In Somalia: Arne Grieg Riisnæs (text and photos
As drought on the Horn of Africa deepens every day, and hundreds of thousands of people leave their homes and villages in a desperate hunt for food to survive, Norwegian Church Aid and ACT Alliance is mobilising a massive relief operation in southern Somalia.
253 tonnes of wheat, cornflour, cooking oil and sugar was transported this weekend from the city of Belet Hawa to the Garbarharey district in the Gedo province, forming a food convoy that will feed 13,300 people for six months.
However, this is just the beginning. NCA and ACT Alliance will continue to distribute a total of 4,977 tonnes of crucial, life-saving food for nearly 60,000 people in the Gedo province over the next half year. Of the 325,000 people in the region, the UN estimates that 150,000 wil be entirely dependent on aid if they are to survive the next six months.
Should the longed-for and expected rain come in adequate amounts this autumn, the hope is that spring crops will improve the current disastrous situation at least to some extent.
(NCA and ACT Alliance will distribute a total of 4977 tonnes of food aid over the next 6 months to Gedo province in Somalia)
A starved region
Most of the vast Gedo province is controlled by the Islamist al-Shabaab rebels, who since the drought hit nearly two years ago have prevented international organisations from delivering various forms of disaster assistance to the population. While the famine takes more and more lives, this starved province has finally received tonnes of food from NCA.
"Through 20 years of work in the Gedo province, Norwegian Church Aid has built up a solid confidence among the population, regardless of which side they take in the conflict. This allows us as the first international organisation and network to help tens of thousands of famine victims in al-Shabaab controlled areas," said Abdi Mohamed Egal, NCA team leader in Gedo province.
"However, it is equally important that we are able reach out to people with aid where they live, to prevent more from embarking on week-long marches, in which many - especially children - die in the hunt for food. This is also very much a question of human dignity. It goes without saying that people would rather make do where they live and belong, instead of ending up as yet another of the hundreds of thousands of people already living in refugee camps," says Egal.
(The first tonnes of food aid leave Belet Hawa for Garbarharey district in Somalia)
More than relief aid
Norwegian Church Aid / ACT Alliance has for the last 20 years established several long-term projects that enable people to cope with long drought periods.
"In an area that is constantly exposed to various degrees of drought, the solution cannot be reduced to pumping relief aid into it as soon as we face a critical shortage of rain. We need to focus on disaster risk reduction. For example, by giving people the ability to pump water from rivers and engage in effective rainwater harvesting, we enable them to face a far more secure situation when the rain fail to appear. This must to a much greater extent influence the development aid of the future," says Gaim Kebreab, Norwegian Church Aid's area representative in Somalia / Kenya.
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