The Somali Famine: Hunger And Power
By Chandra Muzaffar
16 August, 2011
Countercurrents.org
Once again, the world is witness to a horrendous catastrophe in Somalia and in other parts of the Horn of Africa which some journalists now describe as “The Horn of Hunger.”
The famine that has hit the region has already claimed the lives of 29,000 Somali children under 5 years in the past three months. 12 million people need food aid. The UN has requested 2.4 billion US dollars from member states. It has raised only half that amount so far.
We can all do much more to help the people of Somalia and the region. Rich countries in particular have a moral obligation to assist the starving and suffering Somalis. For wealthy Muslims, the pain and ordeal of the Somalis --- who are mostly Muslims--- carries a special message since this is the month of Ramadan when Muslims all over the world observe the dawn to dusk annual fast. If one of the purposes of the fast is to develop empathy for the poor and hungry, the catastrophe in Somalia offers an opportunity for the wealthy to donate generously to the UN’s food aid programme.
In this regard, it is significant that ordinary individuals and communities have responded to the Somali catastrophe in a spirit of solidarity that is most touching. An 11 year-old schoolboy in Ghana, Andrew Adansi-Bonnah, has launched a campaign to raise 20 million Ghanaian cedis (about 13 million dollars) to “Save Somali Children from Hunger.” A charity in Gaza, Palestine has named its campaign, “ From Gaza: hand in hand to save the children of Somalia.” When a people with such limited means of sustenance who are amongst the most dispossessed on earth, are ever ready to sacrifice for a people who are in an even worse situation than them, it gives hope to humanity.
While we demonstrate our commitment to the plight of the Somali people, we should also try to understand the root causes of the famine. The drought, highlighted by the media, is undoubtedly a cause. But it is not the only cause. Somalia does not have a functioning government. For the better part of the last 20 years since the ouster of President Said Barre, it has seen nothing but lawlessness and anarchy. If it had a government that exercised authority and power, there may not be any mass starvation. In the mid-seventies, there was also a prolonged drought in Somalia but it did not lead to widespread hunger because there was a government that acted quickly.
Somalia’s famine is also due in part to constant foreign intervention and interference in its internal affairs. Under the guise of the UN’s humanitarian intervention programme, the United States sought to determine the direction of Somalia’s inter-clan politics in 1992 and 1993. Somalia’s oil potential, it is alleged, was one of the two underlying motives, the other being the geostrategic significance of the Horn of Africa. US intervention failed miserably leading to even greater chaos.
After the Al-Qaeda dual embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the 9-11 episode in 2001, the US once again stuck its finger in the Somali pie. It provided material support to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in order to stem the growing popularity of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). The UIC in fact succeeded in establishing a fairly stable government in 2006 which guaranteed law and order for a short while. But the US, working hand- in- glove with the government of Ethiopia, overthrew the Islamic group alleging that it had Al-Qaeda links. Remnants from the UIC formed a mass guerrilla movement which controls large parts of the country and even captured most of the capital, Mogadishu, in May 2009. The on-going civil war is a huge impediment to the delivery of food supplies to the starving.
Food delivery has been further compromised by an earlier US-UN imposed blockade of areas under the control of one of the militant offshoots of the UIC, Al-Shabaab. The Al-Shabaab, in turn, has prevented international food aid agencies from reaching its strongholds for fear of losing control over them. Needless to say, it is the poor and hungry who are the victims of this tussle for power.
Somalia underscores the vital importance of an effective functioning government capable of looking after its people that is not, at the same time, the pawn of foreign powers.
Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST) and Professor of Global Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
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