Somalia: Weekly Humanitarian Bulletin No. 41, 16 - 23 Oct 2009

Somalia: Weekly Humanitarian Bulletin No. 41, 16 - 23 Oct 2009

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

Key Overall Developments

Intensive fighting in Mogadishu on 23 October killed an estimated 30 people and wounded 70 others, mostly civilians. According to media reports, several mortar rounds allegedly fired by insurgent groups landed near Aden Adde International Airport in Medina district. In response, African Union Mission for Somalia (AMISOM) forces reportedly shelled parts of Mogadishu, including business and residential areas in Hodan and Howl Wadaag districts. The fighting erupted along Maka Al Mukarama road that connects the Villa Somalia Presidential compound and Mogadishu's Aden Adde International Airport at the time when President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's convoy was driving towards the airport. Both sides reportedly used heavy weapons. The spokesman for AMISOM in Mogadishu denied that AMISOM shelled residential areas and Bakara market.

According to the latest (issued 21 October) Somalia Food Security Outlook report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET), the current food security situation in Somalia is not expected to change through March 2010. The Report states that the most likely scenario, of normal to above-normal rains between October and December, due to El Nino, could end the prolonged drought and improve water and pasture availability. Given the increased availability of water and pasture in most key grazing areas, a significant reduction in pastoral household expenditure on water and migration is expected during the January to March 2010 period. However, recovery from the current drought in Bakool, Hiraan, Galgaduud, Mudug, Nugaal, Sool, Sanaag, and Togdheer regions is not expected during the next six months, as cattle and camel require several seasons of normal rainfall to calve and produce milk. Therefore, the population in these regions will continue to face extreme levels of food insecurity in the coming six months.

WFP urgently requires 215,000 metric tones of food valued at US$193 million to continue with food assistance for 3.5 million vulnerable Somalis for the next six months. The current requirements are based on the revised needs estimated by the August country-wide comprehensive inter-agency assessment led by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia. With such critical shortfalls vulnerable Somalis may starve, malnutrition will rise, and people will become more prone to disease and the death rate may increase. A disruption of humanitarian food assistance to Somalia is also likely to trigger mass cross-border population movements. WFP Somalia is prioritizing assistance to IDPs, institutional feeding, and nutritional support with any new funding contribution.

Walter Kaelin, the Representative of the UN Secretary General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, completed his mission to Somalia. During his mission (14 and 21 October), he visited the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, where he met with new arrivals from South/Central Somalia. In Somalia he met with IDPs in Gaalkacyo, Bossaso, and Hargeysa. He also consulted with the TFG and the administrations of Somaliland and Puntland, and met with humanitarian agencies and civil society representatives. Mr. Kaelin raised concerns about the limited support to IDPs in Somalia and said that "the lack of humanitarian access to those most in need, dangers for humanitarian workers, such as abductions, as well as a sharp decline in donor contributions exacerbate this long-standing humanitarian crisis and risk bringing it to a hitherto unknown level". He underscored that all actors must grant humanitarian access, ensure the safety of humanitarian workers, and not impede the already limited delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid. Mr. Kaelin further suggested that, to the extent possible, humanitarian agencies must shift their operations from Nairobi to Puntland, Somaliland and other areas from where affected regions can be serviced.

According to UNHCR, a total of 34,000 people have been displaced throughout Somalia since 1 September 2009, 17,000 from Mogadishu. Roughly 13,500 people left Mogadishu to other parts of the country while 3,400 moved to relatively safer areas within the city.