Although Somalia has a long record as a humanitarian disaster zone, 2013 began as a relatively positive year for the east African country. The number of Somalis characterized by the UN as living “in crisis” dropped by half in the last six months of 2012, as the aftershocks of a brutal 2011 famine began to wane and aid flowed into the country.
At the same time, a new government drew international applause and new donors. “The people and government of Somalia can rightly be proud of the huge progress the country has made over the past year,” said Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, at a summit of Somali and British leaders held in London in May. That week alone, international donors pledged more than $350 million in aid to the country, and heralded the government for successfully thwarting pirate attacks and largely pushing Islamist insurgents out of its major cities for the first time in decades.
But even as the political and economic circumstances in Somalia lurch upward, the country remains one of the poorest and most dangerous places on earth. Life expectancy at birth is 51 years, and nearly 1 in 5 children dies before the age of five.
What is more, the country’s government exercises control over only a portion of its territory, with the rest ruled over by a patchwork of militant groups. In June the major militant group, the Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabab, rammed a truck full of explosives into the UN compound in the capital of Mogadishu, killing 15.
And as a final indicator that things may not be improving as quickly as the international community has expected, earlier this month the international medical NGO Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) announced that it was permanently shuttering its Somalian operation, citing “extreme attacks” against it. “Armed groups and civilian leaders increasingly support, tolerate, or condone violence against humanitarian aid workers,” the group wrote in a statement announcing its decision.
To help:
The withdrawal of MSF from Somalia is a major setback for aid operations in the country. The group provided medical services to more than 600,000 Somalis last year alone. However, there are still several highly-rated charities operating food, medical, and other humanitarian aid assistance programs in the country. Donate to Catholic Relief Services, Oxfam, or Action Against Hunger, all of which have earned high ratings from Charity Navigator for their famine relief efforts in the region.
