Somalia
Current Situation
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2011 Global Peace Index ranking of 153 countries: 153 |
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1.3 million internally displaced people and over 860,000 refugees who have fled Somalia |
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The famine in the Horn of Africa is affecting 3.7 million Somalis, 1.85 million of whom are children |
Somalia is ranked the least peaceful place on earth and the armed violence shows no signs of abating. The continuous war since 1991 has left the country without social services, schools, social centres, health facilities and other types of infrastructure.
Access to weapons is prolonging the conflict in Somalia, exacerbating violence, fuelling crime, and actively undermining counter-insurgency, security and peace-building efforts. The presence of landmines and unexploded bombs remaining in the ground is a major obstacle to the consolidation of peace and reduction of poverty, as the land must go unused.
Famine was officially declared in parts of southern Somalia in July 2011, and much of the rest of the country has been affected by severe drought. The World Food Programme warns that the food crisis in Somalia might become a permanent problem. While communities previously had the relative luxury of several years of regular rainfall to recover from the occasional year of drought, they now have to live in an almost constant state of food insecurity due to a lack of water.
Act for Peace in Somalia
Our partners were providing humanitarian assistance to displaced people in Somalia before the 2011 famine hit. This work has now greatly increased. They are working to provide emergency food, water, shelter, psychosocial support and post crisis livelihood assistance for 130,000 people most affected in the Gedo region of southern Somalia and internally displaced people in Mogadishu.
Al-Shabaab, which is aligned with Al-Qaeda and controls much of southern Somalia, is preventing some aid agencies from delivering urgent aid. Because we work through local partners, our aid is reaching those that need it most.
Our partners are also assisting Somalian refugees who cross the border into Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. This camp currently has 400,000 refugees, even though it was built for 90,000.
Act for Peace also supports the Mines Advisory Group, which is working on disarmament and armed violence reduction in central and northern Somalia. Our partners have so far removed 70 tons of unexploded bombs, ammunition and weapons. Key achievements of our partners in 2010 included: clearing 125,240 m2 of land and destroying 5,722 weapons. They also deliver risk education to communities so that they can better identify unexploded material and know who to notify.
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can feed a family for a month. |
