The Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, began a short visit to Somalia
Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres
Guterres was met at Mogadishu airport by Somali Foreign Minister Abshir Omar Huruse, according to images circulated on social media. The Somali authorities have massively strengthened security in Mogadishu for this unannounced visit. Most roads were closed, and public transport was restricted. The UN chief’s arrival comes as Somalia is hit hard by drought and the government embarks on a major offensive to counter a violent Islamist insurgency. The UN has launched an appeal for $2.6 billion in humanitarian aid for the African country, but it is currently only 13% funded. Five consecutive seasons of disastrous rains in parts of Somalia, but also in Kenya and Ethiopia, were followed by the worst drought in the last 40 years, forcing at least 1.7 million people to leave their homes in search of water and food. About half the population will need humanitarian aid this year, with 8.3 million people affected by drought, according to the United Nations. “The crisis is far from over; the needs remain high and urgent,” said UN Somalia coordinator Adam Abdelmoula last week in Geneva. “Some of the most affected areas continue to face the risk of famine,” he warned.
Adding to the woes, seasonal rains in March led to flooding that claimed the lives of 21 people and displaced more than 100,000, he said, while warning that the rains were unlikely to be enough to improve the food security outlook for many. Somalia was hit by a famine in 2011, which killed 260,000 people, more than half of them children under six, partly because the international community did not act fast enough, according to the UN. A report by the UN and the Somali government released in March said that drought may have led to 43,000 “excess deaths” last year, with children under the age of five accounting for half the victims. One of the poorest countries on the planet, Somalia has been wracked by decades of civil war, political violence, and a bloody insurgency by the Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabaab. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud last year declared “all-out war” against the Islamist militants and sent in troops in September to back an uprising against Al-Shabaab launched by local clan militias in central Somalia. In recent months, the army and the militias known as “Macawisley” have retaken swathes of territory in an operation backed by an African Union force known as ATMIS and US air strikes. The government claimed late last month that more than 3,000 Al-Shabaab fighters had been killed since it launched the offensive. It also said in a statement issued by the information ministry that 70 towns and villages had been “liberated” from Al-Shabaab, which has been fighting the fragile central government for more than 15 years. Al-Shabaab has frequently retaliated against the offensive with bloody attacks, underscoring its stability to continue to strike civilian, political, and military targets despite the government’s advances. In a report to the UN Security Council in February, Guterres said that 2022 would be the deadliest year for civilians in Somalia since 2017, largely as a result of Al-Shabaab attacks.
By Sara Colin
