Q&A: UK ambassador Concar to Somalia on the humanitarian situation in the country

The humanitarian situation in the country as a result of ongoing drought persists with the UN warning famine is a looming threat. Goobjoog FM editor Ahmedweli Mohamud spoke with UK ambassador to Somalia David Concar on his country’s role in supporting the humanitarian response.

Goobjoog News: Donors meeting in London last week upped the Somali Humanitarian Support for 2018 to $350m against a target of $1.5b. Do you foresee concerns the International Community may not sustain its support as it did last year considering several other global humanitarian needs?

Amb. Concar: The London events of last week was about ensuring that consciousness is raised and awareness has been raised around the world very early. So the big achievement of last year was an achievement because the alarm about the possibility of famine was raised very early in the year and big in Somalia because humanitarian relief was then mobilized at scale very early on and this ensured that the needs of the people who were most in danger could be met.

Now this year we’re going to need to do something similar because it is clear that there are five point four million people in need in Somalia which is a huge number and at least half of those are any sort of critical condition. So the key purpose of the event in London was to remind the world and say look this problem hasn’t gone away. We did a great job last year working with the Somali government and the authorities but we’re going to have to do a great job this year and we’re going to have to do it despite these competing demands for a resources.

So we are confident, we are not complacent but we are confident that this can be achieved. But if it’s going to be achieved it needs everyone to pull together and it’s going to need the international community to dig deep into its pockets as it did last year to meet the funding gap that exists but a lot of money has already been pledged.

One of the great successes of last year was that we really achieved a lot of relief through transferring money directly to individuals in drought stricken communities and those in need. So one of our priorities this year will be to continue with that; to do mobile money transfers to families in need to enable them to go to the local marketplaces and buy the food, buy the water that their families need. In addition to that we’ll be putting money as we did last year into treatment for severely acutely malnourished children.

Food emergency for those individuals and families who cannot access the marketplace for whatever reason, support for people to access water sanitation and medical treatment, emergency medical treatment for those who most need it. And importantly some of the money will go to supporting pastoralists and agriculturalists to try to maintain or restart their livelihoods in that area. Livestock water supplies for their animals which is important.

 Could you take us through the outcomes of the donor conference in London last week?

I think there were many good outcomes. One was it put this issue back into people’s minds. So people now are being reminded- political leaders, aid agencies have now been reminded that there is a major problem still in Somalia despite the successes of last year. That’s a key outcome. Secondly donors did pledge some money and more have said that they will commit and pledged money and funding after this conference as a result of this conference. So whilst it is true that we are not yet at this stage where we can meet the full needs, the U.N. estimates it could be as high as one point five billion dollars this year. We have made a very good start on that. And I think the total commitment so far amount to something like 350 million dollars.

The U.K. is committed. We started the year with 40 million pounds commitment. We then increased that by another 21 million pounds. And now last week we increased it by another 24.6 million pounds. So the U.K. is leading by example; we are saying, we’re asking you to put money into this. We’re going first; we’re putting 85.6 million pounds on the table as an initial contribution from the UK. And I think donors, our partners respect that we’re not just telling them you’ve got to pay money, we’re putting money in ourselves you know.

Troops Contributing Countries to Amisom and the AU have called for reversal of UN Security Council Resolution 2372(2017) on Amisom draw-down. As a veto member of UNSC, will your country be considering this call?

So the reason we’ve got so many communities and families so vulnerable to the impacts of drought is because we have so much insecurity across Somalia that is a major factor. It’s not just lack of rain it’s lack of security. So the UK is a major contributor to trying to improve security conditions in Somalia along with many other organizations and countries. It remains the case that Amisom have an important role to play in protecting population centers in protecting supply routes and roads and that will need to continue. So although we and our partners very much want to see Somalis take control and ownership and provision of their own security.

We support that and we are supporting in a practical ways, we must be realistic and except for the immediate future. There is a huge role for Amisom and that role is important in the context of humanitarian support. Because if Amisom go away suddenly that will lead to all kinds of problems and it will greatly enormously exacerbate the humanitarian situation.

The Berbera Port controversy is fast widening the rift between Mogadishu and Hargeisa besides the diplomatic row with UAE. As a key partner in Somalia, does your country consider using its good offices to intervene in the matter?

We think firstly and most importantly that the Federal Government of Somalia and the administration in Hargeisa need to get together soon to talk about all these issues and to have a very balanced objective discussions about what is in both their interests moving forward. We do not think it helps either party issue on this issue for there to be a war of words for there to be inflammatory rhetoric on either side. So we would encourage both parties to get around the table and calmly discuss what is in their best interest.

But let me also point out there are 5.4 million people Somalis north and south in need humanitarian needs. Half of those are in critical condition. I don’t think the audience, the ordinary people of Somalia North and South are going to thank their governments or their parliaments if they spend all their time engaged in a war of words over matters of sovereignty rather than providing them the ordinary people of Somalia with the services and the things that they need to get on with their lives. Matters of sovereignty need to be settled; they’re very important. But first people must eat.

As co-host and convener of the London Conference last May, what is your assessment on implementation of the Security Pact which formed the core of the agreements?

Since the London conference we’ve seen very good progress both politically in the federal government and of federal member states of Somalia moving forward on the political agreement they reached last year on the national security architecture on where forces and how many forces there should security forces they should be in Somalia. We of course want to see more progress on that. We have just more recently seen an agreement from Somalia and involving Amisom the troop contributing countries to move forward in developing a transition plan a transition plan which will set out more clearly than we’ve seen before.

How Somali security forces will be stood up, made accountable made capable and made able to start a process of taking over some of the functions of Amisom and the troops contributing countries. So we see that as real progress but we’re going to have to really push forward now. All of us are going to have to contribute and be supportive of this and we need to see both practical progress but also political progress. So good progress made but we need to see more.

 Lastly, what would be your overall message to the people of Somalia?

My message to the Somali people is very simple. UK is one of your greatest friends to the international community and we will remain as a solid supporter and a solid partner throughout 2018 on all issues be a humanitarian issues security issues economic issues before range.