Oon iyo biyo la'aan ka jira Geeska Africa /Drought and famine, in the Horn of Africa

SW News

Title: [SW News] (BBC/Focus on Africa) Oon iyo biyo la'aan ka jira Geeska Africa /Drought and famine, in the Horn of Africa
From:[]
Date :[11 April 2000]

Oon iyo biyo la'aan ka jira Geeska Africa - BBC Garowe /Drought and famine, in the Horn of Africa - Hassan Aron, & Raageh Omaar of BBC

BBC, Somali Service: Meelo badan oo ka tirsan Gobolka Galguduud iyo gobolo kale oo ay sohdin leeyihiin ayaa laga soo sheegayaa oon iyo biyo la'aan. Meelaha qaarkood waxaa ku dhintay dad iyo xoolaba. Weriyahanaga ayaa warkaan nooga soo diray Garoowe:

Wariye: Guddoomiyaha Degmada Guriceel, Axmed Mocallim Xussein oo saakay fooneeyaha iigu waramayey waxa uu ii sheegay in ugu yaraan todoba qof iyo boqolaal neef oo xoola ahi ay haraad ugu dhinteen deegaanka miyiga ah ee degmadaasi dhowrkii maalmood aynu soo dhaafnay isagoo sababta ku sheegay inay jabeyn lix ceel oo ku kala yaalay Guriceel, Matabaan iyadoo xoolihii iyo dadkii ka cabi jiray looga soo dhaamiyo meelo aad u fog fog oo 70 ilaa iyo 120 km u jirta halkaasi oo meelaha qaarkood ay booyaduhu biyaha ku gaarsiiyaan in ka badan hal milyan iyo shan boqol oo kun booyadiiba ah. Waxaa uu sheegay in laanqayrta cas oo xaalada halkaasi la socota ay dhawaan boqol booyadood biya ah ugu deegday degmada Guriceel iyadoo dhibaatada biyo la'aanta ahi ay aad u sii kordheyso. Sida wararka ay igu soo gaarayaan waxaa dhibaatada biyo la'aanta ah la qaba degmooyin badan oo ay ka mid yihiin Ballamballe iyo Buurtinle oo haraad iyo kuleel fara badan laga soo sheegayo. Dhibaatada haraadka iyo biyo la'aanta ee ka dhacxda degmooyinka iyo meelaha miyiga ah ee dalka Soomaliya waa mid soo noq noqota oo joogta ah oo dhacda mudada u dhaxaysa labada xilli roobaad ee dalka soo mara sanadkiiba laba jeer, taasoo ugu wacan tahay baraagaha xareeda ee biyuhu ka dhamaadaan, ceelashada matoorada biyaha oo aad u yar oo intoodu badani ay dayac tir la'an u fariistaan iyo dadka xoolo dhaqatada ah ee ceelashaasi ku xiran oo awoododa dhaqaale aad u hooseeso oo aan keligood dayac tiri karin ceelasha.

Seeking to avert tragedy - BBC's Rageh Omaar

This is Hassan Aroni in London with Focus on Africa (Tuesday, April 11): There is much international alarm over the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa and especially Ethiopia's southern Ogaden region. The Government, the UN and aid agencies have been calling for urgent help to get food to the drought-stricken people. But there have been restraints that international response has been too slow in getting aid distributed to the millions facing potential disaster. The BBC’s (Somali-born) Raageh Omaar has been travelling around the Ogaden region, including the town of Gode. On the line to Addis Ababa, Will Ross asked him how bad the situation is in Gode:

Raageh Omaar: They're extremely serious. They are very much the most prevalent cases of the droughts and the effects on people are extremely stark. It is the Somali region of the Ogaden and the drought has hit extremely hard there. You have cases, I think, of quite a few refugees coming the border across from Somalia, which suggestes that the droughts is quite severe there. There has been absolutely no infrastructure in terms of relief supplies or medical assistance to a large amount of people. Gode town itself does have the assemblance of aid presence, but drive out of Gode about 75 km south to an area called Danaan and you find 24,000 people living in makeshift camps with absolutely nothing, no doctors, no health facilities, no medicines or anything like that.

Will Ross: Are there no signs at all in that area, Danaan, that any help is gonna get to them or this relief agencies are gonna move their operations to there?

Raageh Omaar: Well, there is a scramble among the UN agencies and relief agencies to try and bring relief there and there are all kinds of plans to bring in around 40 tons of high energy biscuits from Nairobi, but I think at the moment the aid agencies and the Ethiopian government and local welfare organizations are just trying to get basic infrastructure whereby they can begin to bring relief to the people. It is not just medicine. Water is absolutely vital.

Will Ross: And have you seen signs that aid is reaching the country?

Raageh Omaar: There are some signs, of course, I mean tomorrow the head of WFP, Catharine Bertini is coming to Ethiopia as part of a regional tour and that really is kick-starting a large international influx; rather i have to say that despite the fact the Ethiopian Government has been warning for quite a while now of the gravity of the situation; i came to Ethiopia in Desember of last year to see the situation and even then the Ethiopian Government was putting out an appeal to the international community saying that around six million people face food shortages if the Ethiopian Government did not recieve the kind of assistance that it would need.

Will Ross: And the issue of which port will be used to bring in the aid when it arrives, is that still high on the agenda?

Raageh Omaar: That is very high on the agenda. You have the Eritrea Government suggesting, rather cleverly, that they would be prepared to allow the Ethiopians to use the port of Assab in Eritrea to bring in relief supplies, much to the absolute outrage of the Ethiopian government who have absolutely rejected the idea and pointed to the fact that they say the Eritrians have have looted other supplies intended for Ethiopia through the port of Assab. At the moment, you have a situation were there is an enormous over reliance on the port of Djibouti to bring in relief supplies and that is worrying to the Ethiopian government and also the aid agencies, simply because should the situations gets worse, it is gonna create a lot of problems if there is a bottle neck in Djibouti

Hassan Aroni: Raageh Omaar in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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