Aaand in the Horn of Africa...

[Marechal Ney]

A sentence that begins like that can never be positive. This is no exception. The UN has declared the Somali droughts to be the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.

The head of the United Nations refugee agency has described the situation in drought-hit Somalia as the "worst humanitarian disaster" in the world, after meeting with those affected at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya.
The camp, located in the northeast and the world's largest in the world, is overflowing with tens of thousands of refugees from Somalia, Ethiopia and within Kenya.
Antonio Guterres, the head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), visited the camp on Sunday, appealing for "massive support" from the international community for the more than 380,000 people estimated to be living in Dadaab.
"I have no doubt that in today's world, Somalia corresponds to the worst humanitarian disaster. I have never seen in a refugee camp people coming in such desperate conditions," he told Al Jazeera.
"I saw a mother that had lost three of her children on the way here."
Guterres said that those at the camp were "the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable of the vulnerable".
The UNHCR chief is on a tour of the region in order to highlight the plight of those affected by the drought.
The World Food Programme estimates that more than 10 million people are already in need of humanitarian aid, with the UN Children's Fund estimating at least two million children are suffering from malnourishment.

Those children are in need of lifesaving action, the UN says.
On Thursday, Guterres visited the Ethiopian camp of Dollo Ado.
"The mortality rates we are witnessing are three times the level of emergency ceilings," he said.
"The level of malnutrition of the children coming in is 50 per cent. That is enough to explain why a very high level of mortality is inevitable."

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/af...319179235.html

Will western countries come to aid? Or are they too busy being shocked at the Casey Anthony trial, even though its over, while thousands starve to death?

[Emperor Arcturus Mengsk]

Is there oil to be had?

[Holger Danske]

Is there oil to be had?

This is seriously getting old...

Last time the West tried to help these helpless people they choose to fight us... Screw Somalia.

If Russia is so damn hellbent on nurturing it's well established imagine as a Good Guy........................................
Let them try it.

[Glista]

This is seriously getting old...

Last time the West tried to help these helpless people they choose to fight us... Screw Somalia.

If Russia is so damn hellbent on nurturing it's well established imagine as a Good Guy........................................
Let them try it.

You mean they got scared by children with AK s ? That was half-ased effort.

[Celsius]

hmm, seems those pirates need to hijack food transports instead of yachts.

[Captain Jin]

Why should we come to their aid? So they can dismember and drag servicemen through the streets of Mogadishu like they did last time?

[Redrum]

Why should we come to their aid? So they can dismember and drag servicemen through the streets of Mogadishu like they did last time?

So you believe that only way to help people, is to send in the Military and invade? I guess you have never heard of an aid agency...

[Captain Jin]

So you believe that only way to help people, is to send in the Military and invade? I guess you have never heard of an aid agency...

All of the UN food and aid agencies that were pouring into Somalia were useless because militias and thugs were taking the shipments for themselves and there was nothing any of these agencies could do about it. That's why the military was sent in. To ensure the stuff was actually distributed to the people and to try and catch the leader of the group that was most responsible for the famine and bloodshed.

Don't try and pin your naivete on me. Apparently you seem to think that just having an aid agency there is enough to ensure things get done, yet as you say they never left and problems are still rampant so obviously your way isn't very efficient or effective. By the way, after US forces left Somalia the UN mission there collapsed shortly after. I wonder why... Maybe it was all the gun toting militias?

[hellheaven1987]

There are times when armed charity organizations can be useful, and Somalia is one of those.

[Redrum]

All of the UN food and aid agencies that were pouring into Somalia were useless because militias and thugs were taking the shipments for themselves and there was nothing any of these agencies could do about it. That's why the military was sent in. To ensure the stuff was actually distributed to the people and to try and catch the leader of the group that was most responsible for the famine and bloodshed.

Don't try and pin your naivete on me. Apparently you seem to think that just having an aid agency there is enough to ensure things get done, yet as you say they never left and problems are still rampant so obviously your way isn't very efficient or effective. By the way, after US forces left Somalia the UN mission there collapsed shortly after. I wonder why... Maybe it was all the gun toting militias?

think u are referring to Farrah aidid stealing aid and selling for a profit...The aid agencies stayed, and if they wanted security they had to pay local militias for protection....so u are asking for an invasion after all aren't you? you are right that most aid agencies there aren't very effective as they don;t do much to help and some come with hidden agendas...

[Captain Jin]

think u are referring to Farrah aidid stealing aid and selling for a profit...The aid agencies stayed, and if they wanted security they had to pay local militias for protection....so u are asking for an invasion after all aren't you? you are right that most aid agencies there aren't very effective as they don;t do much to help and some come with hidden agendas...

Where the hell did I ask for an invasion? I don't give two ing about Somalia. It's just another hole to dump money into for no reason. I'm certainly not going to pay money for an ineffectual aid agency to come in so they can mete out a marginal amount of aid while paying thugs to protect them from other thugs. Nor am I going to advocate sending in major aid agencies at my expense under some UN mandate unless they are protected by military personnel. Oddly enough history in Somalia seems to agree given that UNITAF was considered a successful operation in delivering humanitarian aid with the help of tens of thousands of soldiers; whereas UNOSOM II was pretty much a failure because of less military strength and an inability to establish a secure enough area to distribute humanitarian aid.

[Axeman]

So you believe that only way to help people, is to send in the Military and invade? I guess you have never heard of an aid agency...

Un and AU soldiers far outnumbered American soldiers in Somalia. Somalia was only put under military occupation because when you have no government, security cannot be guaranteed and sending aid to a country which has no effective government to administer the aid is a great way to waste food. You either need individual organizations which operate on a local level at extreme risk, which is not very effective on a grand scale, or you need to restore order to facilitate the massive logistical problems involved in feeding a country after 20 years of anarchy. Soldiers were only put on the ground in Somalia AFTER it became clear that the warlords were not going to let the food pass unmolested to the various refugee camps.

[Claudius Gothicus]

So you believe that only way to help people, is to send in the Military and invade? I guess you have never heard of an aid agency...

Aid Agencies need marines to protect them from thugs and gangs that disrupt their work. In warlike or socially unstable areas the labor of Armed Personnel and Social Workers is interdependent, both rely on the other to make a good job and accomplish the mission.

In any case Somalia is just crap, and needs to get the out of it's own collective nonsense. Recognizing the government of Somaliland could do them some help, too bad the UN is busy about it.

[removeduser_4536284751384]

because the greedy white men are killed the second they set foot in Somalia, while the crazy brown men are running the whole conflict for the poor black men.

[Emperor Arcturus Mengsk]

On a more serious note,

Will western countries come to aid? Or are they too busy being shocked at the Casey Anthony trial, even though its over, while thousands starve to death?

I don't get why all the help to countries in need has to come from western countries? Why not Russia? China? Yes they have their own problems with rich and poor but that is the case with all countries western or not. They seem to be doing quite well in the richest economies in the world list.

[alhoon]

On a more serious note,

I don't get why all the help to countries in need has to come from western countries? Why not Russia? China? Yes they have their own problems with rich and poor but that is the case with all countries western or not. They seem to be doing quite well in the richest economies in the world list.

I think Russia sent help to Japan, didn't they?

[Celsius]

Somalia has yet to keep something good. Instead, they destroy everything we send them. It needs to be cut off the map and just forgotten about.

[Celsius]

well, we sent aid back in the 90's and the people there to administer the supplies were killed. You can just send and give aid to Somalia. The senders have to administer it themselves in order for it to be effective in anyway, and that requires armed personnel.

No Aid Agency is going to go into Somalia without some sort of Armed Insurance.

[Redrum]

well, we sent aid back in the 90's and the people there to administer the supplies were killed. You can just send and give aid to Somalia. The senders have to administer it themselves in order for it to be effective in anyway, and that requires armed personnel.

No Aid Agency is going to go into Somalia without some sort of Armed Insurance.

There have been Aid agencies operating in Somalia since the 90's, they never left, however most christian or other western aid agencies were banned in 2009 by the Al-shabab group in the areas under their control because some of the aid agencies were being suspected for spying on the al-Shabab group for the CIA and also trying secretly to convert the population to Christianity. Past 2 years the Al-shabab group tried to give aid themselves but i guess they were overwhelmed by the severity of the drought and by losses in their war against the African Union and TFG, that's why few days ago they lifted the ban on aid agencies and aid agencies will most likely be back but under tighter security control I would figure...

[Celsius]

Al-shabab? You mean that terrorist network? yeah, I can see alot of help coming from them...

Tighter Security control? From WHO!! The Somalian Rabble army isnt going to provide it, and western nations, or any nation for that matter,wont leave aid in the hands of Al-shabab, you can bet on that.

I sense a scam on behalf of Al-shabab...and a stupid one at that.