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Catastrophe looms in Somalia
25/03/2008 20:20 - (SA)
Mohamed Olad Hassan
Mogadishu - Forty local and international aid agencies warned on Tuesday of an impending humanitarian catastrophe in war-ravaged Somalia, if world leaders do not "urgently focus their attention" on the 'Horn of Africa' country.
The organisations made the call a day before the UN Security Council was to discuss Somalia, a country the UN has said faced the worst humanitarian situation in Africa.
In addition to the soaring food prices, inflation and drought in large parts of Somalia, the country has more than a million people displaced from their homes, said the joint statement by the organisations, including Save the Children, World Vision, Oxfam and the International Medical Corps.
The violence in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, forces about 20 000 people to flee their homes every month, the groups said.
An impoverished nation of 7 million, Somalia has been in chaos and run by a weak, UN-backed, transitional government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991 by clan-based warlords who then turned on each other.
'Crisis will deepen'
"For too long, the needs of ordinary Somalis have been forgotten," the aid agencies said, urging the "international community and all parties to the conflict to urgently focus their attention on the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Somalia."
"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."
The organisations listed a catalogue of obstacles that limited their humanitarian work, such as administrative delays, restrictions or delays of goods, attacks on humanitarian workers, hijackings and piracy.
EU visit Mogadishu
A group of EU diplomats visited Mogadishu on Tuesday to show support for the Somali government's recent announcement to talk with all its opponents, including Islamic militants.
The EU was committed to help, financially and morally, "the government in implementing an all-inclusive political dialogue with the opposition," said Elisabeth Barbier, the ambassador of France, who led the delegation.
'Ethiopians should leave'
Mohamed Hassan Had, chairman of the Hawiye Cultural and Unity Council, who met with the EU envoys, said his council told them they "will give the government a chance."
"We told them that Ethiopians should leave the country," said Had, whose council represents one of the largest and most powerful clans in Somalia.
"We can guarantee the stability of the government if that happens."
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