TFG criticized over Somalia famine

Wed Aug 10, 2011 12:14PM GMT

An internally displaced Somali girl carries her sibling as they wait to collect food relief from the World Food Programme (WFP) settlement in the capital Mogadishu on August 7, 2011.

Somalia's transitional federal government has come under fire over its management of the food crisis, which is pushing millions of Somalis to the brink of starvation.

Hundreds of refugees, who fled drought and famine in southern Somalia and arrived at the Badbado camp in the Wadajir district of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in recent days, are leaving the camp due to lack of security, plunder of humanitarian aid and numerous cases of rape by government soldiers, a Press TV correspondent reported on Tuesday.

“I fled from the [Badbado] camp because many girls and women were raped; humanitarians aids were looted; and no one is taking any action against them,” 67-year-old Farhiya Mohamed told Press TV.

She added, “Instead of being witness to those cruel acts, I chose to die here outside the former Italian church in Harmweyne districts of Mogadishu.”

Most of Somalia's internally displaced people, including Farhiya Mohamed, come from the southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions, hardest-hit by the ongoing drought and famine in the Horn of Africa nation.

“Three weeks ago, I arrived at Badbado camp from Bakool [region] in search of a better life. However, the situation is worse here since corruption and clan discrimination is rampant,” Farhiya Mohamed noted.

“Camp authorities distribute food only among those whom they know or are related to,” she stressed.

The drought and famine have affected more than 11.8 million people across Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. Somalia has been hardest-hit by what is described as the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in 60 years.

According to the United Nations, it is estimated that a quarter of Somalia's population of 9.9 million are now either internally displaced or living outside the country as refugees.

The UN has declared famine in five regions in Somalia, warning that the international humanitarian response to the crisis has been insufficient.

Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew the country's former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

MP/JG/HGH