UN: International Community Failing Displaced Somalis

NAIROBI, Kenya

By Philip Emase

The international community is failing Somalia’s displaced population at a time when the country’s humanitarian situation is worsening, a UN official has said.

Speaking in Nairobi after a weeklong tour of the war torn country, Walter Kaelin, the UN Secretary General’s Representative on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), called for a more robust engagement by the international community.

“The existing humanitarian aid is pitifully insufficient compared to the needs of the displaced,” Kaelin said.

An estimated 1.5 million Somali IDPs continue to face deadly violence, rising cases of gender-based violence, repeated displacement and macabre living conditions in displacement camps. Some of them have been displaced for over 15 years.

The UN official singled out the escalating political violence and blatant violations of human and humanitarian rights in Central and Southern Somalia, where he said all sides in the Somali conflict indiscriminately attack and shell civilian-populated areas.

“Such acts are a major cause of displacement and may amount to war crimes and other crimes under international law,” Kaelin warned, urging international troops to likewise ensure their peacekeeping operations do not affect the civilian population.

Kaelin also asserted that all parties must grant humanitarian access to the displaced populations and guarantee the security of humanitarian workers so that the limited humanitarian aid available can be delivered smoothly.

Kaelin noted the rampant levels of gender-based violence, saying there was a lack of appropriate responses by local authorities and the international community.

“The levels of rape and even gang rapes of displaced girls and women, affected communities told me about, are unacceptably high,” Mr. Kaelin said, underscoring the inadequacy of medical care and psychosocial rehabilitation support, as well as legal counselling and justice for victims.

He also noted the lack of specific support to persons with disabilities and traumas.

During his weeklong fact-finding mission, the representative consulted with the interim Somali government, the administrations of Somaliland and Puntland, various UN agencies, humanitarian organizations and civil society groups.

He also visited IDP camps in Somaliland and Puntland, and at Dadaab across the border in Kenya.

He described the living conditions in these camps as unacceptable and severely overcrowded, characterized by malnutrition among the children and a general lack of basics like food, water, proper shelter, sanitation, health and educational facilities.

Kaelin urged humanitarian agencies based in Nairobi to shift their operations to Somalia’s considerably stable regions of Puntland and Somaliland, saying a closer presence would improve prospects of mitigating the worsening humanitarian crisis.

“I believe the situation in Somalia is not hopeless. There are areas that are stable enough to begin reconstructing from,” he said.

The representative implored donors not to reduce their assistance.

“This would not only punish the most vulnerable among already destitute communities, but would also play into the hands of radical elements who could easily exploit the situation,” Kaelin said.

For long term improvement, the representative suggested that the existing humanitarian interventions should be transformed into sustainable livelihoods by upgrading the makeshift shelters, investing in education, creating job opportunities for the youth, strengthening basic services and encouraging self-reliance among the IDPs.

Somalia has not had an effective government since dictator Siad Barre was ousted by an alliance of clan warlords in 1991. At the moment, the country is steeped in an insurgency waged by rebel Islamist groups seeking to seize power from a UN-backed interim government.

The interim government is supported by an African Union peacekeeping mission that analysts consider too small and ill equipped to make a firm impact. Repeated calls for the deployment of a UN mission have gone unheeded, leaving the government’s authority fragile.

Given the high level of insecurity, Kaelin stressed the right of all Somalis to seek refuge away from their communities of origin, including within Somalia’s self-styled autonomous regions of Somaliland and Puntland, or to seek asylum in foreign countries.

Puntland declared itself an autonomous region inside Somalia in 1998, and Somaliland has considered itself an entirely separate state for the past 18 years but has never been recognised by the international community