There is a window of hope to stem the tide of famine in Somalia-UK official

Sustained and effective response to the ongoing drought will avert a possible famine in Somalia, a UK official in Somalia has said.

Head of Department for International Development Somalia Phil Evans told Goobjoog News there is a ray of hope to stem a slip into famine given the quick international response and better working environment for response compared to 2011.

“In 2011 the support came in too late to prevent the famine and we learnt some very hard lessons from that experience. This time the international community is responding very fast. As soon as the warnings have come out from the information available to the international early warning systems, we’ve responded very first,” said Evans.

“If we can all work together effectively to make the response happen quickly and thoroughly over the next couple of months,” Evans noted, “We have a good chance to make sure we don’t have a repeat of the famine.”

Upwards of 250,000 people perished during the 2011 famine and displaced millions of others, a scenario which the DFID chief in Somalia notes was also attributed to lack of government systems to coordinate response. This time, Evans notes government structures at federal and state level exist coupled with response plans developed by the UN.

“There is already a network in place. Response committees both at federal and all regional administrations are now well placed to play a very important role in helping to coordinate the relief efforts. So we have a government system which was not there in 2011 and it gives us much hope this time that we can address this problem in the right way and quickly enough avert a real disaster.” Evans noted.

The UK announced late last month a 200 million pound aid package to Somalia and South Sudan to respond to the drought ravaging the two countries. South Sudan and the UN announced last month two counties in the Unity state region of South Sudan were facing a famine with 100,000 people trapped in extreme conditions of starvation. Clear signs of famine have also been noted in Somalia, the UN announced last month.

The aid, Evans said will be channeled through established networks within UN organs such as WFP, WHO and local NGOs to ‘scale up the efforts and meet the challenges in time’.

He noted the High Level Roundtable convened by President Mohamed Farmaajo this week in Mogadishu sought to galvanise collective efforts to ensure a famine does not happen in Somalia.