THE World Bank in a recent statement said that the famine in the Horn of Africa is manmade and resulted from artificially high prices of food compounded by the internal conflicts.
Over 12 million people are affected by a food crisis encompassing a number of countries in the African Horn most notably Somalia but also Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. Tens of thousands have already died and countless more are on the verge of dying due to starvation. One would have thought that in an environment of food shortages, food assistance would have been carefully managed by the authorities to ensure that it reaches the beneficiary for whom the food was intended in the first place.

This however, appeared not to be the case. There are reports of the food being diverted into the hands of rebel forces that are responsible in the first instance for the plight of the suffering masses.

QUOTE: There are reports of the food being diverted into the hands of rebel forces that are responsible in the first instance for the plight of the suffering masses.

According to a report emanating out of the World Food Programme, food aid destined for famine victims were stolen and are being sold at markets in the same neighbourhoods where skeletal children in filthy refugee camps cannot find food to survive.

The WFP acknowledged that even though there is substantial evidence to support the diversion of food aid to rebel forces and other accomplices, the scale and magnitude of the crisis does not allow for a suspension of the assistance programme since it would result in unnecessary deaths.

According to UN figures, more than 3.2 million Somalis, roughly half of the population, require food aid after a severe drought compounded by a long-running civil war which has practically dismembered the country and, for all practical purposes, have left the country without any effective government.

In such a context, it is not easy for the local authorities to effectively manage and control relief efforts in the absence of any centralized and coordinating body. More than 450,000 Somalis live in famine zones controlled by rebel forces where aid is difficult to deliver.

Approximately 30,000 Somali children under the age of five have already died and thousands more are at the risk of dying unless emergency food supplies reach them.

This is indeed a sad situation which has put the donor community in some dilemma. On the one hand, it felt compelled to continue with the programme given the sheer scale and magnitude of the crisis and the disastrous effects any withdrawal could have in terms of human lives.
On the other hand, a significant quantity of the food aid ended up in the hands of rebel forces that are partly responsible for the crisis situation which the country found itself in.

It is not that the distribution process is expected to be problem-free. International officials envisaged that some of the food aid would be diverted elsewhere but it is the scale and manner of the diversion that is of concern to the donor agencies.

“While helping starving children, you are also feeding the power groups that make a business out of the disaster,” said Joakim Gundel who heads a Kenyan based consultancy firm tasked with an evaluation of the food aid programme in Somali. “You’re saving lives today so that they can die tomorrow.”

The human crisis in Somali has brought to the fore the dangers than could befall any country where there is political instability and where resources are diverted to internal conflicts rather than addressing issues of sustainable livelihoods.

As the World Bank pointed out in a recent report, much of the problems associated with the drought conditions could have been averted if there were adequate preparations made to deal with the problem.

What is needed is a long-term solution to the country’s divisive politics which must be based on a democratic framework.

Tribal and ethnic loyalties have for too long dominated the politics of that country and have proven very costly in terms of human development. There is need for conflict resolution strategies and programmes undergirded by the need for tolerance and respect for diversity.

Putting the interest of the country ahead of sectional interests is key to a resolution of the problem which has bedeviled the country over the decades.

Put in a different way, there is need for a political solution to the problem which must be internally driven and not imposed by outside forces as happened in the past when US forces intervened militarily during the early 1990’s when a similar situation took place.

The Organization of African Unity (OAU) should take a lead role in the institutionalization of democracy in the region and insist on adherence of a Democratic Charter by all governments along the lines of the OAS Charter on democratic governance.