Call for Donations to Alleviate Famine in Somalia

Representatives of 40 OIC member states had attended the meeting, held in the Turkish city of Istanbul, pledging support totalling US$350 million; OIC Secretary-General Ekemeleddin Ihsanoglu called on other members to increase the total pledged to US$500 million. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, meanwhile, on August 18 embarked with his family on a visit to Mogadishu (the capital of Somalia), becoming the first world leader to do so since the fall of Somalia's last national government in 1991.

Immediate context

The OIC meeting came almost a month after the United Nations had on July 22 declared a state of famine in two of Somalia's central and southern regions, Lower Shabelle and Bokool. The famine followed drought conditions that had persisted in many regions of north-eastern Africa for over two years, triggering food crises in Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. The UN had reported on July 13 that around 11 million people throughout the region faced starvation unless aid was urgently received; these included 3.5 million in, or around half the total population of, conflict-ridden Somalia. One quarter of all Somalis were reported to have been displaced by the drought and famine, with over 800,000 crossing national borders and sparking a refugee crisis in poor regions of neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia.

Many refugees were pastoralists and nomads from the worst-hit Somali regions, both of which were controlled by the militant Islamist Shabab organization. Columns of families, left destitute by the starvation of their herds, had entered Mogadishu, reversing a pattern common in recent years whereby Mogadishu residents had fled into the countryside to escape fighting between the Shabab and the peacekeeping forces of the African Union (AU). The refugees' arrival followed the early August departure of Shabab fighters from several suburbs in the north of the city. Representatives of the Shabab described the pullback, which the organization preceded with a short display of intense and coordinated force, as a strategic withdrawal.

A UN campaign to raise US$1.6bn in aid for victims of the famine and drought had, by mid-August, raised only half its target, despite a promise from UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon that he would contact member states personally to secure the funds. The United States had been the biggest donor to date with US$570 million raised, followed by $205m of donations from the United Kingdom, $55m from China, and almost $75m from Middle Eastern and Arab countries. The latter region had been criticized by MPs in Muslim Somalia for its relatively slow response to the crisis, which continued throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Somali politician Mohamed Omar Talha had called on Arab countries in particular to pledge more support, saying "We think our Arab brothers have neglected their duties in this respect."

Reaction and outlook

Many donors remained skeptical that aid would reach those who needed it, or that it could be distributed effectively if it did. Access for aid agencies to the worst-hit areas of Somalia remained scant, as the Shabab banned Western aid workers from the regions it controlled. Even where cooperation with the Shabab seemed possible, agencies described the conditions the militants imposed as unworkable, with accounts emerging of supplies being confiscated, exorbitant operational fees levied, and restrictions placed on the activity of female staff. Prior to the ban's original imposition in late 2009, the Shabab was estimated by Somali journalist Abdirahman Aynte to have derived up to 15 per cent of its income from international aid agencies; nonetheless, the militants remained intensely suspicious of foreign agencies, whom they often accused of spying or trying to undermine their control of Somalia. In mid-July a brief relaxation of the all-out ban on foreign workers had been reversed, after the UN escalated its description of the food situation from emergency to famine, a label senior Shabab figures rejected.

Nonetheless, some reports suggested that the crisis had intensified division among key Shabab militants. One prominent figure, Muktar Ali Robow, who hailed from the famine-hit regions, was reported to favour accepting foreign aid and to have an ally in senior leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys. Rumours even emerged, as reported in The Guardian of Aug 16, that overall leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, a staunch al-Qaeda ally and trenchant opponent of cooperation with the West, had been replaced by Ibrahim Haji Mead (also known as Ibrahim Afghani). The Shabab comprised a heterogenous coalition of interests, with members ranging from committed jihadists to local businessmen and nationalists: some were thought to place local interests above the leadership's commitment to advancing global Islamism, and to oppose actions that seemed to prolong the food crisis. The famine, and the withdrawal from Mogadishu, were both expected also to affect the Shabab's finances: the starving regions included an area once considered the "breadbasket of Somalia", but devastated by the departure of local farmers fleeing both violence and taxation under the Shabab. The lost ability to tax businesses in Mogadishu also cut off an important income stream for the organization. Nonetheless, its control of Somalia's major ports, and the lack of any effective opposition, left the Shabab's dominance unlikely to decline despite the food crisis.

Grainne Moloney, of the UN's technical analysis unit for famines (FSNAU), warned that the famine was likely to spread elsewhere in Somalia, and to persist until at least December 2011. Though rains were expected in October and November, experts warned that 2011's harvests would likely be inadequate to end the crisis. The World Food Programme characterized recent droughts as the product of climate change, saying that where once dry years had been interspersed with fertile ones, in recent decades droughts had struck as frequently as every other year. With less time for crops and livestock herds to recover, the Programme warned that food insecurity could become the region's constant state. Experts pointed also to the Shabab's neglect of agriculture, and its promotion of deforestation to support the profitable charcoal industry, as causing food shortages and intensifying the effects of droughts.

Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan used his speech to the OIC to call the crisis a "litmus test" for humanity, and announced a range of measures to assist Somalia: these included the reopening of Turkey's embassy in Mogadishu, closed since the external pagecollapse of the last functioning national government in 1991call_made. Turkey would also, Erdoğan said, open six field hospitals in affected regions of Somalia. A trust fund, intended to coordinate donations, and a task force, comprising the OIC's secretariat-general and member states Turkey, Kazakhstan, Senegal, and Saudi Arabia, were announced at the Istanbul meeting, and pledged to target food security in the longer term for countries including Somalia. Nevertheless, commentators expressed fears that without attention to the underlying causes, a swift end to the crisis was unlikely.

Historical context

Somalia had lacked a central government since the overthrow of President Mohammed Siyad Barre by a external pagecoalition of rebel groups in 1991call_made. Repeated efforts to build a government had failed until the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) external pagetook control of much of the country by force in 2006call_made. The Islamist UIC was unacceptable to neighbouring Ethiopia, which sent in troops to support the internationally-backed transitional government. Ethiopian and transitional government troops external pagerapidly drove the UIC militia from Mogadishucall_made and much of the rest of the country.

From the defeated UIC militia rose the Shabab, who successfully fought the transitional government and Ethiopian troops using guerrilla tactics. As the Shabab took control of much of the south of the country the African Union sent a peacekeeping force to Somalia, external pageconsisting mostly of Ugandan and Burundian soldierscall_made. The transitional government and peacekeepers proved unable to defeat the Shabab but external pagemaintained control of shifting areas of the country, including key areas of Mogadishucall_made. The Shabab imposed strict sharia law in areas under their control and harassed and expelled foreign aid workers, including the external pageUN World Food Programmecall_made.