S/PV.6599 Security Council

I thank Mr. Mahiga for his briefing. I now give the floor to Ms. Catherine Bragg. Ms. Bragg: I thank the Council for the opportunity to brief its members this morning on the humanitarian situation in Somalia. Since our last briefing of 26 July, the magnitude of the crisis has become even greater. A little less than two weeks ago, the United Nations declared a famine in two regions in Somalia and warned that urgent action needed to be taken to prevent famine from spreading further. On 3 August, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit announced that famine thresholds had been surpassed in the three additional areas of southern Somalia, in Middle Shabelle, the Afgoye corridor internally displaced persons (IDPs) settlement and the Mogadishu IDP community. Nationwide, 3.7 million people are in crisis, with 3.2 million people in need of immediate life-saving assistance, of whom 2.8 million are in south-central Somalia. That is twice the entire population of Manhattan. Children are the most affected by the crisis, and an estimated 1.25 million children across southern Somalia are in urgent need of life-saving assistance. Tens of thousands of children have already died, and many more will die in the coming days unless aid is provided to them. The under-five mortality rate is higher than 4 per 10,000 per day in all areas of the south, peaking at 13 per 10,000 per day in the riverine and agro-pastoral areas of Lower Shabelle and among Afgoye and Mogadishu IDPs. Let me illustrate what 13 per 10,000 per day actually means. It means that by the time I go to bed tonight, 13 people, six of whom would be under 5 years of age, would have died, and tomorrow 13 will also die. That will continue the day after that unless we can reverse the trend. And this is only in one community of 10,000. As we all know, the IDP community is a great deal larger than that in the famine area. According to the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit, the current situation represents the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world today, and Africa’s worst food security crisis since Somalia’s famine of 1991 and 1992. We have not yet seen the peak of the crisis, as further deterioration is considered likely given the very high levels of both severe acute malnutrition and under-five mortality in combination with an expectation of a continued increase in local cereal prices and a below-average rainy season harvest. The drought crisis has generated displacement on a large scale within Somalia, as well as refugee outflows into Kenya and Ethiopia. An estimated 100,000 people, fleeing drought and famine, have reached Mogadishu over the past two months alone in search of food, water and shelter. In addition to the 370,000 people who were already displaced to the capital, to date the overall number of IDPs in Somalia is estimated at 1.5 million. An estimated 410,000 IDPs are located in the 15 kilometre stretch of road in the Afgoye corridor outside Mogadishu. Since 1 August, an estimated 1,500 Somali refugees have crossed the border into Kenya on a daily basis. In Ethiopia, the number of refugees has decreased from over 1,000 to an average of 270 people a day. A massive multisectoral response is critical to prevent additional deaths and total livelihood and social collapse. Health interventions are as important as the provision of food aid or therapeutic feeding, in particular since, with the start of the rains in October, the risk of epidemic disease due to a lack of access to potable water is likely to increase. In recent weeks, some progress has been made in scaling up the response. For example, on 4 August, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced the increase of its emergency operations in central and southern Somalia to assist more than 1 million people affected by drought and conflict. The ICRC has been the only organization allowed to conduct food distribution in Al-Shabaab areas since the suspension of World Food Programme (WFP) operations in January 2010. In areas under the control of Al-Shabaab, the United Nations and its partners continue to negotiate access with local authorities and communities to reach new areas and move closer to the people affected. In July, following assessment missions to two newly accessible areas in the Gedo area, where spontaneous settlements are springing up due to the increased movement of people, we have seen an increase in the delivery of life-saving assistance to the most needy, including, for example, a wet-feeding programme providing 25,000 meals per day for five days, starting 2 August. UNICEF is boosting its supply pipeline to support the existing supplementary feeding centres, stabilization centres and therapeutic feeding centres. Blanket supplementary feeding is meanwhile scheduled to start this week, with priority given to operations in famine-affected regions, including in Lower Shabelle. Supplies will assist an estimated 154,000 people. Since 27 July, 97 tons of supplies have been airlifted to Mogadishu, Gedo and Lower Juba to treat some 34,000 malnourished children under five years of age for one month. High-energy biscuits have also been airlifted to the areas of Gedo and Lower Juba to feed 60,000 people. Emergency measles campaigns targeting more than 72,000 children aged six months to 15 years are under way in accessible districts in the Gedo region, while negotiations are under way with local authorities to secure access to additional areas. A measles vaccination campaign targeting 40,000 children under five years of age was completed in Mogadishu. Furthermore, a health campaign targeting 215,000 children under five years of age with measles and polio vaccines was carried out along the Somali-Kenyan border. Across southern and central Somalia, sanitation activities have reached almost 340,000 people. Water interventions, such as borehole rehabilitation and water trucking, have reached over 817,000 people. In Mogadishu this week, an Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees airlift carrying 31 tons of shelter material and some 2,500 emergency assistance packages for thousands of displaced people landed in the capital, for the first time in five years. However, humanitarian operations in Mogadishu remain complex, and the scaling up of activities is not a quick endeavour. Humanitarian actors are still assessing the implications of the withdrawal of Al-Shabaab from Mogadishu. It remains unclear if this move is a complete pull-out or a change of tactics on the part of Al-Shabaab, or how this new scenario will affect overall security and our ability to deliver humanitarian aid. Furthermore, the capacity of the local civilian administration in supporting the delivery of aid and ensuring the security of IDP sites remains weak. Last Friday, for example, 10 people were shot dead at an IDP site in the area under the control of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the African Union Mission in Somalia, when local clan militias attempted to loot resources destined for IDPs. Earlier this week, on 8 August, the Humanitarian Coordinator met with the Prime Minister in Mogadishu, together with the Department of Safety and Security, WFP, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), to discuss the scaling up of the humanitarian programme and improving security at IDP sites. Last week, the TFG created the Disaster Management Agency (DMA) to coordinate the provision of humanitarian assistance. The Prime Minister reassured the United Nations delegation that the Government would be able to negotiate secure access to assist delivery in the camps. However, technical support will still be required, and OCHA is now following up with DMA to improve information- sharing on the delivery of assistance. At the current juncture, it is of paramount importance that the capacity of the local administration be strengthened to allow proper coordination between the humanitarian community and the Government and ensure that the Government fully discharges its responsibilities with regard to the protection of the civilian population. I would like to conclude my statement with some remarks on the funding situation of humanitarian programmes. To date, the United Nations Consolidated Appeal for Somalia is funded at 46 per cent. Humanitarian partners still require more than $560 million for life-saving assistance. In the region, we still urgently need $1.3 billion to save lives. Donors have committed more than $1 billion to the response so far, and continue to pledge more. We are very grateful, especially in these difficult economic times. But the magnitude of human suffering in Somalia today demands more. Despite the difficulty of operating in one of the most conflict-riven countries in the world, we cannot let people down. Our response must be scaled up, and the resources to support that effort must be provided. Every day counts. We believe that tens of thousands have already died. Hundreds of thousands face imminent starvation and death. We can act to prevent further loss of life and ensure the survival of those who are on the brink of death. A massive multisectoral response to save lives in the immediate term and rebuild livelihoods in the medium-short term are critical. We will continue to appeal to donors to provide the resources needed to respond to the crisis. We expect assistance needs to continue for the rest of this year, if not longer. As we have stressed over recent weeks, this is the most severe food crisis emergency in the world right now. We must treat it with the urgency it demands.

I thank Ms. Bragg for her briefing. There are no further speakers inscribed on my list. I now invite Council members to informal consultations to continue our discussion on the subject.