Mogadishu refugees suffer rains after drought
Jul 15, 2011 15:11:19 GMT -5
Post by PrisonerOfHope on Jul 15, 2011 15:11:19 GMT -5
Mogadishu refugees suffer rains after fleeing drought
Israel News.Net
Friday 15th July, 2011
Refugees who fled their homes amid a crippling drought, have found themselves drenched by rains in over-burdened refugee camps in Mogadishu.
In a devastatingly cruel irony, the tens of thousands of drought refugees fleeing to the Somali capital in search of food and water have found themselves drenched by heavy rains in Mogadishu.
The crippled capital of war-torn Somalia is playing host to drought refugees who have been walking to the capital for days in search of food and water.
Now, heavy rains are lashing the city, killing scores of woman and children due to over-exposure. Aid agencies working with limited supplies and support in Mogadishu have called the situation “a vision of hell”.
Refugee camps on the outskirts of the city do not have enough tents to offer shelter to everyone, leaving many to die in the mud. There are reports of malnourished bodies lying in the rain, dead mothers still holding their babies.
The situation is at risk of becoming the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time across the Horn of Africa.
It is estimated that 10 million people across the region are at risk of starvation, the UN has not yet described the situation as a famine, but that classification is sure to come in the days or weeks ahead. It is speculated that the rains may not come across the region until September.
The failure of the rains has displaced millions. Subsistence farmers cannot grow their crops and cattle cannot be fed. The over-crowding in refugee camps is leading to the spread of diseases such as measles, diarrhoea and pneumonia and the constant influx of people leaves aid workers without the means to treat them.
Refugee camps on the Somali border with Kenya and Ethiopia have seen hundreds of thousands of new arrivals, the Kenyan and Ethiopian governments lack the resources to deal with the refugee influx, while an estimated 2.6 million people are without any help at all in parts of Somalia where a 20-year civil war rages on.
www.israelnews.net/story/811256
Israel News.Net
Friday 15th July, 2011
Refugees who fled their homes amid a crippling drought, have found themselves drenched by rains in over-burdened refugee camps in Mogadishu.
In a devastatingly cruel irony, the tens of thousands of drought refugees fleeing to the Somali capital in search of food and water have found themselves drenched by heavy rains in Mogadishu.
The crippled capital of war-torn Somalia is playing host to drought refugees who have been walking to the capital for days in search of food and water.
Now, heavy rains are lashing the city, killing scores of woman and children due to over-exposure. Aid agencies working with limited supplies and support in Mogadishu have called the situation “a vision of hell”.
Refugee camps on the outskirts of the city do not have enough tents to offer shelter to everyone, leaving many to die in the mud. There are reports of malnourished bodies lying in the rain, dead mothers still holding their babies.
The situation is at risk of becoming the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time across the Horn of Africa.
It is estimated that 10 million people across the region are at risk of starvation, the UN has not yet described the situation as a famine, but that classification is sure to come in the days or weeks ahead. It is speculated that the rains may not come across the region until September.
The failure of the rains has displaced millions. Subsistence farmers cannot grow their crops and cattle cannot be fed. The over-crowding in refugee camps is leading to the spread of diseases such as measles, diarrhoea and pneumonia and the constant influx of people leaves aid workers without the means to treat them.
Refugee camps on the Somali border with Kenya and Ethiopia have seen hundreds of thousands of new arrivals, the Kenyan and Ethiopian governments lack the resources to deal with the refugee influx, while an estimated 2.6 million people are without any help at all in parts of Somalia where a 20-year civil war rages on.
www.israelnews.net/story/811256
