Almost 400,000 famine victims who fled to the Mogadishu for aid at the height of famine, are still living in one of the many refugee camps outside Mogadishu. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, Jul 20 2012 (IPS)

One-year-old Miriam Jama is a symbol of life in Somalia after the famine. Born just as the United Nations World Food Programme declared famine in this Horn of Africa nation a year ago on Jul. 20, Miriam has known no other life than the one in the Badbaado refugee camp, situated 10 kilometres outside the country’s capital, Mogadishu.

Weak and visibly malnourished, Miriam, like the rest of her family, hardly have enough food to eat.

And like the almost 400,000 famine victims who fled to the city for aid at the height of the crisis, Miriam, her parents and four siblings are still living in one of the many refugee camps outside Mogadishu.

Here they live in squalor in a tiny shelter of only two square metres, in a camp that is run by self-appointed administrators who are often accused by the community of stealing aid.

“We get barely enough to keep alive. Famine may have ended, but for us hunger has not,” Hawa Jama, Miriam’s mother, tells IPS.

Jama says that her family receives only 25 kilogrammes of grain, 25 kgs of flour, and 10 litres of cooking oil for a month. It is hardly sufficient to feed this family of seven. But they are not the only ones hungry here.

As the WFP marks one year after famine was declared in Somalia on Friday, Jul. 20, hundreds of thousands of famine refugees living in camps outside of the capital say they still face hunger and desperation. The famine has claimed tens of thousands of Somalis, was declared in the war-torn nation as a result of a severe drought. The drought had been prevalent in entire Horn of Africa and was described as the worst in 60 years. It was compounded by high food prices and instability in the region.

The WFP said on Jul. 18 that although there is currently no famine in Somalia and malnutrition rates have improved considerably over the last year, the situation remains fragile and progress could be reversed if aid is not sustained.

The U.N. Refugee Agency reported on Jul. 18 that the Somali refugee population has exceeded one million. Kenya’s Dadaab refugee complex alone houses 570,000 people. And 3.8 million people in Somalia remain in crises and are in urgent need of assistance, while an estimated 325,000 children are acutely malnourished.

Dense shelters spanning as far as the eye can see have remained on the outskirts of Mogadishu a year after the crisis began.

But life in the camps is a difficult existence as refugees complain that camp administrators and local officials steal food aid and practice nepotism and favoritism in aid distribution.

“I don’t like to complain, but this is a matter of life and death for us. Those responsible for running our camp are not giving us all the aid and favour others. We tell every foreign official who comes to visit, but nothing is done about our predicament,” Mumino Ali, a mother of seven, tells IPS at Sayidka camp in Mogadishu.

Water and sanitation are also poor at the camps as the number of toilets remains inadequate, and the water trucked in does not meet the international requirement both in quality and quantity, says Mohamed Ali, a local human rights activist.

“I think what we have achieved since the famine was declared back in July last year is that people are not now dying because of hunger. But hunger is still there and there are no systematic programmes to help refugees stand on their feet by creating income schemes and repatriating them back to their communities,” Ali says.

The food situation has worsened as international aid agencies scaled down their humanitarian operations after the U.N. declared the end of the famine in February. In addition, the Somali government’s national Disaster Management Agency, which was formed to deal with the famine, has been called ineffective and corrupt.

“The agency has not been effective in its work and is one of the agencies that failed the people in need. Corruption is widespread among the organs of government and this agency has its share,” a local aid worker, who asked for anonymity, tells IPS.

The official says “layers of corruption” from international agencies, their local partners, government officials, as well as those running the camps continues the cycle of hunger for the displaced refugees.

In order to survive, many of the famine refugees seek out odd jobs. But unemployment is already rife among the general population of Mogadishu where 20 years of war has left the economic infrastructure in tatters. Even children can be seen at the city’s local markets offering their services as shoe shiners, housemaids and even car washers, as they attempt to earn a living to support their families.

Jama’s husband is one of the many who spend their days trying to find odd jobs in the capital city where he knows no-one and where work is hard to come by.

She says that she and her husband, former subsistence farmers from Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region, just north of Mogadishu, would rather that aid agencies helped them find a sustainable way of earning an income than merely giving them aid.

“I don’t want to be dependent on handouts from aid agencies, which are never enough here. But I would be happy if I got help in working to support my family and go back to my village,” Jama says as she carries Miriam on her hip.

The little girl was born a month before her family fled their hometown in August 2011, and Jama is anxious for her to know another, less-harsh way of life.

A mother and daughter who survived the dangerous journey from south Somalia to an aid camp in Mogadishu during last year's famine. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

By Brian Ngugi
NAIROBI, Jul 18 2012 (IPS)

The United Nations has called for sustained aid efforts in Somalia to prevent the war-torn country from experiencing another humanitarian crisis as more than three million people remain in need of urgent aid.

The U.N. said on Tuesday Jul. 17 in Nairobi that while the situation in the Horn of Africa nation had greatly improved over the last few months, millions remain threatened by acute food shortages and a lack of basic necessities. This, the U.N. said, was compounded by insecurity and insufficient rains. It warned that if aid agencies do not step in to stem the escalating situation, a humanitarian catastrophe could develop.

“While famine conditions are no longer present, we need to make no mistake – the absence of famine does not mean that people are not in crisis. Today, 2.51 million people are still in urgent need of aid and a further 1.29 million could slide back into crisis without sustained assistance,” said Mark Bowden, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia.

Bowden, who spoke ahead of an official launch of a revised consolidated appeal for 1.16 billion dollars by global aid agencies on Thursday Jul. 19, said that aid efforts have to be sustained in order to consolidate the gains made in Somalia.

According to the U.N., within 90 days of last year’s famine declaration on Jul. 20, the number of people receiving food aid more than tripled to 2.6 million, while hundreds of thousands of acutely malnourished children received nutrition supplements.

“Mass vaccination campaigns reduced cases of measles by almost 50 percent. By November, 500,000 people in the affected parts of Bay, Bakool and Lower Shabelle were lifted out of famine conditions. The situation continued to improve, largely due to the effective delivery of aid under extremely difficult circumstances and helped by an exceptional harvest at the beginning of the year,” Bowden said.

“We need to finish the job that we started when we announced the famine last year and act now to consolidate the gains and break the cycle of repeated crises that continues to exist. To do this, we must restore people’s lives and livelihoods,” he said.

Bowden said that half the sum had been raised, but the remaining 576 million dollars was needed to address the requirements of 3.8 million Somalis until the end of the year.

“Humanitarians need these funds to provide urgent assistance for the most vulnerable, while building up Somalis’ ability to cope with future drought and other shocks,” he said.

Friday Jul. 20 will mark a year since famine, which claimed tens of thousands of Somalis, was declared in the war-torn nation. The drought had been prevalent in entire Horn of Africa and was described as the worst in 60 years. It was compounded by high food prices and instability in the region.

According to the Kenyan Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Dr. Romano Kiome, the food situation in the Horn of Africa remains precarious and has been made worse by poor harvests and low rainfall.

“Even in most parts of Kenya, the situation is similarly unfavourable as a result of the poor rains. The government has been forced to go back to the drawing board and strategise on how we will distribute food. We have a considerable number of regions where there are widening shortages,” Kiome told IPS.

Kiome said the worsening food situation in Somalia was compounded by the ongoing conflict in the country.

“Security in Somalia is still a major concern and we second the U.N.’s call for the need to sustain large-scale humanitarian activities across the country,” he said.

Kenya, backed by African Union forces, is engaged in fighting the Somali militant Al-Shabaab in the country that has been afflicted by conflict for more than 20 years.

Most Somalis are still living in refugee camps and remain dependent on food aid from agencies. Many are yet to return to their villages, opting to remain in camps where there is a supply of medical and food aid.

Statistics released separately by the U.N. Refugee Agency on Jul. 17 showed that more than a million Somalis fled their homeland to neighbouring countries during the famine.

Bowden warned that in parts of Somalia, the food situation would deteriorate before it improved as a result of the poor rains from April to June, which were not only delayed but also unevenly distributed.

“We do not expect the south of Somalia to deteriorate into famine in the coming months. But that should not in any way lessen the urgency with which we act,” he added.

Bowden noted that by providing Somalis with sustainable livelihoods, aid agencies could prevent future droughts from developing into a humanitarian emergency.

“We need to help 2.51 million people to obtain life’s basic necessities, such as clean water, sanitation facilities and medical care. We need to help build sustainable livelihoods for people who have been left with few or no resources after years of drought and conflict,” he said.

A family inside its home in Cannon Camp in Haiti. Credit: Susan Robens-Brannon/IPS

By Susan Robens-Brannon
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jun 21 2012 (IPS)

In the remote, dusty and barren area of northern Port-au-Prince, Cannon Camp houses nearly 6,000 displaced Haitians in tiny and cramped spaces. Nestled among the smattering of tents is the home of a 50-something-year-old mother of 12.

The mother, who asked that her name not be used, was moved to the camp after she lost her small home after the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010. Her new home is a battered one-room tent extended by a partial tarp to make a second room.

Inside are two broken chairs, some blankets, a yellow laundry basket and a small charcoal grill. The hard-packed floor has been neatly swept thousands of times in the attempt to keep away dust so that the mother and her family can sleep and eat on the ground.

After the earthquake in 2010, international donations allowed the Haitian government to help displaced Haitians, with United Nations (U.N.) countries pledging a total of 9.9 billion dollars over three years. The money was to be deposited into the World Bank and distributed by the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC).

But after a few years, the flow of money stopped. Unlike other camps, Cannon Camp is on government land, so navigating bureaucratic processes renders negotiating and providing assistance even more difficult for non-profit organisations. Many Haitians have been left to their own devices, forced to cobble together a hardscrabble existence under brutal conditions.

Life in Cannon Camp

Cannon camp has no running water and no electricity. Rarely cleaned, the camp’s toilets are small and cramped and dirty. The roads are terrible and there is no place to store food.

The mother’s 22-year-old daughter is propped up against a wall of the tent, sitting on the ground on a cotton sheet, in pain during her last trimester of pregnancy with twins. She already has two other children. Her three-year-old daughter sits at her feet with a runny nose and semi-watery eyes.

Another of the mother’s daughters, this one younger, stands against a pole inside the tent, holding a crying one-year-old. Sitting on the floor near the laundry basket is another daughter trying to find the energy to fold the clean clothes that are tucked inside.

Not all of the mother’s children live in the same tent. The pregnant daughter has her own tent nearby. The mother informs me that her pregnant daughter, who is unmarried, is going to have the baby at the camp because the hospital will not take her until her water is broken.

“The camp is owned by the Haitian government,” she begins when asked whether the camp had any medical assistance. “At first they supplied water, medical assistance, food, and schools.  However, today these services have stopped and we do not receive any assistance of any kind. All the non-profits left too; we are left on our own without any help.”

As a result, the families in the camp, living in an utterly impoverished environment, must spend their own resources on critical supplies and services. It costs about 200 Haitian dollars to have a baby in the hospital, the mother tells IPS. “I don’t have the money.”

“I have had 12 children,” she adds. “I know what to expect.”

If the daughter had the money to go to the hospital, it would be difficult for her to get there while in labor, after her water breaks. The camp’s tents seem to have been arranged randomly, without any consideration for the terrain, and her tent is located near the top of a hill, about a kilometer away from the camp’s exist. The way down is rugged, torturous either by car or on foot in the hot and dusty climate.

The makeshift roads are laden with potholes of all sizes. And even if the daughter could exit the camp and can reach the asphalt road, the hospital is located near the centre of Port-au-Prince. It could take her hours to get to the hospital, depending on traffic and the time of day.

Ultimately, there seem to be only two possible solutions. One is to come up with the money so the daughter can go to the hospital early. The other is to give birth in the tent.

Water shortages

Water is not easily accessible in the camp, as residents must walk down the same treacherous road to the outside of the walled camp to purchase non-potable water. The return journey is even more difficult with a five-gallon bucket of water.

Fortunately, the government has done a good job educating Haitians about water safety. It has become routine for them to add chlorine tablets to the water to make it potable, and it is hoped that the number of deaths from cholera will be greatly reduced this rainy season in July.

One non-profit installed a container that would hold drinking water, but it was only filled one time. “They never came back to refill it,” says the mother. Filling it costs 300 U.S. dollars, and given the number of people living in the camp, the water does not last long. In many camps, violence often breaks out over control of this critical resource.

A few residents have learnt to be economically creative, converting their tents into shops to resell water at a higher price. Others are selling rice, beans and other items to help earn an income and to make it easier for residents to gather items without having to travel outside of the camp.

In this camp, everyone must find his or her own creative way to earn an income. Many of the residents sit at the base of the camp and sell various items on the streets.

Asked what she thought the camp needed most, the mother replies, “I want a new home,” then pauses and adds, “How can I say what is the most important? Everything is important – just look around. All of us are going to be here for a very long time…maybe forever.”