The “very dire” humanitarian crisis in Somalia is the worst in Africa for many years, says Oxfams co-ordinator for the failed Horn of Africa state, BBC online reports Tuesday.
Many of its hundreds of thousands of internally-displaced people, the worlds largest such concentration, have little food or shelter, he said.
Civilians in the capital, Mogadishu, have been fleeing intense fighting between Islamist guerrillas and pro-government forces. Many thousands of people, mainly women and children, have fled to Afgooye, just south of the city where most are sheltering under trees with little to eat or drink, he says.
Hassan Noor, Oxfams humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia, told the BBC, that circumstances in the capital were “very dire”.
– There are hundreds of children all over the area with tubes on their faces and saline drips (drops med saltopløsende midler) on their hands. Some of them are actually unconscious and suffering from all sorts of diseases, mainly acute diarrhoea and cholera, he noted, adding:
– I have seen the situation in Darfur, northern Uganda, some parts of Congo, but what is actually happening now in Somalia is indeed the worst kind of humanitarian situation in Africa in many years.
A moderate Islamist president took office in January but even his introduction of Sharia law to the strongly Muslim country has not appeased the guerrillas. There are 4.300 African Union peacekeepers in the capital to help bolster the government, but they do not have a mandate to pursue the insurgents.
The UN last month warned that drought had left nearly half of Somalias nine million population malnourished and some 3,2 million in urgent need of food aid.
It is estimated at least one million people have been internally displaced by almost perpetual civil conflict in the failed Horn of Africa nation since the collapse of its central government in 1991.
