United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appealed to the international community to give more emergency humanitarian aid to Somalia. In his second visit to the country since 2017, Guterres said the Somali people deserve the solidarity of the international community to effectively respond to the drought and continue the fight against the militant group al-Shabab.
"I call on donors and the international community to step up their support; to urgently fund the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan which is currently just 15% funded," he said.
Guterres said there was a need for massive international support to Somalia, not only to respond to the humanitarian crisis but also for stabilization efforts and security in the country. Somalia is waging an operation against al-Shabab in central and southern parts of the country.
"Somalis make virtually no contribution to climate change. The Somalis are among the greatest victims. Nearly 5 million people are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity and, of course, rising prices make matters worse," Guterres said.
The visit by Guterres raises the profile of the humanitarian situation in Somalia and shows the UN's solidarity with the most vulnerable people in the country. In January, the Somali government and the UN launched a $2.6 billion humanitarian appeal for 2023. However, less than 20% of that appeal has been funded.
The situation in Somalia requires urgent and robust international mobilization of resources. Somalia narrowly escaped a famine declaration in 2017 thanks to concerted humanitarian efforts. This year may be more difficult because of the combined effects of low funding and adverse weather predictions.
Besides the drought, Somalia is also facing deadly fighting in the contested Lascanood (Las Anod) town in the Sool region, which has resulted in hundreds of people dying and tens of thousands more being displaced inside Somalia or fleeing to neighboring Ethiopia. The war against al-Shabab is also moving to southern parts of the country.
During the joint media briefing, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud urged the U.N. chief to lend support to the stabilization efforts in the country.
Abdiaziz Isaack, a security and political analyst with the Hamad Bin Khalifa Civilization Center, told VOA that there is also an urgent need to finance the post-al-Shabab era in Somalia. He said the ongoing humanitarian situation in Somalia has many components and security is central, adding that the call by Mohamud on the UN to fund the stabilization of newly liberated areas is crucial.
Isaack said by visiting Somalia in the middle of a military campaign against al-Shabab, Guterres was underscoring the importance the international community attaches to the campaign. The visit also is a morale boost for the Somali government and the forces on the ground.
Guterres first came to Somalia in March 2017, when the country was facing yet another deadly drought that the UN had warned risked degenerating into a famine. Somalia expects this visit by Guterres will signal the urgency and gravity of the current situation and provoke a quick international response.
After meeting President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the Secretary-General then went off to Baidoa, where he visited a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs). For almost an hour, he walked through the camp and listened to the stories of families, seeing first-hand the challenges brought by the dire humanitarian situation in the country.
Guterres stressed that it is time for the international community to mobilize much more support for the Somalis to guarantee the security of their people and fight terrorism and to solve the humanitarian drama that he witnessed first-hand at the IDP camp.
In a related development, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) announced today that thousands of newly arrived Somali refugees in Ethiopia are relocated to a new settlement. The relocation of the refugees in the Somali region of Ethiopia, who fled clashes in Somalia’s Lascanood town, started with 1,036 of the most vulnerable people transferred from border areas to a new settlement.
The Government of Ethiopia has allocated 400 hectares where refugees can settle and access existing services, such as health care, water and education. Transportation to the new site, located some 50 kilometers from the border, is being organized by Ethiopia’s Refugees and Returnees Service (RRS) with UNHCR, and partner organizations.
Since clashes started in the Sool region of Somalia in mid-February, thousands of people have arrived in the Somali region of Ethiopia seeking safety. As of last week, 91,000 people had been registered by RRS. Refugees continue to arrive, fleeing ongoing violence in their home country. Laascaanood is the capital of the Sool region.
Most refugees are women, children and older people. According to the UN agency, among them are more than 3,400 unaccompanied and separated children and adolescents. They told UNHCR harrowing stories of how they became separated when clashes began and have since been unable to re-establish contact with their families or guardians.
People in Somalia are facing already one of the most complex humanitarian crises in the world. The crisis is driven by conflict, food insecurity, political instability, climatic shocks and economic decline. Even worse, the humanitarian crisis in Somalia continues to deteriorate. A devastating drought in the country has reached unprecedented levels this year. Five consecutive rainy seasons have failed, the longest and most severe drought in Somalia’s recent history.
An estimated 3 million Somalis are internally displaced, and about 700,000 people have fled to neighboring countries. In 2022, about 1.8 million people in Somalia have been forced to flee from their homes, including 1.2 million due to severe drought and 600,000 people due to conflict and violence. An estimated 8.25 million people, nearly half of the population, are this year in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: Thousands of newly arrived Somali refugees in Ethiopia relocated to new settlement, UNHCR briefing notes, April 11, 2023
https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2023/4/643519f74/thousands-newly-arrived-somali-refugees-ethiopia-relocated-new-settlement.html