Africa is facing another humanitarian crisis as the worst famine in recent memory grips Somalia’s Southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions. According to the United Nations, tens of thousands of Somalis, mostly children and women, have already died and an estimated 3.7 million people — more than half the country’s population — face starvation in the next year unless relief is provided. The Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya is one of the oldest and largest such camp complexes in the world. Established in 1991-1992, the three Dadaab camps (Ifo, Dagahaley and Hagadera) were built to accommodate 90,000 refugees. But with the Horn of Africa experiencing its worst drought in 60 years the Dadaab camp now holds more than double its intended population, according to a Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) report. Almost 22,000 people settled in the camp in 2010 and almost double that number have arrived already this year.
Despite improvements in response to this drought compared to the famines of 1973, 1984 and 1992, humanitarian agencies in Somalia, as well as the Kenyan and Ethiopian governments, are incapable of meeting the economic and humanitarian needs of this crisis. According to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, $1.6 billion must be raised to save lives and prevent escalation of the tragedy. Every delay creates more food insecurity, costs more lives and raises the sad specter of a total descent into lawlessness. The radical Somali Islamic group al-Shabab has vacillated in accepting aid and has mercilessly ruled by a fundamentalist Islamic ideology that adds to the senseless suffering.
Somalia is a failed state in the throes of what could become the worst humanitarian disaster to strike Africa. All the countries in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lake Regions are affected and there are domino effects across the continent. The international community must unite to fund humanitarian intervention now, but there is also an urgent need to address the cycle of refugee crisis and the recurring failed humanitarian response to these tragedies. In addition to short-term humanitarian intervention, the region needs an international political process to restore law and order in Somalia, Ethiopia and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Meantime, Canadian Christians must show solidarity through generous donations to charities and agencies that are heroically working round the clock to heed the anguished cries of these suffering Africans.
(Fr. Stan Chu Ilo, pastor of St. Therese parish in Courtice, Ont., and assistant professor of religion and education at University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, authored the forthcoming book The Church and African Development: Aid and Development from the Perspective of Catholic Social Ethics.)
How you can help
Efforts to raise funds to alleviate the African drought crisis are ongoing in Canada, with Catholic organizations at the forefront.
The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, ShareLife, Chalice, Canadian Jesuits International and the Canadian arm of CNEWA, the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, are all stepping up to raise funds for the severely drought-stricken Horn of Africa region.
Donations have been sluggish despite a government pledge to match contributions made by Sept. 16.
“We’ve been getting calls from a lot of concerned Canadians wanting to know how we’re doing… but our collections haven’t matched what we’ve received in the time of Haiti,” said Shaji Kangapadan, program officer with Canadian Jesuits International.
“It’s not like when a cyclone happens, and the aftermath follows... the problem hasn’t peaked yet.”
Donations can be made to
- Development and Peace at www.devp.org or by calling 1-888-664-3387;
- ShareLife at www.sharelife.org;
- Canadian Jesuits International at 1-800-448-2148 or by e-mail at cji@jesuits.ca;
- CNEWA at www.cnewa.ca or by calling 1-866-322-4441; or
- Chalice at www.chalice.ca.