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...

28 November 2011 Mogadishu (The New York Times) — The Shabab militant group ordered 16 aid age nc ies to shut down on Monday. These are in ad dition to the many that they have already blocked from reaching starving people in Somalia’s famine zones. Heavily armed Shabab fig hters then raided the offices of several aid groups, looted equi pment an d ac cused the aid workers of being spies. Many of the aid organizations were helping to deliver lifesaving assistance to millions of Somalis suffering from food shortages brought on by the drought. It was not clear what prompted the Shabab to take action against the aid agencies. The group, which has imposed a draconian version of Islamic law in the areas it controls, is under military assault from several directions, facing troops from Ethiopia, Kenya, and the African Union. SOURCE: Rebels Resume Crackdown on Somali Aid http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/29/world/africa/somali-militants-shut-down-more-aid-operations.html?_r=1 RELIABIL...

23 November 2011 Dolo (Associated Press ) — Although Somalia is beginning a slow recovery from famine, many Somali women fear re turning home because of hard-line Islamic militants stalking the country, and of being unable to feed themselves and their children. According to a Somali United Nations worker, many of the men at the refugee camps are returning home to plant crops, but many women say they will not join them because of the security that the camps provide. SOURCE: Many Somali Famine Victims Afraid To Return Home http://www.chron.com/news/article/Many-Somali-famine-victims-afraid-to-return-home-2282563.php RELIABILITY : 9

18 November 2011 Johannesburg (Los Angeles Tim es) — Somalia’s hunger crisis has somewhat ceased, with the United Nations announcing that three of six famine regions were technically no longer in famine. These three regions, Bay, Bakool and Lower Shabelle remain in a critical situation and it is expected that 250,000 people will die in southern Somalia because of the crisis. The other three areas, Middle Shabelle, Afgoye and Mogadishu will remain in famine until at least the end of the year. According to aid agencies, all of southern Somalia is in an acute situation and death rates are still high. Although the global acute nutrition and crude death rates have declined in some areas, malnutrition rates continue to remain above the famine threshold levels in a large part of southern Somalia. Child death rates remain above crisis levels in several areas as well Somalia’s famine is the worst in the world and the worst in Somalia since its last famine in 1991. SOURCE: Expert: Somal...

05 November 2011 Nairobi (The Seattle Times) — Half a million victims of famine in southern Somalia, trapped inside territory contro lled by the rebel militia al-Shabaab, may be largely beyond the help of Western agencies, Somalia expert Ken Menkhaus writes in a paper for the Enough Project. Access to the south, the region hardest hit by famine, remains difficult and dangerous for humanitarian agencies, with some banned from operating in the south, and myriad rules and bureaucratic requirements for those allowed access. Al-Shabaab’s handling of the famine amounts to crimes against humanity, terrorizing people into submission, confiscating their produce and taxing them into poverty in the name of jihad. As they now starve, al-Shabaab denies them even the opportunity to migrate in search of food. Menkhaus says that the bizarre and extremist behavior of al-Shabaab, has made it unclear whether the West and the United Nations can realistically do much to help the 500,000 famine ...

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...

17 OCTOBER 2011 The Guardian (London)--The kidnappings of aid workers and tourists, torrential rains, and dangerously low agency funds are hampering relief efforts in the Horn of Africa. Medecins sans Frontieres (M SF) evacuated part of its team working in Dagahaley and Ifo, mostly in result of the kidnapping of two Spanish MSF women, and the shooting of their driver. Consequently, MSF's work has been hindered in the camp, where it has tackled severe malnutrition and disease. Recent heavy rains in Mogadishu have swept away makeshift camps around the capital. A deluge of rain flooded the shelters of roughly 2,800 people in the Sigale camp, sweeping away at least two children, and killing a pregnant woman. The Disasters Emergency Comm itt ee (DEC) has said that despite raising the third highest total in its history, there was still a shortage of funds to deal with the scale of the problems in the region. In conjunction, Save the Children is still appealing $100m to fund the emerg...

11 October 2011 London (The Guardian) —While agencies bring food and medical aid to famine-hit Somalia, escalating sexual violence is treated as a low priority. This is in part due to the difficulty for large foreign-aid organizations to access the women in need, those living in al-Shabaab -controlled internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. For sexual predators, famine and vulnerability equals opportunity. A recent United Nations assessment reported that cases of rape have quadrupled during the famine. If a victim of rape dares to complain, she is accused of promiscuity or “speaking against the brotherhood,” both crimes punishable by beheading or stoning. Solutions outside the traditional big-aid model have proven to be effective. Grassroots Somali leader Fartun Adan opened Sister Somalia , a rape crisis center inside Mogadishu’s government-controlled safe zone. She has developed a malleable direct-aid structure informed by local context, catering to victims’ specific needs. SOURCE: ...

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...