Ahmed Murad (Mogadishu, Cairo)
Somalia is witnessing a severe humanitarian crisis in light of the worsening repercussions of the flood disaster that struck it in the last months of last year 2023, making millions of Somalis need urgent humanitarian aid. The United Nations World Food Program recently revealed in a report that about 6.9 million Somalis are in need of humanitarian aid in This year.
The former Assistant to the Egyptian Foreign Minister for African Affairs, and a member of the COMESA Committee of Wise Men, Ambassador Souad Shalabi, explained that Somalia is an example of countries that are always exposed to multiple climatic fluctuations, and in the past few years it has witnessed several natural disasters, due to floods resulting from the “El Nino” phenomenon or The long dry seasons that precede them, which exposes the population to homelessness and malnutrition, indicating that local institutions have been unable to achieve food security for more than 6 million people.
Shalabi stated in a statement to Al-Ittihad that many countries and organizations rushed to provide humanitarian aid to Somalia to confront the repercussions of the crisis caused by natural phenomena last year, and to save the largest number of those affected, in the form of financial aid, food supplies, and relief supplies such as blankets or tents. For shelter.
The World Food Program announced that it needs about $342 million to expand the scope of the humanitarian response in Somalia. Late last year, a conference was held under the chairmanship of the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, and it launched an appeal to provide urgent relief to Somalia, which is suffering from drought and famine crises that have been described as a “double disaster.” .
A member of the COMESA Committee of the Wise said that donors demanded the need for the Somali government to develop radical solutions and a national program to deal with climate fluctuations in a more scientific manner, so that financial aid is directed to strengthening infrastructure and avoiding a collapse in the food security system in the future, while directing aid to those who deserve it to ensure its efficiency and good quality. Manage it.
In turn, the Director of the United Nations Climate Change Project, Dr. Samir Tantawi, explained that Somalia is one of the countries most affected by the repercussions of climate change, and over the past years it has witnessed some natural disasters, such as floods and drought, which caused severe damage to millions of residents, in addition to the destruction of… Agricultural crops.
During the period between October and December of last year, Somalia witnessed heavy rains that caused devastating floods affecting about 2.4 million people, in addition to the displacement of a million others, and crops along the Juba and Shabelle rivers were destroyed.
International action
The UN expert stated in a statement to Al-Ittihad that the repercussions of climate change always cause severe humanitarian crises as witnessed by Somalia, and therefore international action is required to provide aid to mitigate the effects of the crisis, and it is important that the aid includes programs and a roadmap for how to deal with the changes. climate change, ways to confront it, adapt to it, and mitigate its repercussions.
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