Where hope is a cruel mirage

The queue stretches for miles. It consists of mainly women and children — all in different stages of death. The fortunate ones have not had food for day. The less fortunate ones can’t remember when they had their last meal. A mother holds her little one close enough to feel its heart beat. The child is severely malnourished. It has been reduced to an emancipated foetus with a swollen abdomen and glazed eyes. Probably the only way to ascertain a semblance of life is through the heartbeat. The mother hopes to make it to the head of the queue. Sometimes the child won’t make it or sometimes the mother. Maybe both won’t. If they are lucky both will make it alive. They are waiting under the blaze of the unforgiving sun to join the 3 lakh registered (and thousands of unregistered) refugees at the world’s largest refugee camp, the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Northern Kenya.

It is estimated that there are more than four million starving people in Somalia alone. Thousands (an exact count is impossible) have died and more than 7,50,000 are said to be ‘high-risk’ starvation groups, which means close to eight lakh people are at the risk of dying due to the non-availability of food and water. To put that figure in perspective — imagine the whole city of Kochi (which has an estimated population of around 6-7 lakh) starving without access for a square meal or reliable water to drink.

Over two decades of lawlessness and clan wars, a non-functional government coupled with the rise of Islamic terror — Somalia today is the stuff of what nightmares are made of.

But this was a tragedy that could have been avoided. The first red flags appeared 11 months ago when the October rains failed. When the rains gave a miss in April the UN and other agencies should have had a plan to tackle the situation. Instead, thanks to the uncompromising attitude of al-Shabaab (an Islamic terrorist outfit) and the grandstanding of the US, what the world literally did was to sit on its hands. Washington’s listing of al-Shabaab as a terrorist organisation in 2008 restricted more than 80 per cent of the aid that was flowing into Somalia because agencies aiding terrorist organisations in any form face penalisation. This meant that food that was until then reaching the starving thousands in southern Somalia stopped overnight.

The restrictions put on al-Shabaab crippled it to a certain extent. A great part of the aid was until then siphoned off by the militants and sold in the market. This stopped. They were being funded from the Middle East and other areas. This started to trickle and on August 6 they withdrew from Mogadishu, capital of Somalia. But in the process of restricting a few thousand al-Shabaab militants the United States choked millions of starving Somalis. Was that the only way?

Today Mogadishu is seeing people arrive in tens and thousands as al-Shabaab militants, who have ties with al-Qaeda, have retreated and left the city. This coming back of sorts is happening after almost five years in which the Islamic militants have been waging a war with the African Union troops who support a weak Transitional Federal Government, supported by Ethiopia who, in turn, are supported by the United States.

Terror in Somalia

The United Nations, African Union and other international watchers unanimously agree that the presence of terror groups has aggravated the humanitarian crisis. In other words the rise of extremism has a direct correlation with the famine. Al-Shabaab is the principle militant outfit in Somalia. In addition to spreading violence in Somalia and trying to establish its foothold in the neighbouring countries, al-Shabaab is causing numerous roadblocks in aid reaching the needy. Reports in July stated that al-Shabaab refused international aid in the regions under its control stating that there was no famine or crisis in those regions. It has stopped agencies from providing aid citing that aid is a means through which the West indoctrinates the people. Al-Shabaab leader Fuad Mohamed Qalaf in 2010 had sworn allegiance to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. It should be noted that the almost negligible power of the Transitional Federal Government, in certain pockets in the country, has led to the thriving of extremist groups.

Neighbours React to Famine

Much before the media around the world picked up the crisis in the Horn of Africa, local media was pointing to the crisis that was unfolding. Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania, all countries geographically close to Somalia, are feeling the heat of the famine. Kenya and Ethiopia seem to be the worst hit with Somali refugees pouring into the camps in these countries. Many of the people here believe that in addition to the failed harvest and drought, the lack of planning for such a scenario has led to the famine worsening. The Nairobi Star, a Kenyan daily, reported that “Kenyans are starving not because the land is infertile, but because there is total mix up of priorities.”

For many people around the world Somalia and the Horn of Africa might be a tragedy unfolding at a comfortable distance. But to ignore the crisis and move ahead will be wrong on two counts. First, it shows a lack of humaneness to walk past failing to sympathise with the innocent children suffering for no fault of theirs. Secondly, these conditions now unfolding in the region are fertile ground for extremism and lawlessness. It should be a surprise that sea piracy (which affects all major countries including India) is a thriving industry in Somalia.

Playwright and a pioneer of the Theatre of the Absurd Eugene Ionesco said “Ideologies separate us, dreams and anguish bring us together.” It’s the dreams of the mothers and anguish in the eyes of the thousands queuing outside the various refugee camps that should bring the world together for a catastrophe that is of a magnitude not witnessed in the recent past.

(This article was published by The New Indian Express on Monday September 19, 2011. Link: http://expressbuzz.com/school/somalia-the-land-where-hope-is-a-cruel-mirage/315230.html