Horn of Africa Crisis: 2011-2012

Volume 93 Number 884 December 2011

EDITORIAL: THE FUTURE OF HUMANITARIAN ACTION

1. Executive Summary

1.1 Introduction

Working environment

The context

Djibouti is a relatively stable country in the East and Horn of Africa, where it plays a pivotal role in the search for a peaceful settlement of the Somalia crisis. The country is the hub for naval forces combating piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. It is host to more than 14,000 refugees, mostly from Somalia, and is also a transit point for mixed migratory flows towards the Middle East and beyond.

SITUATION OVERVIEW

• Four million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid in Somalia while most of southern Somalia is in humanitarian emergency.

• Malnutrition and mortality remain at unacceptable levels in many regions and needs are expected to remain high until the third quarter of 2012.

• Rains subsided in early December in most parts of Somalia, resulting in improved road and port conditions.

Since July 2011, CISP has been carrying out activities in support of primary healthcare at the Mother and Child Health Center (MCH) in Dhusamareeb funded by CHF. Until December 2011, the project, which will be completed in July 2012, has realized the following milestones:

• 49 children have been delivered through the safe motherhood service;

• 1719 cases of antenatal attendance have been recorded;

• 5662 consultations have been recorded in the Out-Patient Department (478 men and 2537 women, 1318 boys and 1329 girls under the age of five);

No. 424-E

The Foreign Ministry is donating 50 000 euros through the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF to support the organisation’s activities in ensuring that children who have been separated from their parents and have no guardian receive the necessary humanitarian aid for survival as well as protection from violence and from becoming victims of human trafficking. The UNICEF project aims to help at least 1200 Yemeni children as well as children that have fled from Somalia.

WAM Abu Dhabi, 30th Dec. 2011 (WAM) -- Over 400 Somali displaced families living at UAE Raja (Hope) makeshift camp in Mogadishu were finally back home and assumed normal life thanks to a repatriation programme carried out by the UAE Red Crescent Authority (RCA).

RCA Chairman Ahmed Humaid Al Mazrouie said reports from Somali capital Mogadishu had confirmed that 465 families comprising about 3,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) had already returned to their towns and villages in the second phase of the programme.

NAIROB I, 30 December 2011 (IRIN) - Severe drought, [ http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=93426 ] exacerbated by poverty and conflict, hit at least four countries in 2011 - Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia - displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

MOGADISHU/NAIROBI/BRUSSELS, DECEMBER 29, 2011 - It is with great sadness that the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) confirms that two of its staff members were killed this morning as a result of a shooting at the MSF compound in Mogadishu, Somalia.

While one of the aid workers died during the shooting, the other was transferred to a hospital and died following surgery this evening. The victims are Belgian and Indonesian nationals.

Working environment

The context

Listen to the interview

Somali children are one group of people who have suffered in 2011 in a country that has continued to grapple with famine, drought and conflict.

Some of the children are being used as child soldiers by various armed including the Al Shabaab insurgents who are battling the forces of the Transitional Federal Government or TFG.

CONTENTS

1. SITUATION UPDATE
   Ports Situation
   

2. Weather/Access

3. TRANSPORT

4. Shipping

1 SITUATION UPDATE

Ports Situation

• Mogadishu Port - Mogadishu is operating at, or near capacity; two vessels and several dhows are at berth loading and discharging, two vessels are waiting to berth, and berthing time is currently averaging one day. It is expected that more dhows will keep calling the port as northeast monsoon winds become weaker, allowing easier sailing.

The droughts have been harsh for years and this left the family no choice but to change their lifestyle and abandon their pastoralist ways. For two children in Fiqi Adan Village, school means much more than receiving an education.

When I arrive at the school in the remote Somaliland village of Fiqi Adan, it’s time for breakfast. Against a backdrop of dusty hills and scrublike bushes, a young boy and girl are helping to hand out stainless steel dishes of porridge to other pupils sheltering from the sun under a corrugated iron roof.

Note: Map in 2 pages

Disclaimer: This paper addresses some of the issues related to the market feasibility of cash transfers and supply-side interventions. It does not consider issues related to the mechanism by which various forms of response could be provided nor does it explore other aspects of the local context, including security and conflict, which would affect the overall feasibility of continuing or expanding relief efforts. As with all information on southern Somalia, the situation is changing constantly and available information may not fully reflect current conditions.

It isn't often that amidst the sadness and strife of a crisis, you meet someone who has lost a lot but who makes you laugh. This is what happened to me in a small health clinic in the back of beyond in Fiqi Adan, Somaliland.

Through a translator, I ask Adar how old she is and she laughs, waving a hand, saying “Oh around 45”.

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

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.

Read the full story on the New York Times