DROUGHT IN EAST AFRICA AFFECTING 12 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE HORN OF AFRICA

[nancyk58]

FATUMA AND THE LONG WALK

Article from Berlingske Tidende on Sunday, 21 August 2011

The hunger disaster in the Horn of Africa is infinite. Every day, > 1,000 hunger-stricken refugees are arriving at the Dadaab camp in the hope of surviving the drought. We have visited the world’s largest refugee camp.

Text: Esben Salling //esal@berlingske.dk / translated by Nancy Boysen

DADAAB, KENYA. It is dry, windy and hot in Dadaab. And there are tents as far as you can see.

The refugee camps in Dadaab in the north-eastern part of Kenya on the road to Somalia are the story of almost ½ million Somali refugees that have left their drought-stricken homeland. They are now living in the Ifo, Dagahaley and Hagadera camps – together constituting the world’s largest refugee camp.

Each day sees 1,500 new refugees arriving in the hope of food and a better life than the one they left on the other side of the border.

FATUMA Isaack Muhammed has fled the drought. In Somalia all her 24 cows died. She has walked for 25 days with her 3 small boys from her hometown Takoo, and the little family of four have arrived at the camp last night.

“Here we can get food and water. Back in Somalia there is nothing. No water, no food. Only unrest and drought”, she says.

The walk has been hard on all 4 of them. Her children got a little to eat halfway during the long walk. She herself has had nothing to eat. Her second son, 3-year-old Aden, is extremely exhausted.

While Fatuma Isaack Muhammed washes the face of her eldest son to remove the layer of dust that indicates the hardships of the walk, the health authorities of the camp decide to hospitalize Aden urgently. He is malnourished, exhausted and very meagre after the 25-day-long walk through Somalia and Kenya.

The camps in Dadaab have existed since 1991, but the pressure on the camps has increased massively in particular during the last couple of months due to the extreme drought which is plagueing the Horn of Africa. Since the beginning of June, around 100,000 new refugees have arrived at the camp. The unrest and the political instability in Somalia make the emergency efforts on the other side of the border very hard, and that is why the refugees are flowing into Kenya where aid agencies can work in safety.

When driving on the gravel road – full of holes - to Dadaab, dead cattle in the side of the road, trees without branches and massive clouds of dust from cars coming towards your car indicate the drought which has plagued East Africa for many, many months.

The drought which has killed domestic animals and crops is the cause of the increasing pressure on the refugee camps in Dadaab.

“Those fleeing now have lost everything. Their children are dying”, says Peter Klansoe, regional director for the Danish Refugee Council. This organization has been operating in the region since 2005.

In the Horn of Africa, more than 12 million people are estimated to be affected by the shortage of food and by the drought, and this number is expected to increase by 25% during the next couple of months. 3.7 million people in Somalia are now already in a situation where they need acute aid in order to survive. The UN describes the situation in the Horn of Africa as the worst for 60 years.

In the hospital used by the organization Médécin sans Frontières in the Dagahaley camp we see many malnourished children. They constitute the majority of the patients in the hospital. One of them is 3-year-old Adeka Ibrahim Abdi . He is lying together with his father, Ibrahim, in one of the packed hospital wards. Adeka is malnourished and has diarrhoea. His father tells us that their 45-day-long walk through the dry landscape cost his wife and their second son their lives. He and his surviving son are hoping for a new and better life in Dadaab when Adeka is well enough to leave the camp hospital.

Peter Klansoe from the Danish Refugee Council confirms that often small children like Adeka arrive at Dadaab in a very critical condition.

“They are fleeing areas with declared famine. More than 30% are acutely malnourished, and in particular the small children are hard affected. The current crisis will take at least 6 months. We do not receive the necessary funds.”
Soeren Bjerregaard is stationed for MS ActionAid Denmark. This organization has been operating in Kenya for more than 40 years, but he has never witnessed anything like this.

“We have been forced to distribute emergency aid in some of the areas where we operate. But the long-term development projects are the ones to ensure that the communities will become more resistant”, Soeren Bjerregaard says.

Back in the IFO camp, the next steps for Fatuma Isaack Muhammed are towards the nearby hospital where she can be reunited with her son. She fears for his health, but he is in good hands here, she says. The next couple of days will show how bad his condition is.

In the IFO camp there is the great white tent which houses the registration office of the Dadaab camps. Here they write down the name and date of birth of each refugee. At the same time they take photos of each refugee, and their finger prints are registered. There is hectic activity in the tent, and the expressions on the faces indicate relief and hope.

When you arrive at the camps as a refugee, the worst challenges and the long walk are over. Ahead is a future of quite basic needs such as food and water on a daily basis no longer being quite as unattainable goals.

[chuck kottke]

Hopefully the aid will keep coming.
I've been thinking about the future, so I did a little research on how the citizens of the horn of Africa can be resilient during droughts: Making the desert bloom | Global Water Intelligence - Archive: Global Water Intelligence
Solar energy, CO2 uptake, The climate threat's counterforce, desalination, climate change, irrigation, forestation, ETTE, Vegårshei, Norway
Trees and crops reclaim desert in Niger - Africa & Middle East - International Herald Tribune - The New York Times

[nancyk58]

DANES NO. 2 WHEN IT COMES TO DONATING TO AFRICA (Danish text-TV / TV2 news)

Denmark is no. 2 on the list of countries donating the highest total amount measured per capita to the Horn of Africa where vast areas are plagued by hunger. Luxembourg is number 1. The Nordic countries are among the biggest donors, and the same applies to some Arab oil states such as Kuwait and Qatar.

The USA is the country in the world donating the highest total amount in humanitarian aid, but the USA is number 15 on the list of countries donating the highest amount - measured per capita.


FAMINE IN EAST AFRICA: THE AFRICAN UNION / AU DONOR CONFERENCE PLEDGES 356 MILLION DOLLAR (247 MILLION EURO) IN AID - German text-TV / ZDFtext

According to Jean Ping, Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), the largest part - 300 million dollar - will be distributed by the African Development Bank. The rest of the funds comes from African states and private donors. Jean Ping said this in Ethiopia's capital Addis Abeba.

Somalia is worst hit by the drought in East Africa. 390,000 children are at risk of starving to death.


AFRICAN LEADERS HOLDING A DONOR CONFERENCE (Danish text-TV / DR1)

The African Union (the AU) tries to make its member states increase aid to millions of starving people in the Horn of Africa.

The donor conference started on Thursday in Ethiopia's capital Addis Abeba, but only 4 African heads of state - Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Equitorial Guinea - attended it.

It is the first conference of this sort summoned by the Pan-African organization the AU.

The goal is to raise about 1.1 billion dollars to the about 12.4 million famine victims. According to the United Nations, 2.46 billion dollars is needed.

[nancyk58]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14659941

25 August 2011 Last updated at 19:02 GMT

East Africa drought: Africa pledges famine aid

African leaders have raised more than $350m (£215m) in aid for 12 million people facing starvation in the Horn of Africa's worst drought in decades.

Some $1.2bn of the $2.5bn the UN says is needed has been raised worldwide.

Civil society organisations said they were disappointed that just four African heads of state attended the African Union summit in Ethiopia.

But the AU said it was not a question of who showed up, but rather how much money was raised.

The much-delayed conference was the first of its kind for the AU and was aimed at meeting the shortfall in global efforts to raise money for humanitarian relief.

'Not peaked'

Ahead of the meeting, African Union Commission chief Jean Ping urged Africans to "act out against hunger by providing both cash and in-kind support for urgent life-saving assistance to our brothers and sisters in the Horn of Africa".

Asha Rose Migiro, the UN's deputy secretary general, told the conference that "the future of an entire generation hangs in the balance".

"We are still not reaching all the people who need help, and the crisis still has not peaked. The cost in human suffering will rise even higher. We must do all that we can to stop the acceleration," AFP news agency quotes her as saying.

Notable pledges came from Algeria, Egypt, Angola and South Africa, with Africa's newest nation, South Sudan, offering $1m.

However, the bulk of the money raised on Thursday - $300m - came from the African Development Bank, to be used for long-term projects in the region.

The BBC's Noel Mwakugu in Addis Ababa says 11-year-old Ghanaian schoolboy Andrew Andasi, who has started his own campaign to raise money for drought victims, also attended the summit.

He challenged African presidents to pledge at least $1 each to his fund and told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme he had so far raised $4,000 this month from "companies, organisations and most of my school friends".

Correspondents say several African governments had faced criticism for their lack of response.

The US, Britain, China, Japan, Brazil and Turkey have all pledged funds to the region, as has the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) - a gathering of Islamic countries - but the contributions have fallen short of the requested assistance.

Monitoring

The AU Commission's vice chairman said it wanted to make sure the money raised reached those in need.

"We have already established a mechanism where we're working with a lot of international organisations - particularly the UN - so that we can monitor and co-ordinate the assistance," Eratus Mwencha told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

We have also asked some of the organisations, including the non-government organisations, to prepare a chart where we can follow on and give an indication to all our partners of what they pledged, how much we have received and how much has been dispersed to the needy populations."

The food crisis is said to be the most serious to affect the continent since the famine in Somalia in 1991-1992 at the time the country descended into a civil war from which it is yet to emerge.

Much of Somalia, where five districts are suffering from famine, is controlled by the Islamist al-Shabab group. The group, which is linked to al-Qaeda, has banned many aid agencies from its territory.

Tens of thousands of Somalis have fled to the capital, Mogadishu, and to neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia, in search of assistance. An estimated 1,500 Somalis have been arriving every day at Kenya's massive Dadaab camp - the world's largest refugee camp.

The UN says 3.2 million Somalis - almost half the population - are in need of immediate life-saving assistance.



Analysis

Martin Plaut

Africa analyst, BBC News

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This summit is charting a new course for the African Union. Neither the AU, nor its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity, were designed to raise funds to fight disasters. Rather, they were born out of a need to counter interference by the superpowers - the US and the Soviet Union - and to resist the apartheid system in South Africa.

Now the AU is being asked to take on very different tasks - like co-ordinating peacekeeping missions in Sudan and Somalia. But tackling the worst famine Somalia has faced in modern times is a problem on an altogether different scale.

The response so far has been too little, too late - a point highlighted by callers to the BBC. Many feel their leaders care little for the plight of the poor. African presidents in the past became become notorious for hoarding funds for their personal use.

[nancyk58]

On Saturday, 27 August 2011, Danish TV had a big fundraising show for East Africa drought victims - the show was hosted by Denmark's 2 largest - and public - TV stations DR1 and TV2.

There was a lot of info on the situation in Somalia, Ethiopia and in Kenya in the Dadaab camp (the world's largest refugee camps - actually consisting of 3, now 4 refugee camps as one of the camps recently opened an extension).


Result at the end of the show 10 minutes before midnight: 102,502.013 DKK.

At 2am I woke up and checked text-TV according to which the final result was 110.013.903 DKK (Danish Kroner) for east Africa.


Some info:

Interview with an aid worker in Ethiopia:

Also problems in areas not hit by the drought:

The food prices in ETHIOPIA are "exploding" as the prices have doubled making it very difficult, if not impossible for the poor to buy food. Result: More poor people and more malnourished children.

Failing harvest caused by failing rainy seasons (only very little, if any rain during the last couple of rainy seasons), and it is too early to harvest.

Aid agencies must say NO to mothers with malnourished children as the agencies' resources are insufficient to help them - there is not food enough.


Later a Danish company - Bestseller - donated 5 million DKK. There were several very big donations.


Today the Dadaab camp in Kenya houses close to 500,000 refugees (but it is only built to house 90,000)!!

When refugees - most often mothers and their children - arrive at the camp, they get food, and they are vaccinated, and they receive an aid package that should help them through the next 21 days.

Most mothers arriving at the camp with children have lost at least one child, some times more than 1 child during the long walk. And they are malnourished and often hospitalized. Sometimes they arrive with dead children who did not make the long walk - and they bury their dead child/children in a place where other children dead in the camp have been buried.

When the malnourished children have been at the hospital for some days, they begin to feel better. But the survivors who have reduced resistance are often getting sequelas such as measles, infection diseases and diarrhoea. Cholera is feared to be an issue in the near future.


TV visited a hospital and talked to one of the staff: Children there suffer from dehydration, malnourishment and measles.

400,000 children are at risk of starving to death in Somalia.

[nancyk58]

Danish text-TV (DR1) and Swedish text-TV (SVT): IKEA HAS DONATED 62 MILLION DOLLAR TO THE UNHCR AND ITS WORK IN EAST AFRICA, IN PARTICULAR IN THE DADAAB REFUGEE CAMP

Ikea is a well-known furniture manufacturer. Link: http://www.ikea.com/

Its record-high private donation to the UNHCR (the largest donation received by the UNHCR in its 60 years of existence) will be paid over 3 years.

The donation will be given in order to help the refugees in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya according to Ritzau, a Danish news agency.

It is the first time a private organization chooses to support a refugee camp directly according to the UNHCR.

[nancyk58]

UN's OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS, OCHA: FAMINE SPREADS IN SOMALIA

Despite international assistance, the famine in Somalia is at risk of spreading further according to UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA. Almost every region in southern Somalia is threatened by famine. In a report it reads that "despite the escape/flight internally in Somalia is drawing to a close, the malnourishment and mortality rates are rising and contagious/infectuous diseases are spreading".

In July, a famine was declared for the south-Somali regions Bakool and Lower Shabelle. It has spread to 3 additional areas / regions so that famine has been declared in 5 regions in southern Somalia.

Sources: Danish text-TV (TV2 News) + German text-TV (ZDFtext)

[nancyk58]

NEWS ON 6 SEPTEMBER 2011

FAMINE SPREADING IN SOMALIA
Now also Somalia's BAY region has been hit by famine, 750,000 additional people are at risk of starving to death in the next 4 months according to UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO. In the BAY region, 58% of children below the age of 5 suffers from acute malnourishment.

The number of Somalis in need of acute emergency aid has risen from 2.4 million people to 4 million people so far this year. 3 million of the needy are living in the southern parts of Somalia.

Source: Swedish text-TV / SVT

[nancyk58]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14858123

9 September 2011 Last updated at 18:55 GMT

Ethiopia urges protected aid corridors for Somalia

Ethiopia has called for humanitarian corridors in Somalia to be protected by peacekeepers, so that aid can reach famine-hit areas held by rebels.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi suggested the move at a regional summit in Kenya on the East Africa drought and famine.

But UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia Mark Bowden said aid deliveries were increasing and efforts to provide armed protection could jeopardise them.

The UN says 750,000 people could die in Somalia's famine within four months.

Flow of refugees

Mr Meles told Horn of Africa leaders "huge areas" of Somalia remained unreachable.

"Many districts are in control of al-Shabab terrorists. We need to urgently support the TFG [transitional federal government], AMISOM [African Union Mission in Somalia] and other forces to create corridors of humanitarian assistance in the liberated areas and beyond," he said.

Mr Meles said more food aid needed to be delivered to the affected areas to minimise the flow of refugees from Somalia. Ethiopia shares a border with Somalia.

East Africa correspondent Will Ross says Mr Meles's suggestion is controversial. Observers say using peacekeepers to guard aid routes would undermine negotiations on delivery with the Islamist al-Shabab group.

In July, al-Shabab lifted a ban on aid organisations operating inside Somalia, but reimposed it after the United Nations declared a famine in parts of the country.

Our correspondent says restrictions imposed by the group have hampered the aid effort and most people agree that food aid is not reaching enough people in Somalia.

Regional leaders meeting in Kenya on Friday agreed a solution to the political crisis and conflict in Somalia was needed.

In a document - to be known as the Nairobi Action Plan - they pledged to ensure future droughts do not cause such suffering and agreed to invest in arid areas to help livestock-keeping communities become more resilient.

[nancyk58]

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=104984

SOMALIA

Food Aid Stolen From Famine Victims

By Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar

MOGADISHU, Sep 5, 2011 (IPS) - Masses of food meant for famine victims in Somalia are being stolen, an investigation has revealed.

"There is widespread food aid corruption, that is why I am calling for the establishment of a special food aid monitoring group — this must include Somalis and the foreigners themselves," Somali member of parliament Prof. Ali Mahmoud Nur told IPS.

The Somali government intends to fire all of Mogadishu’s 16 district commissioners amidst reports of food aid theft and insecurity. The government is planning to set up a special police force tasked with providing security during food aid distribution.

These measures were revealed as there have been recent reports of rioting and killings during food distribution at camps for famine victims. But it may not be enough to prevent the theft of food aid and there have been calls for government to set up a food aid corruption prevention unit.

Each day tonnes of food aid arrives in Mogadishu from across the world for the famine victims.

At least five cargo flights from Turkey and Kuwait arrive daily and other countries like Djibouti, Sudan, and Iran have also sent aid. Mercy USA, Diakonie Emergency Aid Bread for the World - Germany and the United Nations Refugee Agency are among the agencies distributing aid in the capital.

But Nur says the theft of food aid is so widespread that a special food aid monitoring group needs to be formed. Nur, a Somali-born U.S. citizen, has close ties with both the country’s Speaker of Parliament Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden and President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed. He told IPS that he has personally investigated reports of aid corruption.

Over 100,000 people have fled the drought and famine in southern Somalia to the country’s capital in search of food and aid in the last few months. Many walked for weeks on foot, without food or even water, losing loved ones and children too weak or malnourished to survive the arduous journey. And those who survived arrived at the capital weak and malnourished.

The U.N. estimates that the total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Mogadishu is currently around 470,000.

But their hope of finding aid in Mogadishu has diminished as officials are now involved in the theft of food aid. "It is very clear that some officials are involved in food aid corruption here — I am calling on them to stop such bad behaviour or otherwise they will damage their dignity," Nur said.

Addressing a peaceful demonstration in Mogadishu on Aug. 23, Somali Prime Minister Abdi Weli Mohamed Ali and the region’s governor, Mahmoud Ahmed Nur, admitted that food aid was being stolen in some areas in the capital and promised to address this.

One government official, who demanded anonymity, told IPS that the government intends to fire all Mogadishu’s 16 district commissioners.

The district commissioners have been accused of numerous crimes including colluding with the foremen of the refugee camps to steal aid. However, no one has been officially charged yet.

In Mogadishu the district commissioners are powerful former clan militiamen appointed by the government for their standing among the local clans.

They are a law unto themselves. On Sep. 3 in the district of Bulohubey, in Mogadishu, the local district commissioner Ahmed Adow Anshur’s (better known as Ahmed Daai) militia clashed with the Transitional Federal Government soldiers. Three government soldiers were killed. Sources say that it seems highly unlikely that the country’s transitional government will be able to fire the district commissioners as some are ‘powerful warlords’.

But Abdullahi Mohamed Shirwa, who heads the Somali government’s Disaster Management Agency (DMA), which is tasked to coordinate aid efforts in Mogadishu, believes that the food aid is properly managed.

Most international aid agencies distribute the aid themselves while the DMA manages the food donated by various international governments.

"There were a few tonnes of food assistance from Kuwait which was delivered to the IDPs through my agency — I can confirm to you that we have managed it well and made sure that it got into the hands of the really needy people," he said, adding that the food aid coming to Somalia can only meet about 10 percent of the country’s needs.

But he acknowledged that mistakes were made at some IDP camps in Mogadishu.

On Aug. 22 three famine victims were killed at an IDP camp in Waberi district in Mogadishu, while four others were wounded as government forces fired on them during food aid distribution. Waberi is the first port of call in Mogadishu for refugees fleeing their homes in the drought-stricken south. But it is not the first incidence where people were killed during a food riot. Ten people were killed on Aug. 5 during a riot at Badbaado camp – the city’s largest camp for refugees.

Shirwa admitted that there were reports of looting and theft of food aid at some camps in Mogadishu, but he believes that about 95 percent of the food aid has been properly managed.

And he said those issues will be resolved soon as the Somali government has established a special security police force whose responsibility will be to tighten the security of food aid at the camps.

The food security forces will start their operations as soon as possible, said Shirwa. But he could not give IPS a date when this would happen. He added that food security forces would work both day and night in routine operations around the IDP camps and streets in the capital to ensure the smooth continuation of humanitarian operations.

Soldiers are currently stationed around the aid distribution centres, but gangs, and even some government forces, have been accused of stealing food aid from famine refugees despite this security.

Amina Yusuf, a mother of four who lives at the Waberi district IDP camp, told IPS that armed men always rob them of their food.

"Robbing of food aid occurs here at least two times a week — we don’t know what to do," Amina said.

But it is not just in Mogadishu that food is not reaching people in need. The Somali government’s relief inspector for Mogadishu and two of the worst drought-hit southern regions, Lower Shabelle and Middle Shabelle, Mahmoud Dahir Farah, said that his office had gathered evidence that food aid is not being properly managed.

Farah, who is appointed by the Somali government to coordinate the relief operations in these regions, said unfortunately people in need were not receiving food aid as intended.

"I am calling on the top Somali leaders to tackle this problem, because the food aid distribution is corrupted by the administrators in Mogadishu districts – this is a great problem, which has to be solved as soon as possible," he said.

He also demanded that the government soldiers who killed IDPs at the Badbaado camp early this month and in Waberi district on Aug. 22 be brought before a court.

The U.N. has estimated that more than 3.6 million people in Somalia are currently in need of emergency humanitarian assistance as the region is in the midst of the worst drought in 60 years.

(END)

[nancyk58]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15037926

23 September 2011 Last updated at 15:47 GMT

Al-Shabab returns Somali victims to famine-hit villages

Foreign aid workers are concerned about the fate of thousands of Somalis being taken back to famine-hit villages by Islamist militants.

The al-Shabab group says it is moving people out of camps in the central town of Baidoa ahead of the rainy season so they can prepare to farm.

An al-Shabab official told the BBC that food rations to last a month would be given to the families.

The UN has declared a famine in six regions of Somalia.

There are mostly in southern parts controlled by al-Shabab, which banned many Western aid agencies from its territory two years ago.

This has prompted tens of thousands of people to seek food aid in the capital, Mogadishu, which is ruled by the weak interim government, or in camps in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia.

But some local charities have been able to distribute food in al-Shabab areas like Baidoa, where six displacement camps hold an estimated 50,000 people.

'Death row'

"There are about 6,500 families who are ready to move back [to their original area]; we are arranging food that they can use for this month," al-Shabab's disaster committee spokesman Suldaan Aala Mohamed told the BBC.

"We are also giving them seeds for the planting season."


Several water tankers had left with the first lorries full of people from Baidoa, Mr Mohamed said.

He said people needed to be on the farms in time for the rains.

The BBC understands that they were not given a choice. Some aid workers, who fear speaking on the record because of the sensitivity of the situation, said they were appalled at the move.

One said it was like putting people affected by the famine on death row.


The BBC's East Africa correspondent Will Ross says no crops were expected to be ready for harvest until January at the earliest, so a massive food distribution operation would be needed for months to come.

In Mogadishu, thousands of people prayed for rain on Friday.

The region is affected by what the UN says is East Africa's worst drought for 60 years.

Somalia - racked by 20 years of conflict and without a functioning central government - is worst-affected.

[nancyk58]

INCREASED EFFORTS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE FAMINE IN EAST AFRICA

Today, the World Bank announced that the aid to the drought victims on the Horn of Africa must be increased drastically.

About 13 million people urgently need humanitarian aid in the Horn of Africa following war and drought.

The World bank increases its aid from $500 million to $1.8 billion. So according to the head of the organisation, Robert Zoellick.

The region with massive drought is enormous and covers parts of the countries SOMALIA, KENYA, ETHIOPIA, ERITREA, DJIBOUTI and UGANDA.

Source: Swedish text-TV / SVT

[nancyk58]

NEWS IN RELATION TO NATURAL DISASTERS ON 5 OCTOBER 2011

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15180670

5 October 2011 Last updated at 11:08 GMT

Somali famine: Red Cross aid push in Islamist areas

The International Red Cross has begun a huge distribution of aid to one million people in famine zones in Somalia controlled by Islamist militants.

A continuous operation will transport the food in lorries from the coast deep into areas controlled by al-Shabab.

The Red Cross says it is its biggest such operation anywhere in the world.

It followed difficult negotiations with al-Shabab, which banned many Western aid agencies from its territory two years ago.

The UN has declared a famine in six regions of Somalia - mostly in al-Shabab areas.

Tens of thousands of people have fled to seek food aid in the capital, Mogadishu, which is ruled by the weak interim government, or in camps in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia.

Last month, al-Shabab began moving people out of displacement camps, run by local charities in Islamist areas, and returning them to their villages.

The group said it wanted people to prepare land ahead of the rainy season.

But no crops are expected to be ready for harvest until January and aid workers said a massive food distribution operation would be needed for months to come.

The Red Cross has worked in Somali for 20 years - and it said it used this track record to negotiate access with the Islamists.

Red Cross spokesman Geoff Loane told the BBC its operation was a three-month distribution, targeting vulnerable people like farmers and pastoralists.

The organisation will also provide seed to nearly a quarter of a million farmers, so that they can begin to recover from the region's worse drought in 60 years.

"If all goes well, hopefully these farmers will be able to harvest some crops by the end of the year," Mr Loane said.

BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says if the transportation operation is successful it could break the back of the famine.

The UN estimates that in September half of the four million Somalis in need received food aid. With the Red Cross reaching another million or more, it could mean that three-quarters of the victims of the famine and drought will be helped.

To this should be added money sent home by the Somali diaspora and aid from Islamic organisations, our analyst says.

[nancyk58]

BRANGELINA DONATION FOR EAST AFRICA

(Source: German text-TV / ZDFtext / Daily Mail)

The American couple - actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie - have donated $340,000 (€253,000) to a Somali aid agency. The money is earmarked healthcare for mothers and children in Mogadishu.

Somalia - situated in the Horn of Africa - is affected by the worst drought for 60 years. According to UN information, 750,000 are at risk of starving to death in the coming months.

The leader of the Humanitarian Initiative Just Relief Aid said that - thanks to the donation from the Jolie-Pitt-Foundation - this organization could extend its life-saving care for refugees.

The US estimates the drought and famine have so far killed more than 29,000 children under the age of five in the south.

[nancyk58]

2 FEMALE AID WORKERS FROM MÉDÉCINS SANS FRONTIÈRES KIDNAPPED IN KENYA ON THE BORDER TO SOMALIA

They were kidnapped when sitting in a vehicle - their chauffeur was injured, but his condition is stable. The 2 female aidworkers were kidnapped by armed men and abducted from the DADAAB refugee camp that houses more than 400,000 refugees.
Source: German text-TV / ZDFtext