It's Almost Too Depressing to Look At.

Since October 2010 Somalia has either been at the point of famine or in full blown famine and it's African neighbours; Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti have been at the point of famine. The scale of this catastrophe is so overwhelming that the bureaucracy that is needed to deal with produces thousands of fresh pages of documents every single day. So you'll excuse me if I'm not fully up to date.

Apart from the obvious problem of tens of thousands of deaths the famine has created a massive flow of refugees - some 2000 per day - out of Somalia and into Kenya and Ethiopia. This has completely overwhelmed refugee camps in the Dollo Ado region of Ethiopia and the Dadaab region of Kenya. With Kenya being the closest and therefore worst hit the Ifo1 refugee camp has seen it's population treble far exceeding it's capacity and forcing new arrivals to set up their own camps outside where death, rape, violence and disease are an every day part of life. Working through a Kenya government that is obviously worried about it's own people Britain saw this as a perfect opportunity to have a discussion about my current situation, especially the occupants of #50 Beechwood Avenue. After weeks of frantic discussion the Kenyan government - on Britain's behalf - finally admitted that they had an unused refugee camp (Ifo2) ready to take Ifo1's problem neighbours and set to work building a third camp (Ifo3). Even with most of the overflow transferred life in all three of the Ifo camps is still very grim with 5 deaths per day and orphaned infants being left to fend for themselves. In both the Dadaab and Dollo Ado camps there is major concern over an impending outbreak of diseases like measles, cholera and malaria all of which are normally fatal for people suffering from malnutrition. There have already been outbreaks or measles in the Dadaab camps and aid agencies led by the United Nations (UN) are frantically carrying out a vaccination program.

In Somalia itself the situation is much more complicated with western nations led by Britain, USA and France still treating the crisis as an opportunity to overthrow al-Shabab and impose the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). As a result the UN is still banned from the country. However the reality of life on the ground in Somalia depends on which particular person you're talking too in a particular area on a particular day. So working through local charities and community groups the UN is gradually getting more and more food aid in and getting a clearer picture of the scale of the problem. What they are seeing is not pretty. With the Bay region added to the list today (5/9/11) all six of Somalia's six regions south of the upper Shabelle region are in famine with an average of ten death per hundred thousand per day - double the threshold for famine. The regions between upper Shabelle and Nugal sometimes known as Puntland are in a phase 4 food crisis and are approaching famine (phase 5). Even the relatively more stable regions sometimes known as Somaliland are in a phase 3 crisis and are approaching phase 4. As al-Shabab withdrew from the capital Mogadishu in early August large numbers of Somalis followed them worsening the situation in the famine hit southern regions although this problem seems to be settling now. The people who remain in the makeshift camps in the capital are facing serious shortages on both food and food aid and have to contend with outbreaks of cholera, a disease for which there is no vaccine or real treatment.

The increased access to Somalia has created tensions between charities like the one's funded by Britain's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and the UN. The charities are happy to sit in the refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia and give out aid there because it's safer, logistically simpler and easier for them to take lots of photographs of the good work they're doing to send to their donors. What the UN want is for those charities to either go into Somalia or share their resources with charities already in Somalia so the problem can be tackled at source. This is because large movements of refugees destabilise both the country they've come from and the country they've gone too making the whole problem much worse. It can also become de-facto ethnic cleansing.

The crisis has also exacerbated an already ongoing dispute over Cash versus Vouchers. Put simply beyond food aid and medication refugees also need everyday things like blankets, cooking pots, clothes etc. Although aid agencies will happily pay for all these things it's long been agreed that it is best if the refugees buy them themselves from local merchants to avoid totally destroying the local economy. The only argument is over the best way to do this; either by giving the refugees local currency or by giving them vouchers that the local merchants can exchange for cash with the charities. Normally I'm all for cash because vouchers make the local merchants dependent on the charities and the local economy still gets destroyed. However given the severity of the current crisis in this instance vouchers will be better in the short term because flooding a disaster area with huge volumes of cash leads to violence, crime and corruption. There should definitely be a switch back to cash though just as soon as the crisis phase has passed.

Speaking of cash the UN's main problem is that they've only received 59% of the US$2.4bn that it needs. So if you have any spare cash feel free to donate it too;

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

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

However I would warn against any Somali's living abroad - especially in Britain, USA, France - using wire transfer services like Western Union to send cash directly to Somalia. This method allows the intelligence services in the host nation to gather huge amounts of information about social groups and funding mechanisms. This is how Britain helped Sri Lanka to destroy the Tamils.

Of course if you are a high net worth individual or represent a company you should first read through this leaflet; http://ochanet.unocha.org/p/Documents/Horn%20of%20Africa%20-%20How%20to%20Help,%203Aug2011.pdf
and then contact the UN directly because they will be able to advise you how to get the most bang for your buck.