KENYA: Britain's International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell says international response to Somali famine is "dangerously inadequate"

Record ID: 360880

  • Title: KENYA: Britain's International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell says international response to Somali famine is "dangerously inadequate"
  • Date: 18th August 2011
  • Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (AUGUST 17, 2011) (REUTERS) NEWS CONFERENCE HALL SIGN READING ''UK AID'' (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNITED KINGDOM INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY ANDREW MITCHELL, SAYING: "We think the response around the world so far has been inadequate, dangerously inadequate, and I've been able to announce some additional British support for Somalia today, which we ho
  • Embargoed: 2nd September 2011 13:00
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  • Location: Kenya, Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2IB820G1MFIJAKMXB0F1JYSWA
  • Story Text: Britain said on Wednesday (August 17) that the world wasn't doing enough to prevent hundreds of thousands of children from potentially starving to death in Somalia.
    "We think the response around the world so far has been inadequate, dangerously inadequate, and I've been able to announce some additional British support for Somalia today which we hope will be helpful. We believe that the science makes clear that up to 400 thousand children are at risk of dying through starvation in Somalia as a result of this famine,'' d Britain's International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, told a news conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
    Britain has already pledged more than 80 million pounds ($130 million) to help tackle what aid agencies are calling the worst drought in decades to hit Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.
    "Britain will now be helping to feed something like 380 thousand people in Somalia, helping to receive water, 300 thousand people, addressing the acute malnutrition of 60 thousand mainly children, and also vaccinating against measles, something like 850 thousand children inside Somalia through the work of UNICEF, and also vaccinations against polio as well,'' said Mitchell, who earlier on Wednesday visited Somalia's war-shattered capital, Mogadishu to see first-hand the devastating impact of famine and conflict on the country.
    Japan has also pledged about $600,000 worth of aid to the U.N. refugee agency to help famine victims at the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya, home to 440,000 Somali refugees.
    Mitchell's visit to Somalia, which is grappling to quash an Islamist rebellion that has hampered the delivery of food aid across swathes of its southern and central regions, was the first by a senior British minister since 1992.
    Somalia has been mired in violence and awash with weapons since the overthrow of Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. First warlords, then Islamist militants stepped into the power vacuum, reducing a string of Western-backed governments to impotence.
    Earlier this month, however, the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebels pulled most of their troops out of Mogadishu, epicentre of their bloody struggle.
    Their retreat effectively left the government in control of the entire capital for the first time since the civil war began in the early nineties, although Somali troops and African peacekeepers still encounter pockets of rebel resistance.
    ''It is clear that with the Shabaab withdrawing, there is an opportunity for the Transitional Federal Government to take steps first of all to stabilise the situation in Mogadishu, by which I mean insuring that they focus on issues to do with the resolution of grievances, the promotion of justice, the promotion of security, the promotion of basic services including health and education,'' said Mitchell.
    Somalia is among the world's most corrupt nations and in recent days has been hit by allegations that food aid intended for famine victims was being stolen and sold for a profit.
    The U.N. World Food Programme said on Monday it was investigating claims of theft and sought to assure Somalis there would be no reduction in food aid flows.
    Thousands of refugees have been making the treacherous journey from the worst-hit drought areas, mostly under the control of rebels, to Mogadishu to seek access to food.
    There they generally stay at one of several overcrowded makeshift camps in Mogadishu where cholera has broken out in parts of the capital as well as in other areas of the country.
    The British charity Oxfam said it would begin airlifting 47 tonnes of water supply and hygiene materials to Mogadishu on Thursday to help more than 120,000 people get clean water.
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