NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A senior U.N. humanitarian official said Tuesday he saw Somali refugees living in “the worst conditions I have ever seen” during a tour of the Horn of Africa.
the Horn of Africa, said that governments must do more to ensure drought and hunger are eradicated in the long-term.
At least 7.5 million people are suffering from the worst drought in a decade in parts of Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and Djibouti. Cattle are dying and food supplies to 18 million people are in jeopardy.
“It was especially moving to visit the country where several thousand … displaced were living under the worst conditions I have ever seen,” Bondevik said of his visit to lawless Somalia. He added, however, that Somalis want to “reconcile and rebuild their economy.”
Somalia has had no effective government since 1991, when warlords ousted a dictatorship and then turned on each other, carving the nation of an estimated 8.2 million people into a patchwork of fiefdoms. A transitional federal government that was formed following peace talks in neighboring Kenya is struggling to assert its authority.
Bondevik also said he could not confirm reports that 90,000 tons of food aid were being left to rot in Eritrean warehouses. The Eritrean government, he said, made it clear that “the discussion about this was closed. The warehouses were closed, that the government has the keys.”
But he said he has asked Eritrea to issue a report on the matter.
In the past year Eritrea has rejected or suspended the operations of several aid agencies. The government previously has accused some foreign agencies of sympathizing with Eritrea’s hostile neighbor, Ethiopia, where aid workers also are trying to combat the effects of the region’s five-year drought.
Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war. The two fought a 1998-2000 border war that ended with a fragile peace agreement. Efforts to demarcate their border under the terms of their 2000 peace deal have stalled after Ethiopia objected to the awarding the town of Badme and other territories to Eritrea.
Source: AP, May 2, 2006
