Bishop Giorgio Bertin of Djibouti has urged the international community to focus on alleviating the drought in Somalia, as six million people experience severe food shortages and contend with the al-Shabab extremist group.
Bishop Bertin expressed fear that the country may slip into a famine if action was delayed. “The Somali government, international community and Somali diaspora should map out the most affected areas and find the best way to respond to the immediate needs of local population,” he said.
Nearly half of Somalia’s population need humanitarian assistance and an estimated 275,000 malnourished children are at risk of starvation, according to aid and development agencies.
Bishop Bertin said Caritas Somalia was responding alongside other agencies. “We are distributing emergency food in six villages in Somaliland. We are also working on a project to take water to a rehabilitation center for handicapped children in a very poor settlement near the city of Hargeisa,” he said.
While stressing the role of the Somali diaspora in rebuilding their country, Bishop Bertin urged the lifting of restrictions on “hawala”, traditional money transfer agencies, to allow the Somalis worldwide to contribute to the aid effort.
“The international community should be able to distinguish between terrorists and good people, good organisations which need to transfer money,” Bishop Bertin said. “They should not have just a same parameter: Somalia all is bad. With the modern technology and communications, the international community should be able to distinguish which hawala to lift (from) the ban.