Mali: Tribunal Militaire de Mopti – Communique (06.04.2022)

Somalia: Somali NGO Consortium letter to Secretary General Antonio Guterres – Re: Urgent action needed to avert a possible famine in Somalia in 2022 (06.04.2022)

Mali: Communique du Ministere de la Defense et des Anciens Combattants (06.04.2022)

Mali: Ministere de la Defense et des Anciens Combattants – DIRPA – Communique No. 027 de l’Etat-Major General des Armees (05.04.2022)

Somalia: UN expert warns health care standards “dangerously low” (05.04.2022)

The UN expert called on the international community to ensure access to basic social services including drinking water, sanitation facilities, housing, health care education for all children, in particular girls.

MOGADISHU, Somalia, April 5, 2022 – The UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia has urged the central government to improve health care services, end child marriage and ensure protection of journalists.

At the end of a six-day visit to the country, Isha Dyfan acknowledged the steps taken by the authorities and humanitarian partners to implement an Emergency Response and Preparedness Plan and provide food, water and other essential items to support IDP populations in Baidoa and other areas of the country.

The UN expert called on the international community to ensure access to basic social services including drinking water, sanitation facilities, housing, health care education for all children, in particular girls. She also urged the Government to expand the delivery of public health services, in light of the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic, and increase funding for its health system.

“Access to health care remains dangerously low in the country,” Dyfan told journalists in Mogadishu at the end of her visit on 2 April.

“There is only one government hospital in the capital, Mogadishu, and people often have to seek health care services at a private health facility and pay out of their own pocket very high amounts for their own treatment. Only a few people can afford these services, thereby leading to high child and maternal mortality.”

She also called on the authorities to end forced and child marriages.

Dyfan said she was concerned by arbitrary arrest and detention of journalists by security personnel across the country and reiterated the importance of respecting the right to freedom of expression and opinion.

The UN expert met State officials, representatives of humanitarian organisations and civil society, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) and UN agencies, funds and programmes.

Mali: Adema – Parti Africain pour la Solidarite et la Justice – Communique de mise au point par rapport aux propos attribues aux panelistes dont M. Tiebile Drame et Dr. Oumar Mariko lors de leurs prises de parole a la journee de d’echanges sur les 31 ans d’exercice democratique au Mali (04.04.2022)

Mali: Ministere de la Defense et des Anciens Combattants – DIRPA – Communique No. 026 de l’Etat-Major General des Armees (01.04.2022)

Mali: MINUSMA – La MINUSMA preoccupee par la degradation de la situation securitaire dans la region des trois frontieres et son impact sur les populations civiles (31.03.2022)

Mali: Ministere de la Defense et des Anciens Combattants – DIRPA – Communique No. 025 de l’Etat-Major General des Armees (29.03.2022)

United Nations: As impact of drought worsens, growing risk of famine in Somalia (28.03.2022)

The situation has deteriorated, with the current drought wiping out crop harvests and livestock dying due to a lack of water and pasture, depriving many pastoral communities of their only source of income.

LUUQ, Somalia, March 28, 2022 – Standing in front of his makeshift home in a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in southern Somalia’s Luuq district, Ahmad Hassan Yarrow looks out towards what remains of the Juba River and shakes his head forlornly.

Of all the droughts I have experienced in my 70 years, I have not seen anything as severe as this,” he says as he contemplates the scenery before him.

Mr. Yarrow is one of hundreds of thousands of Somalis displaced by the country’s most recent and worsening drought, leaving their homes in the search for food, water and shelter.

The Luuq district, located in the Federal Member State of Jubaland’s Gedo region, is intersected by the Juba River. For more than three months now, the river’s waters have steadily dwindled, leaving only brown puddles.

As the water evaporated, so did the hopes of local communities – made up mainly of farmers and pastoralists – which rely on the river for their livelihoods. Under a searing sun, their crops wilted and their livestock died, and, like many other Somalis around the country, the communities came a step closer to starvation.

We lost everything in the drought,” says Salado Madeer Mursaal, a 28-year-old mother of one, who has also sought help at the IDP camp. “We need food, shelter, water and other basic human needs.”

Risk of famine’

With decades of conflict, recurrent climate shocks and disease outbreaks, including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the humanitarian situation in Somalia was already grave. Even before the current drought, an estimated 7.7 million Somalis were in need of humanitarian assistance and protection this year – up 30 per cent from one year.

The situation has deteriorated, with the current drought wiping out crop harvests and livestock dying due to a lack of water and pasture, depriving many pastoral communities of their only source of income.

The country has seen three consecutive failed rainy seasons. The fourth, which is supposed to start in April and continue through June, is also projected to be below average. If that happens, then we are looking at a risk of famine,” says the Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Adam Abdelmoula.

The United Nations and its implementing partners have been heavily engaged in providing humanitarian support. In February, they collectively reached 1.6 million people with assistance, but, with Somalia’s federal authorities, they are calling for more funds to provide urgent humanitarian assistance.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Somalia is currently one of the most severely drought-impacted country in the Horn of Africa. Some 4.5 million Somalis are directly affected by the drought, and about 700,000 people have been displaced.

Children are in an especially vulnerable position.

“As we speak now, 1.4 million children under five years of age are severely malnourished, and if we don’t step up our intervention, it is projected that 330,000 of them will be on the brink of death from severe acute malnutrition. The situation cannot be more dire than that,” says Mr. Abdelmoula, who also serves as the UN Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for Somalia and the UN Resident Coordinator.

So I call on all those who are able to contribute, including the Somali diaspora, the business community, the traditional and non-traditional donors, everyone, to act and to act now,” he adds.

In the 2022 Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan, the United Nations seeks nearly $1.5 billion to provide humanitarian assistance to 5.5 million of the country’s most vulnerable people, including 1.6 million IDPs, 3.9 million non-IDPs, and people with disabilities.

However, just about four per cent – $56.1 million – has been received so far.

Seeking safety and shelter

In Luuq’s camps, there is a palpable mix of relief and resignation among the displaced.

After walking for several days, Fatuma Madeer Mursaal and her family arrived at the Boyle IDP camp in Luuq. There, they joined the more than 4,000 people seeking aid.

We are farmers and we also had our livestock but all animals died in the drought. We have nothing left and we have come here for water, food, shelter and help,” says Ms. Mursaal, a 39-year-old mother of six.

The Boyle IDP camp is one of several camps which have sprung up around the country as desperate people move to locations where they hope they can access help.

It’s serious, and one of the biggest tragedies Somalia is facing today. The displaced communities have no shelter, water, medicine, or even food, and they depend on handouts. The drought has wiped out everything, and if the survivors don’t get urgent humanitarian assistance, they are likely to also die,” says the Luuq district’s local administrator, Commissioner Ali Kadiye Mohamed.

UN humanitarian agencies are working closely with implementing partners on the ground to alleviate the situation.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been trucking water into camps such as the Boyle IDP camp, as well as constructing water tanks and pit latrines to help improve sanitation conditions.

At the Luuq District Hospital, funded in part by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN agency is working with an Irish charity agency, Trocaire, to treat, feed and stabilize children admitted with severe malnutrition. Local staff say they have seen a worsening of the situation.

In January, 62 malnourished children were admitted here. In February, the number rose to 100, and as of 21 March, the number stands at 114,” said the hospital’s chief nurse, Abdirahman Mohamed Kasim.

As soon as these children get to the hospital,” he continues, “we give them milk for primary and secondary stages of malnutrition, and, after their recovery, we transfer them to other feeding centres where they receive high energy biscuits and treatments for any further illnesses.”

Elsewhere in Luuq, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is implementing cash and food voucher programmes for vulnerable groups, and providing preventative and curative nutrition support to women and children. The agency is scaling up its interventions, aiming to support 2.5 million people across Somalia with food and nutrition relief in the first half of this year, but – like so many other UN agencies – it can only do so if it receives more funding; in this instance, some $203 million to close a funding gap.