SOMALIA: Crisis deteriorates, aid agencies warn

[26 March 2008] - On 30 October 2007, 39 NGOs warned of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Somalia and an impending humanitarian catastrophe. Since then, the crisis engulfing Somalia has deteriorated dramatically while access to people in need continues to decrease; 360,000 people have been newly displaced and an additional half a million people are reliant on humanitarian assistance.

There are now more than one million internally displaced people in Somalia. Intense conflict in Mogadishu continues to force an average of 20,000 people from their homes each month. This, combined with record high food prices, hyperinflation and drought in large parts of the country is leaving communities struggling to survive. Extreme water and food shortages are expected to worsen across the country if the seasonal rains (April - June) fail as they are predicted to.

As the crisis worsens, Somali and international aid agencies are unable to respond adequately to the needs. Attacks on, and killings of, aid workers, the looting of relief supplies, and a lack of respect for international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict have left two million Somalis in need of basic humanitarian assistance.

For too long, the needs of ordinary Somalis have been forgotten. The undersigned agencies are asking the international community and all parties to the conflict to urgently focus their attention on the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Somalia. They must ensure access for humanitarian supplies, live up to their responsibility to protect civilians and address the environment of impunity. The humanitarian crisis will become more and more complex and will continue to deepen in the absence of a political solution to the current crisis.

According to UNICEF Somalia is the worst place in the world for children. Approximately one in seven children under the age of five in Somalia are acutely malnourished.

For more information, contact:
Andrea Pattison – Oxfam Novib Media and Information Officer
Mob: +254 (0) 736 476 514
Email: [email protected]

Beatrice Spadacini - Communications and Media Manager – Care International
Mob: +254 (0) 725 221 036
Email: [email protected]

Susannah Friedman - Emergency Coordinator - Save the Children (UK)
Mob: +254 (0) 733 628 192
Email: [email protected]

Further information

• Blast kills three Somali children (The Times South Africa, 18 March 2008)
• Somalia: Shell-Shocked - Civilians Under Siege in Mogadishu (Human Rights Watch, August 2007)
• Somalia: Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict (May 2007)
• CRIN's country page on Somalia