I'm Sorry to Nag But.

Today (25/7/11) the G20 chaired by France held an emergency summit in Rome, Italy to find the best way to tackle the east Africa food crisis and the famine in Somalia. The United Nations (UN) used the summit to appeal to donors for US$1.6bn to tackle the crisis.

Meanwhile the situation in Somalia has not been helped by the fact that a spokesman claiming to represent the al-Shabaab group issued a statement on Friday (22/7/11) declaring that there was no famine in Somalia and international aid groups would continue to be banned from the country as the whole thing was politically motivated. Assuming that the spokesman really does speak for al-Shabaab (in Somalia you never can tell) I have to say that I agree with him - up to a point.

For decades western governments, especially Britain and the USA have used international aid groups to gather intelligence on or simply tear apart many African nations, especially Somalia to use their populations as scientific test subjects, steal their natural resources or simply to battle Islam. The east Africa food crisis is a prime example of this with Britain deliberately making the situation seem slightly worse then it is to trigger a UN-wide discussion on many things including it's own role in the UN post-Libya. What's different about the situation in Somalia though is that years of fighting and foreign interference has left the population of Somalia more vulnerable to the shortage or rainfall and crop failures that are affecting the entire region. So I believe that there is a famine in Somalia and I also believe that the other nations in the UN are using it as an opportunity to kick back against nations like Britain who really don't care how bad the situation gets. This effort from the UN has already forced the USA to lift it's ban on supplying aid to areas controlled by al-Shabaab.

Therefore al-Shabaab really need to establish a channel of communication with the UN to negotiate a mutually agreeable way for food aid to be delivered. After all if al-Shabaab continue trying to tell starving people that there is no famine it will back fire on them badly. This is especially true because the USA is already planning to use the famine to undercut al-Shabaab's authority by simply parachuting aid into the country.

So in summary; The situation in Somalia is very bad with some 3.2 million people facing death by starvation. The UN are trying to solve this problem but face a difficult and dangerous job. One thing that would really help is for them to get the funds they need. So if you have any spare cash feel free to donate it too;

The UN's World Food Program; https://www.wfp.org/donate/fillthecup?icn=homepage-donate-cup&ici=big-button-link

or

Unicef; http://www.supportunicef.org/site/pp.asp?c=9fLEJSOALpE&b=7542627