global community, the human family, if they could just reach a little deeper into their pockets and give money to help these poor people, these poor mothers and children," said Biden, who met with two Somali mothers and their eight children.
> 
> As a long convoy of SUVs drove through the sand to bring her to the camp, small wildebeests scurried off to the side and women tended a herd of goats. Biden was then taken on a tour of the refugee camp by personnel.
> 
> "There is hope if people start to pay attention to this," said Biden, who also met with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
> 
> A drought has turned into famine because little aid can reach militant-controlled south-central Somalia, forcing tens of thousands of Somalis who have exhausted all the region's food to walk to camps in Kenya, Ethiopia and the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
> 
> Washington is preparing to announce roughly $100 million in new famine aid, two U.S. officials who could not be identified before the official announcement said.
> 
> USAID administrator Raj Shah, who accompanied Biden, said hundreds of thousands of children could die from the famine. Shah said the world has a unique opportunity to save tens of thousands of children's lives by expanding humanitarian activities inside Somalia, though he noted that it would be a challenge for aid providers to get into al-Shabab-controlled south-central Somalia.
> 
> Given the camp's proximity to the uncontrolled and sometimes dangerous Somali border, a well-armed security team, some carrying sniper rifles, had secured the camp where she visited.
> 
> More than 29,000 children under the age of 5 have died in the last 90 days in southern Somalia alone, according to U.S. estimates. The U.N. says 640,000 Somali children are acutely malnourished, suggesting the death toll of small children will rise.
> 
> The famine, Shah said, is the result of the a drought being superimposed on an environment where the government could not protect its own people.
> 
> More than 12 million people in the Horn of Africa are in need of immediate food aid, including nearly half of Somalia's population.
> 
> Aid is only reaching about 20 percent of the 2.6 million Somalis who need it, Mark Bowden, the U.N.'s top humanitarian official for Somalia, said on a visit to Mogadishu on Monday. The situation is better in the Somali capital, where about half the city's 600,000 inhabitants are receiving aid, he said. Still, camps in Mogadishu for displaced people are among the five declared famine zones in Somalia.
> 
> Transport and security are the two main problems, he said, and it is unclear what the effect will be of the withdrawal of Islamist insurgents from their bases in the capital on Saturday. The city is awash in gunmen and there have been several shootouts at aid distributions recently. At least 10 people have been killed.
> 
> "An absence of conflict does not mean that there is security here," he said. "There's always been factions and militias."
> 
> A senior U.S. official traveling with Biden said the U.S. believes it is too early to tell what al-Shabab's intentions are, but that the reported withdrawal could be a sign that more aid could soon reach those in need.
> 
> Former Senate majority leader Bill Frist, who also joined Biden on her trip, said that even though Americans are focused on domestic financial troubles, Americans still will dedicate money to worthwhile international programs like health issues. Frist, a medical doctor, noted that measles outbreaks are being seen in Somali camps, but that such outbreaks can be controlled through modern medicine.
> 
> In other developments, the U.N. refugee agency on Monday flew 31 metric tons of shelter materials into Mogadishu, the first UNHCR aid flight into Somalia's capital in five years. A spokesman, Andrej Mahecic, said more flights will follow in coming days because aid deliveries by land and sea were too slow to cope with the dramatic influx of famine refugees to Mogadishu.



Somalia Famine: U.S. Set To Announce $100 Million In Aid


----------



## High_Gravity

Somalia Famine Refugees Prone To Attacks And Rape 








> DADAAB, Kenya  Marauding gangs and criminals are attacking Somali famine refugees more frequently as they flee across the border to Kenyan camps, but Kenyan police say they don't have enough manpower to stop them.
> 
> The lack of manpower underscores a larger problem for Kenya: Officials here say they are being overwhelmed by the influx of tens of thousands of Somali refugees, and can't stem the attacks. One 30-year-old woman who watched two of her five children die as they trekked through Somalia was raped after reaching what she hoped would be the safety of Kenyan soil.
> 
> "I constantly ask myself, 'Would this have happened to you, or would you have lost your children if you had been in your country?'" said the woman. "My mind always says: 'You ran away from a problem and ran into another.'"
> 
> Kenya now hosts nearly 500,000 Somali refugees, and while U.S. and U.N. officials are quick to praise Kenya for their response to the famine crisis, Kenyan officials are just as quick to tell the U.S., U.N. and world leaders that they can't take many more.
> 
> President Mwai Kibaki told the U.S. vice president's wife, Jill Biden, during her visit to Kenya on Monday that the Somali refugee population was placing Kenya under extreme pressure and burdening its resources. Echoing local Kenyan officials who live close to the border, Kibaki advocated that refugee camps be set up inside Somalia near the Kenyan border, so Kenya does not have to accept the thousands more Somalis who arrive each week.
> 
> The Dadaab refugee camp  the largest in the world  was built for 90,000 people. The current population is over 400,000 with thousands of new arrivals crammed into areas outside the refugee camp, waiting to be formally admitted.
> 
> The police commander at Dadaab, Nelson Shilunji Taliti, said it is hard for authorities to adequately patrol the long and porous border with Somalia, leading to a rise in rape and other types of attacks. He said police cannot specifically say who is behind the attacks but criminals  both Somalis and Kenyans  operate along the border.
> 
> "Most of the victims are the ones who evade border points and pass through areas they believe are unmanned," Taliti said, advising refugees to use official points.
> 
> A pregnant mother of three who spoke to AP in Dadaab said she was gang-raped by five men after a group of families traveling together was ambushed. The Associated Press does not identify rape victims.
> 
> "The gunmen issued strange orders. They asked each women to be raped by her brother. 'Do it immediately,' they ordered," said the woman, whom the AP is not identifying. "Some men are more audacious than others. When they were ordered to rape their sisters, they raped them to save their lives. ... Death is better than doing that."
> 
> The attackers ordered her brother-in-law to rape her but he refused, saying: "You are men and I'm a man, and life and death is in the hands of God. Either kill me or spare me."
> 
> They killed her brother-in-law and left his body unburied.



Somalia Famine Refugees Prone To Attacks And Rape


----------



## High_Gravity

A tortured choice in famine: Which child lives?









> DADAAB, Kenya (AP)  Wardo Mohamud Yusuf walked for two weeks with her 1-year-old daughter on her back and her 4-year-old son at her side to flee Somalia's drought and famine. When the boy collapsed near the end of the journey, she poured some of the little water she had on his head to cool him, but he was unconscious and could not drink.
> 
> She asked other families traveling with them for help, but none stopped, fearful for their own survival.
> 
> Then the 29-year-old mother had to make a choice that no parent should have to make.
> 
> "Finally, I decided to leave him behind to his God on the road," Yusuf said days later in an interview at a teeming refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. "I am sure that he was alive, and that is my heartbreak."
> 
> Parents fleeing the devastating famine on foot  sometimes with as many as seven children in tow  are having to make unimaginably cruel choices: Which children have the best chance to survive when food and water run low? Who should be left behind?
> 
> "I have never faced such a dilemma in my life," Yusuf told The Associated Press. "Now I'm reliving the pain of abandoning my child. I wake up at night to think about him. I feel terrified whenever I see a son of his age."
> 
> Dr. John Kivelenge, a mental health officer for the International Rescue Committee at Dadaab emphasizes the extreme duress Somali mothers and fathers are facing.
> 
> "It is a normal reaction to an abnormal situation. They can't sit down and wait to die together," he said. "But after a month, they will suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, which means they will have flashbacks and nightmares.
> 
> "The picture of the children they abandoned behind will come back to them and haunt them," he said. "They will also have poor sleep and social problems."
> 
> The United States estimates that more than 29,000 Somali children under age 5 have died in the famine in the last three months. An unknown number too weak to walk farther have been abandoned on the sandy trek to help after food and water supplies ran out.
> 
> Faduma Sakow Abdullahi, a 29-year-old widow, attempted the journey to Dadaab with her baby and other children ages 5, 4, 3 and 2. A day before she reached the refugee camp, her 4-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son wouldn't wake up after a brief rest.
> 
> Abdullahi said she did not want to "waste" the little water she had in a 5-liter container on dying children when the little ones needed it.
> 
> Nor did she want to wait for too long until her other children started dying, so she stood up and walked away a few paces  then returned in the hopes the youngsters were in fact alive.
> 
> After several back-and-forth walks, she finally left her two children under a tree, unsure whether they could be resuscitated.
> 
> More than 12 million people in East Africa are in need of food aid because of the severe drought. The U.N. says 2.8 million of those are in need of immediate lifesaving assistance, including more than 450,000 in Somalia's famine zones.



A tortured choice in famine: Which child lives? - Yahoo! News


----------



## Tank

It's time to thin the herd.


----------



## High_Gravity

Tank said:


> It's time to thin the herd.



Nobody has to do anything, its already happening. I read somewhere in that harsh region it can only sustain life for about 10-20,000 nomads, however there are millions of people living there. There is no capital coming in, no economy to speak of, the very little government they have barely controls parts of Mogadishu, and all these families seem to have so many children, I feel sorry for them the most. Nobody gets to choose to be born, or choose their parents for that matter.


----------



## High_Gravity

Famine In Africa: Clinton Announces $17 Million More For Somalia, Wants Long-Term Solution 








> WASHINGTON  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday described the severe drought threatening more than 12 million Africans with starvation as a stark reminder of the need to invest in global agriculture and nutrition  Obama administration goals that could be sharply limited if House Republicans get their way.
> 
> In a speech at the International Food Policy Research Institute, Clinton announced that the United States was providing another $17 million in emergency food aid to the Horn of Africa, with $12 million going to humanitarian operations in Somalia. That brings total U.S. assistance to the region to more than $580 million this year.
> 
> But Clinton stressed that the famine must prompt long-term thinking by governments and charities to avoid future food crises. Aid shouldn't only be about providing help during catastrophes, but also about boosting agriculture, nourishment levels and food distribution networks around the world so that future catastrophes can be avoided.
> 
> "While we hurry to deliver life-saving assistance, we must also maintain our focus on the future by continuing to invest in long-term food security in countries that are susceptible to drought and food shortages," she said. The basic idea is that teaching people to feed themselves means less need for emergency  and more expensive  operations later.
> 
> Clinton has her work cut out for her at home. Although she never mentioned Congress, the House Appropriations Committee has proposed steep cuts in foreign aid funding. Money for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which pays for much of the government's humanitarian assistance, would fall by $488 million to $1.04 billion. That would be $705 million below the funding request made by President Barack Obama.
> 
> At a round table discussion with reporters Wednesday, USAID Deputy Administrator Don Steinberg warned that the proposed cuts would hurt the agency's ability to improve resilience in the developing world through safety net and food-for-work programs. Sam Worthington, the president of InterAction, an umbrella group of U.S. aid organizations, said there was a "disconnect" in Congress in its discussions about foreign aid and what is happening in the Horn of Africa.
> 
> "We can't watch people starving to death," Worthington said.
> 
> The United Nations warned Wednesday the famine hasn't peaked. The long-running drought has been exacerbated by the Islamic militant group al-Shabab's refusal to allow many aid groups to deliver supplies in parts of Somalia it controls. Thousands of children have already died and more than a million Somalis have fled their homes in search of food.
> 
> The crisis is also severely affecting Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti, where millions more need support.
> 
> Clinton said the situation could have been even worse had monitors not warned governments ahead of time about escalating drought and crop conditions. The U.S. was able to pre-position food in key locations last year to prepare for the likelihood of local shortages. And as a result, less than 5 million need food in Ethiopia, "an unacceptably high number" but far below the 13 million during the last drought in 2002-2003, she said.
> 
> The biggest problem has been Somalia, which Clinton described as the "epicenter of the emergency." Unlike its neighbors, the country has no effective national governance. Insecurity linked to al-Shabab's fighting and previous killings of aid workers has made operating in the country extremely difficult.
> 
> Clinton said the U.S., nevertheless was now providing $92 million in assistance inside Somalia, and has relaxed anti-terror laws to make it easier for aid groups to deliver help. Previously, they potentially faced American prosecution if forced to pay bribes or taxes to al-Shabab, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization.
> 
> "But as we proceed, we must not forget that we have seen crises like this before," Clinton said. "First comes a severe drought. Then crops fail, livestock perish, food prices soar, thousands of people die from starvation  most of them children  and thousands more pick up and move. Every few decades, the cycle repeats."



Famine In Africa: Clinton Announces $17 Million More For Somalia, Wants Long-Term Solution


----------



## High_Gravity

Somalia Faces Cholera Epidemic: World Health Organization 








> GENEVA (AP)  World Health Organization officials say famine-hit Somalia faces a cholera epidemic as dirty water and poor sanitation are leading to an increase in outbreaks of the disease.
> 
> WHO public health adviser Dr. Michel Yao told reporters in Geneva Friday that the number of cases has risen sharply this year, with 60 percent of 30 random lab samples taken from 4,272 people in the capital Mogadishu suffering acute watery diarrhea testing positive.
> 
> WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said last week that diarrhea is on the rise in Somalia, with 77 percent of cases reported in Mogadishu so far afflicting children younger than 5-years old.
> 
> Yao said there is a "high risk" of the disease spreading quickly due to water and sanitation issues "so we can say we have an epidemic."



Somalia Faces Cholera Epidemic: World Health Organization


----------



## Tank

Lots of animals die during a drought, it's natural


----------



## High_Gravity

Tank said:


> Lots of animals die during a drought, it's natural


----------



## Tank

HG, check out this video.

Clayton County Food Stamp Snafu Angers Many


----------



## High_Gravity

Tank said:


> HG, check out this video.
> 
> Clayton County Food Stamp Snafu Angers Many



Hmm thats odd, the county I live in recently upped their food stamps a few months ago.


----------



## High_Gravity

Somalia Famine: Food Aid Stolen








> MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Thousands of sacks of food aid meant for Somalia's famine victims have been stolen and are being sold at markets in the same neighborhoods where skeletal children in filthy refugee camps can't find enough to eat, an Associated Press investigation has found.
> 
> The U.N.'s World Food Program for the first time acknowledged it has been investigating food theft in Somalia for two months. The WFP said that the "scale and intensity" of the famine crisis does not allow for a suspension of assistance, saying that doing so would lead to "many unnecessary deaths."
> 
> And the aid is not even safe once it has been distributed to families huddled in the makeshift camps popping up around the capital. Families at the large, government-run Badbado camp said they were often forced to hand back aid after journalists had taken photos of them with it.
> 
> Ali Said Nur said he received two sacks of maize twice, but each time was forced to give one to the camp leader.
> 
> "You don't have a choice. You have to simply give without an argument to be able to stay here," he said.
> 
> The U.N. says more than 3.2 million Somalis  nearly half the population  need food aid after a severe drought that has been complicated by Somalia's long-running war. More than 450,000 Somalis live in famine zones controlled by al-Qaida-linked militants, where aid is difficult to deliver. The U.S. says 29,000 Somali children under the age of 5 already have died.
> 
> International officials have long expected some of the food aid pouring into Somalia to go missing. But the sheer scale of the theft taking place calls into question aid groups' ability to reach the starving. It also raises concerns about the willingness of aid agencies and the Somali government to fight corruption, and whether diverted aid is fueling Somalia's 20-year-civil war.
> 
> "While helping starving people, you are also feeding the power groups that make a business out of the disaster," said Joakim Gundel, who heads Katuni Consult, a Nairobi-based company often asked to evaluate international aid efforts in Somalia. "You're saving people's lives today so they can die tomorrow."
> 
> WFP Somalia country director Stefano Porretti said the agency's system of independent, third-party monitors uncovered allegations of possible food diversion. But he underscored how dangerous the work is: WFP has had 14 employees killed in Somalia since 2008.
> 
> "Monitoring food assistance in Somalia is a particularly dangerous process," Porretti said.
> 
> In Mogadishu markets, vast piles of food sacks are for sale with stamps on them from the World Food Program, the U.S. government aid arm USAID and the Japanese government. The AP found eight sites where aid food was being sold in bulk and numerous smaller stores. Among the items being sold were corn, grain, and Plumpy'nut  a specially fortified peanut butter designed for starving children.
> 
> An official in Mogadishu with extensive knowledge of the food trade said he believes a massive amount of aid is being stolen  perhaps up to half of aid deliveries  by unscrupulous businessmen. The percentage had been lower, he said, but in recent weeks the flood of aid into the capital with little or no controls has created a bonanza for businessmen.



Somalia Famine: Food Aid Stolen


----------



## Tank

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5cX_ncZLls]Band Aid - Do They Know its Christmas 1984 - YouTube[/ame]


----------



## High_Gravity

Somalia Famine: UK Government Says Up To 400,000 Children Could Die Without More Aid 








> NAIROBI, Kenya -- A British government minister says up to 400,000 Somali children could die of starvation unless urgent action is taken.
> 
> International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell on Wednesday made the first visit in 18 years by a British minister to Somalia's capital of Mogadishu, where he met with government leaders and aid groups.
> 
> Mitchell said in neighboring Kenya that Britain will give UNICEF more than $41 million in additional aid. That will allow nearly 200,000 people to have two months of supplementary food rations and vaccinations against measles for 800,000 children.
> 
> More than 12 million people need food aid in drought-struck East Africa. More than 2 million live in areas controlled by the Somali militant group al-Shabab.



Somalia Famine: UK Government Says Up To 400,000 Children Could Die Without More Aid


----------



## High_Gravity

Somalia Famine: Aid Groups Say U.S. Anti-Terror Laws Are Still Holding Them Back 








> Aid workers struggling to combat the massive famine in Somalia say that complex American counter-terrorism rules are still impeding the delivery of aid to the region, despite recent efforts to ease those restrictions.
> 
> The counter-terrorism rules, administered by the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), are designed to prevent incidental support from American non-governmental organizations from going to designated terrorist groups like al-Shabaab, the Islamist militant group that governs large portions of Somalia.
> 
> But with nearly 30,000 children already dead from malnourishment -- and millions more at risk -- policymakers and aid groups have increasingly said that feeding the hungry is worth the likelihood that some funds or food aid will fall into the hands of al-Shabaab.
> 
> A few weeks ago, officials at the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) produced an expanded version of the standard OFAC license, which guaranteed that no NGO that contracts with USAID, and operates in "good faith," would face prosecution if some of their materials ended up in the hands of al-Shabaab.
> 
> Humanitarian aid officials working in Somalia have applauded the move. But they say it still leaves a large -- and crucial -- portion of the aid community at risk: namely, any aid organization that does not take U.S. funding.
> 
> "There are aid resources that are being negatively impacted by this," a top official at one humanitarian NGO told The Huffington Post. "The fact that a policy decision doesn't seem to have been made is really critical. State and [USAID] said two weeks ago, We've handled this, and we've covered it, but they haven't fully. We're looking for there to be broader coverage."
> 
> In a brief interview with The Huffington Post last week, Don Steinberg, the deputy administer of USAID, described the legal situation for non-U.S. funded NGOs as a "loophole," and said that an effort was underway to remedy it.
> 
> But Robert Laprade, the senior director for Emergencies and Humanitarian Assistance at CARE, an organization that has worked extensively in the Horn of Africa, says the problem goes beyond a simple oversight.
> 
> "You can call them loopholes, but I would say theyre more like gaps in our ability to do things quickly in Somalia," he said.
> 
> "There seems to be a lot of good will and some action and movement and seriousness about dealing with this," he added. "It's clear that [USAID] wants to get something done. The big question is, Has it gone far enough?"
> 
> "My understanding is that NGOs that have come forward individually, who dont work with the U.S. but work on their own and asked for licenses, have been able to receive them," Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said on Tuesday. "With regard to whether there might be a more expeditious way to do that, I think our work is ongoing internally on how that might work."
> 
> NGOs say they hope the Treasury Department will forgo the cumbersome individual licensing process, and instead provide a "general license" for any legitimate aid group to work in Somalia.
> 
> "A specific license request entails a legally complex and time-consuming process that can be easily derailed by a range of agendas within the government -- creating a bureaucratic bottleneck that every applying agency would then have to navigate," said a third NGO official who has been closely involved in the policy negotiations.
> 
> "A general license solves the problem now and lets groups get to work," the official added. "A specific license approach kicks the can down the road with no assurance to humanitarian responders of whether they will be allowed to work, and under what conditions."
> 
> Aid groups admit that it's virtually impossible to quantify exactly how much aid has been withheld from the most stricken parts of southern Somalia due to lingering concerns about American counter-terrorism rules. They agree with Obama administration officials that the dangers posed by al-Shabaab, which has killed and expelled foreign aid workers in the past, are a major impediment to combating the famine.



Somalia Famine: Aid Groups Say U.S. Anti-Terror Laws Are Still Holding Them Back


----------



## Ropey

The United Nations needs to appeal to Nato and Nato needs to get a non political (read military) response to those who control the arena and who are allowing their people to die.

It takes a community to raise a child and it takes humanity to raise humans. In the birthing is born the pain of man.

It will take pain to mature humanity.  This is simply sickening. (

*The anti-terror laws are so that these terrorists do not continue to starve their people and sell the food supplies.

I understand. Send more and let them take all they want and then hope the other aid gets to the starving.  Hope because they won't allow you to distribute. (*


----------



## High_Gravity

Ropey said:


> The United Nations needs to appeal to Nato and Nato needs to get a non political (read military) response to those who control the arena and who are allowing their people to die.
> 
> It takes a community to raise a child and it takes humanity to raise humans. In the birthing is born the pain of man.
> 
> It will take pain to mature humanity.  This is simply sickening. (
> 
> *The anti-terror laws are so that these terrorists do not continue to starve their people and sell the food supplies.
> 
> I understand. Send more and let them take all they want and then hope the other aid gets to the starving.  Hope because they won't allow you to distribute. (*



I don't have much hope in that Ropey because no one is going to send a Military force into Somalia, after the 1993 Black Hawk Down thing we don't want to have boots on the ground there and I don't see anyone else taking the lead on this. Russia and China definently have the manpower but they will not because Somalia has nothing to offer. I do agree Military force needs to be used to kick Al Shabab in the balls and get the aid to the people, but I don't see anyone stepping up and doing it.


----------



## Ropey

High_Gravity said:


> but I don't see anyone stepping up and doing it.



I know.   It's frustrating to know that the food is there to at least ward off the starvation and that these tactics thwart that distribution.   

I've replaced my hope with prayers.


----------



## Unkotare

Tank said:


> Black people starving in Africa, whats new?



Any excuse to advertise your weakness and stupidity, shitbag?


----------



## High_Gravity

Ropey said:


> High_Gravity said:
> 
> 
> 
> but I don't see anyone stepping up and doing it.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I know.   It's frustrating to know that the food is there to at least ward off the starvation and that these tactics thwart that distribution.
> 
> I've replaced my hope with prayers.
Click to expand...


Me too, it will take an act of god to turn this situation around.


----------



## Tank

Looks like a great spot to open a KFC


----------



## High_Gravity

Tank said:


> Looks like a great spot to open a KFC



We would need more like 100,000 KFC's with the US Army providing security otherwise Shabab would steal all the chicken.


----------



## High_Gravity

Somalia Famine: African Leaders Pledge $380 Million In Aid









> ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Associated Press) -- African leaders have pledged nearly $380 million to help famine-hit families in the Horn of Africa.
> 
> During a donor conference held Thursday at the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia's capital, the African Development Bank in a statement announced a donation of $300 million for long-term development in the Horn of Africa, to be spent by 2013. Nations also pledged $28.8 million in food donations.
> 
> African leaders promised to donate $51 million, the most generous donors being Algeria with $10 million, Egypt with $6 million, and Angola with $5 million.
> 
> African leaders had been criticized for not doing enough to help those affected by the famine. The U.N. says 12.4 million people need food aid and tens of thousands have died. Aid groups had said they wanted at least $50 million from Thursday's conference.



Somalia Famine: African Leaders Pledge $380 Million In Aid


----------



## freedombecki

I'm so sorry to hear it, High Gravity. It sounds like death is imminent to many. Thanks for sharing, we'll see what can be done about this locally.


----------



## High_Gravity

Somalia: Islamists Behead At Least 11 Civilians In Mogadishu 








> MOGADISHU, Somalia  Somali Islamist rebels have beheaded at least 11 civilians in the capital in the past two weeks, a campaign of terror that residents said Friday is designed to show the insurgency can still act in Mogadishu after withdrawing from their bases there earlier this month.
> 
> "We wake up with beheaded bodies on the streets every day," said Abdinur Marwan, who lives in a district of Mogadishu called Hewila. "They call themselves Muslims while doing what Allah banned! Everyone is trying to leave here because people are being killed like goats."
> 
> The Islamist al-Shabab militia withdrew from their bases in the Somali capital after being steadily pushed back by more heavily armed African Union forces supporting the U.N.-backed Somali government. The Islamists described the withdrawal as a "tactical retreat" and said they would still carry out operations in the capital.
> 
> Resident Afrah Abdikhayre said five decapitated bodies were found in his Suqa Holaha area last week. He says two beheaded men in Somali government uniforms and another three headless bodies were found this week.



Somalia: Islamists Behead At Least 11 Civilians In Mogadishu


----------



## freedombecki

> For a generation, Somalia has been a byword for the suffering of a  failed state. It has been without an effective central government since  1991, when the former government was toppled by clan militias that later  turned on each other.
> Since 2006, the country has faced an insurgency led by Al Shabab, one  of Africa's most fearsome militant Islamist groups. Al Shabab controls  much of southern Somalia and has claimed affiliation with Al Qaeda since 2007.
> In the summer of 2011, the country was hard hit by a famine that extended across much of East Africa. By August, United Nations&#8203;  officials estimated that tens of thousands of Somalis had died, and  that more than half a million children were on the brink of starvation.


 NYTimes

Seems the United Nations is also having problems with certain Somalis who are raiding the food banks they sent to feed the starving, with the grain given being resold by profiteers. It's a no-win problem it seems.


----------



## High_Gravity

U.N. Officials Say Famine Is Widening in Somalia








> NAIROBI, Kenya  The United Nations announced Monday that Somalias famine had spread to a sixth area within the country, with officials warning that 750,000 people could die in the next few months unless aid efforts were scaled up.
> 
> A combination of drought, war, restrictions on aid groups and years of chaos have pushed four million Somalis  more than half the population  into crisis, according to the United Nations. Agricultural production is just a quarter of what it normally is, and food prices continue to soar.
> 
> We cant underestimate the scale of the crisis, said Mark Bowden, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Somalia. Southern Somalia is the epicenter of the famine area in the Horn of Africa. Its the source of most of the refugees, and we need to refocus our efforts.
> 
> In July, the United Nations declared that parts of southern Somalia had met the technical criteria of famine as defined by certain thresholds of death and malnutrition rates. Since then, the famine has slowly spread, covering a large chunk of the southern third of Somalia, including parts of the capital, Mogadishu, and several farming areas, which means food production has been crippled.
> 
> On Monday, the United Nations added the entire Bay region, where nearly 60 percent of children are acutely malnourished, to the list of famine-stricken areas. When pushed for numbers on how many people have died across Somalia so far, Mr. Bowden said: We cant give an exact figure, but we can say tens of thousands of people have died over the last three to four months, over half of whom are children. That translates into hundreds a day.
> 
> Somalia has lurched from crisis to crisis since its central government collapsed in 1991. There have been more than a dozen attempts to restore a functioning central government, and the United Nations is currently holding a conference in Mogadishu to bring political leaders together to discuss future plans.
> 
> But much of southern Somalia is still ruled by the Shabab, an Islamist militant group, which has forced out many large aid organizations and has even prevented starving people from fleeing drought areas. Though the International Committee of the Red Cross and several Muslim charities are bringing food aid to Shabab-controlled areas, residents there complain that gunmen steal much of the food. Similar complaints have been lodged in the government-controlled areas of Mogadishu.
> 
> Another rising concern is disease. Measles, cholera, malaria and typhoid have already begun to sweep through displaced persons camps, where sick and starving people have congregated in the hopes of getting aid. Aid officials predict that the drought, which has hit Kenya and Ethiopia as well, will end in October, but the ensuing rains could raise the risk of waterborne and infectious diseases.



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/world/africa/06somalia.html?ref=africa


----------



## Tank

Looks like Negros don't do any planning ahead, when planning on taking care of a child.


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## Unkotare

Fuck off you racist sack of shit. This is not the thread for your bullshit.


----------



## High_Gravity

Tank said:


> Looks like Negros don't do any planning ahead, when planning on taking care of a child.


----------



## Tank

Where is this kids parents?






Pic from 1994


----------



## High_Gravity

Famine Hits Somalia in a World Less Likely to Intervene








> DOLO, Somalia  Is the world about to watch 750,000 Somalis starve to death? The United Nations warnings could not be clearer. A drought-induced famine is steadily creeping across Somalia and tens of thousands of people have already died. The Islamist militant group the Shabab is blocking most aid agencies from accessing the areas it controls, and three-quarters of a million people will run out of food in the next few months, United Nations officials say.
> 
> Soon, the rains will start pounding down, but before any crops will grow, disease will bloom. Malaria, cholera, typhoid and measles will sweep through immune-suppressed populations, aid agencies say, killing countless malnourished people.
> 
> There is a déjà vu quality to all of this. In the early 1990s, Somalia was hit by famine, precipitated by similarly callous thugs blocking food aid and producing similarly appalling images of skeletal children dying in the sand. In fact, the famine back then was in the same area of Somalia, the lower third, home to powerless minority clans that often bear the brunt of this countrys chronic troubles.
> 
> But in the 1990s, the world was more willing to intervene. The United Nations rallied behind more than 25,000 American troops, who embarked on a multibillion-dollar mission to beat back the gunmen long enough to get food into the mouths of starving people.
> 
> Contrast that with what happened last week. At a lackluster famine summit meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, Ethiopias prime minister, Meles Zenawi, proposed to forcefully establish humanitarian corridors, so that food aid could be delivered to Shabab-controlled areas. Few Western donors were enthused.
> 
> Theres no mood for intervention, said one American official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. People remember what happened in the 1990s. It doesnt work was the conclusion.
> 
> Foreign military force, analysts say, has never succeeded in solving Somalias problems and it is not going to solve them now. This famine is not just about the Shababs blocking food aid. It is about a broken state and the human wreckage it is causing.
> 
> Take Mogadishu, the capital. The Shabab more or less pulled out in August, leaving Somalias transitional government in control of large swathes of the city, including the sprawling camp for displaced refugees. But government control  and that term seems more aspirational than meaningful  does not translate into a smooth aid operation. Instead, government soldiers have looted aid trucks and shot starving people.
> 
> Somalias politicians are often too busy squabbling with one another to build institutions like a functioning health ministry or a sanitation department that would help drought victims. Some of the informal clusters of people camped out for aid are already breaking up, and it is not clear where the displaced people are trudging to. Many aid agencies  and Western militaries  are justifiably wary of this environment, and so far the response to the famine has been well short of what is needed to stem the crisis.
> 
> I dont think that theres a case to be made that the famine can be mitigated through military intervention, said Bronwyn E. Bruton, a democracy and governance expert who wrote a provocative essay published by the Council on Foreign Relations urging the West to withdraw from Somalia.
> 
> The African Union, which has 9,000 peacekeepers in Mogadishu, isnt able to safeguard the delivery of aid in Mogadishu, Ms. Bruton said. How could they possibly extend their reach outside the capital?
> 
> Theft, corruption and violence are endemic, she added. The problem extends past al Shabab to anybody with a gun.
> 
> In Somalia, there are many of them. This was the problem in the 1990s. The United Nations urged American forces to disarm the warlords and their flip-flop-clad militias, but the Pentagon did not want to risk many American lives to do that. Instead, the United States opted for a narrowly-scoped intervention and then hastily withdrew after 18 servicemen were killed in an epic street battle immortalized in the Black Hawk Down book and movie (and video game). According to a study by the Refugee Policy Group, the American-led operation and the attendant relief effort saved around 110,000 lives, while 240,000 were lost in the famine.



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/w...n-world-less-likely-to-intervene.html?_r=1&hp


----------



## Tank

Where's fat ass Oprah?


----------



## Ropey

> Somalia has banned foreign aid workers and journalists from entering areas controlled by al Shabaab insurgents after members of a Turkish charity took food to famine victims in an area under the Islamist group.








> Nearly all aid agencies have already barred their expatriate workers from operating in Somalia as famine grips the country, due to the risk of kidnapping as the hard-line militants linked to al Qaeda control most of the southern part of the country after retreating from the capital.
> 
> However, Somali security forces briefly detained two Turks on Tuesday who went to an al Shabaab area to deliver food to famine victims, and prevented others along with a group of journalists from doing so later in the week.
> 
> "We want the starving Somalis in al Shabaab areas to be fed but we do not want the foreign workers to meet al Shabaab," Mogadishu's mayor and governor Mohamud Ahmed Nur told Reuters.
> 
> "Let the foreign aid workers hand over the relief food to the local NGOs, which can deliver to the drought victims in al Shabaab areas. The government is responsible for the security of foreign aid workers. We do not want them to be harmed. Why risk their lives?" he said late on Friday



Somalia bans foreign aid workers 



> Somali rebel group, Al-Shabaab, bans food aid and journalists in controlled territories where 2 million people face starvation



Somalia bans foreign aid workers from rebel areas - International - World - Ahram Online

Somalia | Yemen: Al Qaeda aiding Somalia militants, U.S. says - Los Angeles Times



> A large part of Somalia is experiencing famine, which the United Nations says has put 750,000 people at risk of starvation, with hundreds of Somalis dying each day.
> 
> Al Shabaab, which is hostile to any Western intervention, itself banned food aid last year in the areas it controls in southern Somalia and kicked many groups out, saying aid creates dependency.



'Massacre' at Somalia hotel leaves at least 31 dead - Los Angeles Times


----------



## High_Gravity

Ropey said:


> Somalia has banned foreign aid workers and journalists from entering areas controlled by al Shabaab insurgents after members of a Turkish charity took food to famine victims in an area under the Islamist group.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Nearly all aid agencies have already barred their expatriate workers from operating in Somalia as famine grips the country, due to the risk of kidnapping as the hard-line militants linked to al Qaeda control most of the southern part of the country after retreating from the capital.
> 
> However, Somali security forces briefly detained two Turks on Tuesday who went to an al Shabaab area to deliver food to famine victims, and prevented others along with a group of journalists from doing so later in the week.
> 
> "We want the starving Somalis in al Shabaab areas to be fed but we do not want the foreign workers to meet al Shabaab," Mogadishu's mayor and governor Mohamud Ahmed Nur told Reuters.
> 
> "Let the foreign aid workers hand over the relief food to the local NGOs, which can deliver to the drought victims in al Shabaab areas. The government is responsible for the security of foreign aid workers. We do not want them to be harmed. Why risk their lives?" he said late on Friday
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Somalia bans foreign aid workers
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Somali rebel group, Al-Shabaab, bans food aid and journalists in controlled territories where 2 million people face starvation
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Somalia bans foreign aid workers from rebel areas - International - World - Ahram Online
> 
> Somalia | Yemen: Al Qaeda aiding Somalia militants, U.S. says - Los Angeles Times
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A large part of Somalia is experiencing famine, which the United Nations says has put 750,000 people at risk of starvation, with hundreds of Somalis dying each day.
> 
> Al Shabaab, which is hostile to any Western intervention, itself banned food aid last year in the areas it controls in southern Somalia and kicked many groups out, saying aid creates dependency.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 'Massacre' at Somalia hotel leaves at least 31 dead - Los Angeles Times
Click to expand...


Al Shabab is becoming a real serious threat, to us and their own people.


----------



## Ropey

The world will take care of it's own someday HG. This is why I believe that there is something better. 

There must be. 

There has to be more.


----------



## Tank

Right on mother fucker!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2W4-0qUdHY]USA for Africa - We Are The World (w/M.Jackson) + Lyrics HQ - YouTube[/ame]


----------



## High_Gravity

Somalia Famine 2011: Food Assistance Reaching Half Of Those In Need 








> NAIROBI, Kenya  The U.N. on Wednesday said food assistance has reached nearly half the Somalis in need, though it warned cases of diarrhea and cholera could spike with the seasonal rains expected in October.
> 
> Famine relief has gotten to about 1.85 million Somalis, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
> 
> The World Health Organization, meanwhile, reports that cases of diarrhea and cholera are down, though October rains could pose a high risk of transmission of waterborne diseases in highly populated camps for those displaced by the famine.
> 
> Tens of thousands of Somalis already have died from a lack of food, and the U.N. says 750,000 more are at risk of death from famine in the next four months. Six areas in southern Somalia have been declared famine zones.
> 
> Despite an increase in food aid in Mogadishu, Somalis in filthy camps for the internally displaced continue to die. Food aid is being siphoned off by corrupt powerbrokers, and government soldiers have stolen food.



Somalia Famine 2011: Food Assistance Reaching Half Of Those In Need


----------



## Ropey

The U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP) confessed that for over a year it has been looking to the routine theft of food relief to famine ravaged Somalia. An earlier investigation by the Associated Press revealed that as much as fifty percent of food donated to the Somali relief efforts is ending up being sold on the open industry by unscrupulous merchants - Food help to Somalia being ripped off and sold in market. **sigh** It's really not surprising, but tragically they're supposed to be there to help not the other way around.


----------



## High_Gravity

Ropey said:


> The U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP) confessed that for over a year it has been looking to the routine theft of food relief to famine ravaged Somalia. An earlier investigation by the Associated Press revealed that as much as fifty percent of food donated to the Somali relief efforts is ending up being sold on the open industry by unscrupulous merchants - Food help to Somalia being ripped off and sold in market. **sigh** It's really not surprising, but tragically they're supposed to be there to help not the other way around.



An armed force needs to be on the ground to distribute this aid, but after what happened in 1993 and now this new Al Shabab threat, nobody wants to put boots on the ground. The African union forces have been useless for the most part.


----------



## Ropey

High_Gravity said:


> Ropey said:
> 
> 
> 
> The U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP) confessed that for over a year it has been looking to the routine theft of food relief to famine ravaged Somalia. An earlier investigation by the Associated Press revealed that as much as fifty percent of food donated to the Somali relief efforts is ending up being sold on the open industry by unscrupulous merchants - Food help to Somalia being ripped off and sold in market. **sigh** It's really not surprising, but tragically they're supposed to be there to help not the other way around.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> An armed force needs to be on the ground to distribute this aid, but after what happened in 1993 and now this new Al Shabab threat, nobody wants to put boots on the ground. The African union forces have been useless for the most part.
Click to expand...


The dream of NATO is a nightmare imo.


----------



## High_Gravity

Ropey said:


> High_Gravity said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ropey said:
> 
> 
> 
> The U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP) confessed that for over a year it has been looking to the routine theft of food relief to famine ravaged Somalia. An earlier investigation by the Associated Press revealed that as much as fifty percent of food donated to the Somali relief efforts is ending up being sold on the open industry by unscrupulous merchants - Food help to Somalia being ripped off and sold in market. **sigh** It's really not surprising, but tragically they're supposed to be there to help not the other way around.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> An armed force needs to be on the ground to distribute this aid, but after what happened in 1993 and now this new Al Shabab threat, nobody wants to put boots on the ground. The African union forces have been useless for the most part.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> The dream of NATO is a nightmare imo.
Click to expand...


There are only a few countries in NATO with a capable Military, the rest is window dressing IMO.


----------



## earlycuyler

Mr. H. said:


> 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

Ropey said:


> 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

High_Gravity said:


> Ropey said:
> 
> 
> 
> 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._
Click to expand...


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


----------



## High_Gravity

Ropey said:


> High_Gravity said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ropey said:
> 
> 
> 
> 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._
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> An International force is necessary imo HG.  And a full out International force declaring war on al-Shabab.
Click to expand...


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

High_Gravity said:


> 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
Click to expand...


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

Ropey said:


> High_Gravity said:
> 
> 
> 
> 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
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 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.
Click to expand...


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

High_Gravity said:


> Ropey said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> High_Gravity said:
> 
> 
> 
> 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.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 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.
Click to expand...


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

Ropey said:


> High_Gravity said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ropey said:
> 
> 
> 
> 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.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 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.
Click to expand...


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

High_Gravity said:


> Ropey said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> High_Gravity said:
> 
> 
> 
> 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.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 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.*
Click to expand...


----------



## 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.
> 
> Source


----------



## 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


----------



## PrometheusBound

Let the savages starve.  If they don't pay for their mistakes, they will never evolve and we will be funding their inferiority generation after generation.


----------



## High_Gravity

PrometheusBound said:


> Let the savages starve.  If they don't pay for their mistakes, they will never evolve and we will be funding their inferiority generation after generation.



Although I think your comment "let the savages starve" is rather harsh, I do agree sending them billions of dollars in aid is only a short term solution, we went through the same thing back in 1992 and now here we are dealing with it again. There are several oil rich Muslim countries near by, I find it convenient that none of them are doing a damn thing to help their Muslim brothers.


----------



## Sunshine

Kiki Cannoli said:


> And the people suffer at the hands of "leaders"...




If the people lead, the leaders will follow.  Mahatma Ghandi.


----------



## Sunshine

WillowTree said:


> Can You say "Black Hawk Down"?



I owe you rep.  But it's too soon to give again!


----------



## Sunshine

Kiki Cannoli said:


> But then again if all the 'first world' nations came together and actually used powers for good, these issues could be eradicated.  Unfortunately there is no profit in good deeds.



I expect *MY* governmen to use its powers in _*MY *_interest as it takes _*MY*_ money to run it.


----------



## waltky

More hunger in Africa...

*More Than One Million Mauritanians Face Hunger in 2012*
_January 01, 2012 - The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says more than one million Mauritanians could face hunger in the New Year unless immediate action is taken._


> Mauritania is suffering from the combined effects of drought, poor harvests and rising food prices, making life extremely difficult for tens of thousands of people who cannot afford to buy what little food is available on the market.  The International Red Cross Federation predicts the number of people likely to face food shortages could reach 1.2 million in January, the first month of the New Year.  Red Cross spokeswoman Jessica Sallabank says immediate steps must be taken to prevent, what could become, a hunger crisis equal to that in the devastated Horn of Africa.
> 
> She says the Red Cross needs to raise more than $2 million to quickly get as much food as possible in place to head off the crisis threatening Mauritania.  The money raised is aimed to assist over 10,000 households, 10,000 families," said Sallabank. "And priority spending for these funds will be again fodder for livestock, to provide seeds and tools for farmers, people living in rural communities, to provide food relief to people who do not have enough food, and also help to maintain and support the nutrition centers that exist already in the country.  The Red Cross Federation says it is concerned in particular about malnutrition rates for children under two years of age. It notes the southern Mauritanian regions of Brakna and Gorgol have the highest acute malnutrition rates in the country.  Sallabank says a priority for the Mauritanian Red Crescent is to provide badly malnourished children with life-saving supplementary nutrition, such as rice and cereals.
> 
> She says in an effort to prevent recurring food crises, the Red Cross plans to implement activities to help make people less dependent on rainwater for their food security.  These programs for example include investing in different irrigation systems for crops.  So, for example, training or introducing drip-feed systems into rural communities, which enable crops to be watered more consistently and for a longer period of time, even in times of drought," she said. "Also, another way in which we could really help people better withstand the shock of drought is by digging deep water wells.  The Mauritanian Red Crescent staff and the volunteers are out in the communities and they are digging much deeper water wells in villages, which obviously their families can still access water in times of severe drought.   Red Cross officials say a new tragedy could be avoided in Mauritania if the international community responds to the needs immediately, and action is taken now.
> 
> Source


----------



## Sunshine

waltky said:


> More hunger in Africa...
> 
> *More Than One Million Mauritanians Face Hunger in 2012*
> _January 01, 2012 - The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says more than one million Mauritanians could face hunger in the New Year unless immediate action is taken._
> 
> 
> 
> Mauritania is suffering from the combined effects of drought, poor harvests and rising food prices, making life extremely difficult for tens of thousands of people who cannot afford to buy what little food is available on the market.  The International Red Cross Federation predicts the number of people likely to face food shortages could reach 1.2 million in January, the first month of the New Year.  Red Cross spokeswoman Jessica Sallabank says immediate steps must be taken to prevent, what could become, a hunger crisis equal to that in the devastated Horn of Africa.
> 
> She says the Red Cross needs to raise more than $2 million to quickly get as much food as possible in place to head off the crisis threatening Mauritania.  The money raised is aimed to assist over 10,000 households, 10,000 families," said Sallabank. "And priority spending for these funds will be again fodder for livestock, to provide seeds and tools for farmers, people living in rural communities, to provide food relief to people who do not have enough food, and also help to maintain and support the nutrition centers that exist already in the country.  The Red Cross Federation says it is concerned in particular about malnutrition rates for children under two years of age. It notes the southern Mauritanian regions of Brakna and Gorgol have the highest acute malnutrition rates in the country.  Sallabank says a priority for the Mauritanian Red Crescent is to provide badly malnourished children with life-saving supplementary nutrition, such as rice and cereals.
> 
> She says in an effort to prevent recurring food crises, the Red Cross plans to implement activities to help make people less dependent on rainwater for their food security.  These programs for example include investing in different irrigation systems for crops.  So, for example, training or introducing drip-feed systems into rural communities, which enable crops to be watered more consistently and for a longer period of time, even in times of drought," she said. "Also, another way in which we could really help people better withstand the shock of drought is by digging deep water wells.  The Mauritanian Red Crescent staff and the volunteers are out in the communities and they are digging much deeper water wells in villages, which obviously their families can still access water in times of severe drought.   Red Cross officials say a new tragedy could be avoided in Mauritania if the international community responds to the needs immediately, and action is taken now.
> 
> Source
Click to expand...


And what are the home folk going to do to help with this?  Egypt has a VERY extensive irrigation system using water from the Nile.  Did the Red Cross rush in and do this for them.  I think not!

The also have a way of measuring the depth of the Nile to know if there will be enough water to produce enough crops to feed the people. 

The Nileometer:







The dome of the Nileometer:


----------



## Unkotare

Sunshine said:


> Kiki Cannoli said:
> 
> 
> 
> But then again if all the 'first world' nations came together and actually used powers for good, these issues could be eradicated.  Unfortunately there is no profit in good deeds.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I expect *MY* governmen to use its powers in _*MY *_interest as it takes _*MY*_ money to run it.
Click to expand...



Helping starving people is not in your interest?


----------



## Sunshine

Unkotare said:


> Sunshine said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Kiki Cannoli said:
> 
> 
> 
> But then again if all the 'first world' nations came together and actually used powers for good, these issues could be eradicated.  Unfortunately there is no profit in good deeds.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I expect *MY* governmen to use its powers in _*MY *_interest as it takes _*MY*_ money to run it.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 
> Helping starving people is not in your interest?
Click to expand...


What?  We don't have enough starving people in this country to help?  
We send troops to kill starving people in other countries to help them?  That would be your line of thinking, it appears.


----------



## Unkotare

Was that a 'yes' or a 'no'?


----------



## High_Gravity

Sunshine said:


> waltky said:
> 
> 
> 
> More hunger in Africa...
> 
> *More Than One Million Mauritanians Face Hunger in 2012*
> _January 01, 2012 - The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says more than one million Mauritanians could face hunger in the New Year unless immediate action is taken._
> 
> 
> 
> Mauritania is suffering from the combined effects of drought, poor harvests and rising food prices, making life extremely difficult for tens of thousands of people who cannot afford to buy what little food is available on the market.  The International Red Cross Federation predicts the number of people likely to face food shortages could reach 1.2 million in January, the first month of the New Year.  Red Cross spokeswoman Jessica Sallabank says immediate steps must be taken to prevent, what could become, a hunger crisis equal to that in the devastated Horn of Africa.
> 
> She says the Red Cross needs to raise more than $2 million to quickly get as much food as possible in place to head off the crisis threatening Mauritania.  The money raised is aimed to assist over 10,000 households, 10,000 families," said Sallabank. "And priority spending for these funds will be again fodder for livestock, to provide seeds and tools for farmers, people living in rural communities, to provide food relief to people who do not have enough food, and also help to maintain and support the nutrition centers that exist already in the country.  The Red Cross Federation says it is concerned in particular about malnutrition rates for children under two years of age. It notes the southern Mauritanian regions of Brakna and Gorgol have the highest acute malnutrition rates in the country.  Sallabank says a priority for the Mauritanian Red Crescent is to provide badly malnourished children with life-saving supplementary nutrition, such as rice and cereals.
> 
> She says in an effort to prevent recurring food crises, the Red Cross plans to implement activities to help make people less dependent on rainwater for their food security.  These programs for example include investing in different irrigation systems for crops.  So, for example, training or introducing drip-feed systems into rural communities, which enable crops to be watered more consistently and for a longer period of time, even in times of drought," she said. "Also, another way in which we could really help people better withstand the shock of drought is by digging deep water wells.  The Mauritanian Red Crescent staff and the volunteers are out in the communities and they are digging much deeper water wells in villages, which obviously their families can still access water in times of severe drought.   Red Cross officials say a new tragedy could be avoided in Mauritania if the international community responds to the needs immediately, and action is taken now.
> 
> Source
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> And what are the home folk going to do to help with this?  Egypt has a VERY extensive irrigation system using water from the Nile.  Did the Red Cross rush in and do this for them.  I think not!
> 
> The also have a way of measuring the depth of the Nile to know if there will be enough water to produce enough crops to feed the people.
> 
> The Nileometer:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The dome of the Nileometer:
Click to expand...


I doubt the Egyptians will do anything, those guys wouldn't piss on the Mauritarians if they were on fire.


----------

