Politics of Resource Control Hampering Famine Relief Efforts in Southern Somalia
by Heikal Kenneded
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
In a critical time when the United Nations and donor agencies are issuing a grim warning that the famine catastrophe in southern Somalia could soon spiral out of control, with the potential to decimate hundreds of thousands (750,000 to be exact) more lives in the coming months. Despite unprecedented aid pouring in from every corner around the world, little relief has trickled into the empty pots and pans of the majority of the famine victims. As if things weren't dire enough in southern Somalia, then comes along the disillusioned mayor of Mogadishu, Mohamed Ahmed Nur better known as Tarzan, marching with his draconian aid restrictions ban of all foreign aid workers from traveling to the southern towns under the control of the al-Shabab militants. Instead, the mayor suggested that the foreign aid workers should transfer all the relief aid to the local NGOs, which can deliver to the drought victims in al-Shabab areas. Mr. Tarzan’s twisted logic is that his government is solely responsible for the security of foreign aid workers, while he is completely apathetic to the grim plight of the famine victims of his people in the south.
Mr. Tarzan’s reckless policy threatens to undermine the worldwide effort to alleviate the suffering of the famine victims in southern Somalia. He’s justifying this ruling after members of a Turkish charity dared to deliver food to the famine victims in several towns ruled by the al-Shabab forces, which embarrassed the TFG’s claim that such acts were infeasible. But what the mayor doesn’t appreciate is that most aid agencies are adapted to the daily grind and insecurity coupled with serving aid to the needy in conflict regions around the world. Thus many are starting to wonder whether Mr. Tarzan has the basic competency to be a mayor of the capital, or much worse whether he has lost all sort of human empathy that he’s inkling to become a famine profiteer.
During his short tenure as Mogadishu’s mayor, Mr. Tarzan who many simply refer to as the “Mad Mayor of Mogadishu” has been leveled at many unscrupulous charges, including money laundering, mismanagement and misuse of government income and aid from donor agencies. But he’s now bent on committing one of the worst human rights violations by banning foreign aid agencies reaching out to the victims of the draught and famine in southern Somalia. In fact, the mayor is legitimizing the recent accusations leveled at the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) by an Al-Shabab spokesperson who alleged that they are using the draught and the famine debacle as a weapon of war by banning food and aid to reach in the southern provinces under their control. In other words, through such reckless diktat will not only have negative repercussions against the TFG by alienating the suffering famine victims in the south but it will also overturn the dwindling support of the Al-Shabab insurgents.
Instead the TFG leadership should put all political inclinations and machinations aside in order to alleviate the famine afflicted victims in the south, so far these efforts have, in different ways, failed. The priority, in any case, should be finding creative ways to deliver the aid directly to the victims of the worst humanitarian disaster, wherever they might be, either inside or outside of the country. In other words, it’s very disingenuous to play politics of resource control on the plight of the famine victims, and rather cynical for Mr. Tarzan to be more concerned about the safety and security of the foreign aid agencies than that of his starving people under the occupation of the Islamic extremists. Nonetheless, the hurdles faced by these goodwill donor aid agencies are many and telling them where they can deliver aid or not should never be one of them.
Call it the curse that multiplies in hundred folds because initially the world put all the blame on Al-Shabab militants for exacerbating the drought of the century into a famine by banning foreign aid agencies to deliver food in the southern areas under their control. But now we’ve to deal with the harsh politics of resource control by the TFG leadership deciding where aid agencies could deliver food or not. In fact, the impact of this cynical aid restrictions cannot be overemphasized in the famine afflicted southern Somalia and the painful distress it has already rendered with so many lives at stake.
Of course, both local and foreign aid agencies relatively face risk throughout Somalia, but it’s a calculated risk that runs no parallel whatsoever to what the millions of starving Somalis are currently facing in the south. But the simple fact is that Tarzan has decided to put politics of resource control before humanity and the TFG is missing out an opportunity to proof its legitimacy and consolidate its power in the southern provinces by taking the PR war to Al-Shabab.
Finally, this is a prime example of how a misguided policy could hamper the TFG’s efforts to prove itself to the Somali people and to the rest of the world that they really care to safeguard their own people and country. Thus the TFG led by President Sheikh Sharif and Prime Minister Abdiweli Gaas are confronted a historic test in their dual efforts to pacify the country from the callous Al-Shabab militants and to eradicate the debilitating impact of the famine in the south. And unless the latter challenge is effectively tackled with unprecedented altruism and patriotism, their leadership will continue to be mired with allegations of corruption and poor governance resulted from ineffectual leadership. There is still a window of opportunity for the TFG to overturn this ill-advised policy and allow all foreign aid agencies to travel to everywhere they deem necessary to deliver aid to the suffering famine victims. But if TFG leadership continues to sit on its high horse and maintain its indifferent stance, the country will continue its downward precipice.
I urge Prime Minister Abdiweli Gaas who was recently here in the U.S. to turn his rhetoric of implementing a formidable government in Somalia within one year into an action and to pull rank by immediately overruling the misguided ban of reaching out to the famine victims in southern Somalia by foreign aid agencies. The famine victims in the South cannot afford to wait any longer.
Heikal Kenneded
Washington, D.C.
heikalk@yahoo.com
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