Global Security Studies Practicum

06 December 2011 London (Reuters) — The crisis in the Horn of Africa which has left more than 13 million people at risk of starvation is said to continue into the spring, and possibly the summer. The crisis, triggered by the worst drought in decades, has affected Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti. Kristalina Georgieva, European Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, said the Sahel region faces very dramatic hunger next year and feared some countries there are ignoring the problem. Georgieva said she was extremely concerned about the famine’s long-term repercussions on the region because of the vast numbers of Somalis who had fled to refugee camps in Kenya, Ethiopia and Yemen. Instability in Somalia meant they were unlikely to return home once the crisis was over. The commissioner said there were probably 400,000 to 500,000 Somalis in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, plagued by unrest, and that the flow of refugees from poor country to poor country has stability and security impl...

02 November 2011 London (The Guardian) — Natural disasters, armed conflict and famine devastating the Horn of Africa have caused an increase in human smuggling and trafficking in the region. Women and children, most fleeing drought and conflict in Somalia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Uganda are being trafficked into Kenya and sold into prostitution, domestic labor, or cattle herding with a promise of a better life. Womankind Kenya , an NGO based in Kenya’s North Eastern Province, estimates that 50 young girls are trafficked or smuggled to Nairobi each week. The bulk of the distribution of girls to different parts of Kenya and across the world occurs from the central market in Nairobi. The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 10,000 people are trafficked into Kenya’s Coast province each year. In efforts to curb trafficking, President Mwai Kibaki signed The Counter Trafficking in Persons Act in 2010 . Under the law, trafficking in persons is now cr...

5 October 2011 (Kenya, Africa) Somali pirates have made the coastline of Somalia a no-go area for sailors. In recent years the Somalia Pirates have hijacked small and large ships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. However, pirates have made recent alterations to their tactics of attack. The Pirates are aware that in international waters they are up against the fire power of US warships and other countries. Pirates have now found easier targets. Somali Pirates have gone into coastal resorts in Kenya. On 11 September at Kenya’s Lamu Archipelago Resort a Briton couple was attacked in their cottage, David Tebbutt was shot and killed while resisting his attackers and his wife, Judith was grabbed and taken aboard the pirates speedboat. She is believed to have been taken into Somalia. On 1 October another attacked took place in Manda Island where a French woman was taken. Officials representing the Kenyan government said that the Kenya Navy pursued a chase with the pirates and engaged in a...

Durin g an annual meeting, the head of the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) , Antonio Guterres , criticized the international community for reacting too slowly to a deterioration in the Horn of Africa hunger crisis . Aid workers and critics say a string of early warnings about drought and failed rains in the region has been months if not years in the making. More than 13 million people face severe hunger across East Africa. Somalia is at the epicenter of the crisis, with 750,000 people facing imminent starvation. Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab has refused to allow food shipments to many of the famine-hit areas of which it controls. Other suffering countries in the region include Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, and Uganda. Guterres used his speech to highlight what many U.N. officials expect to be the increasingly unpredictable nature, frequency and severity of tomorrow’s humanitarian crisis. He appealed to UNHCR’s executive committee for a better understanding of the need for more funding fl...