Day 1
Few countries invite misrepresentation quite as much as Somalia. Geo-political jargon dismisses the country as a “failed state”. Beyond that, most of us get little further than the militaristic schmaltz of “Black Hawk Down”.
Some things we know. Several peace processes have come and gone since the government of Siad Barre collapsed in 1991. That was followed by a drought and famine thought to have killed 200,000 people. The resulting chaos and displacement combined with the power vacuum to unleash a civil war of unprecedented ferocity. It has continued on and off to this day.
If we’re looking for deeper understanding, a study of Somalia’s clan system reveals a bewildering intertwining of overlapping and competing loyalties that can shift on an apparently daily basis. Not only that, a conflict that began as a fight for power between the major clans has since descended into a battle for resources between countless sub-clans.
Put simply, Somalia defies neat analysis.
In a sense, the failure of last year’s two rainy seasons provided a frame of reference the outside world could understand: the threat of famine. As always, it was the numbers game that provided the first point of call.
As many as two million people were said to be at risk of starvation in Somalia and some 400,000 were thought to have abandoned their homes in search of food. Farmers saw their harvests fail and pastoralists watched their herds die. The total drought-affected area – including parts of northeastern Kenya and southwest Ethiopia – came to about 850,000 square miles (2.2 million sq km).
But like the cinematic cliches of rampaging gunmen and cowering civilians, disaster statistics tell us very little. They’re tempting because they lull us into feeling that we understand; they soothe us because they give us distance. They make sense.
The reality, inevitably, is more complex.
Field assessments carried out by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in November and December last year revealed an abnormally severe water, livelihoods and food crisis. The subsequent emergency operation included distribution of food, household items and seeds, as well as livestock interventions to support ailing herds. More than one million people have benefited.
But reports are coming in that the long rains – known locally as the gu – have returned to many parts of the country. Tomorrow I’m heading into Somalia with a colleague from the British Red Cross to see what this really means.
Source: Reuters, May 18, 2006
