Somali food crisis worsens to official famine

Published by The Day (a newspaper for schools) on Thursday 21st July

Two regions of Somalia were yesterday officially classified as in famine. UNICEF's chief says this story should get more space than the hacking scandal. Is he right?

Habiba has travelled to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, from a village in the south-west of the country. She walked 200 km. Her five children were walking with her, but the two youngest, aged two and five, died on the way. She says she abandoned their bodies along the roadside because she was too weak to dig them graves.

These are just two of the tens of thousands who have already died in the disaster gripping the Horn of Africa. The crisis was yesterday upgraded to famine status. How has the situation come to this?

Somalia is a country of nine million on the east coast of Africa. For the last two years the rains have failed, causing drought. This is in part due to normal weather patterns, but may have been made worse by climate change.

But that isn't the whole story. Somalia is a political mess. It has not had an effective national government in 20 years – instead the country is controlled by various armed groups. Islamist Al Shabaab controls much of the country's south, and is defined by the US as a terrorist group.

The group ordered all aid workers out of the country in 2009, labelling them 'infidels.' In spite of recently announcing they will let aid in, Al Shabaab's intentions are unclear. In the past they have 'taxed' aid, essentially stealing it, have refused to allow female or foreign relief workers, and are currently threatening those programmes they believe to be favouring other factions.

Al Shabaab's presence means the US has slashed aid to Somalia for fear of funding terrorists. Oxfam has called some EU states' slow response 'wilful neglect'. A UK pledge of £90 million in food aid, and private donations of £20 million are not enough.

UK concern for the famine may have been low due to lack of media coverage: UNICEF yesterday took out full page newspaper advertisements asking readers to 'move the news agenda on' from the tabloid phone hacking scandal dominating the British media onto 'another, far bigger and vital story'.

Neglect and apathy

Perhaps UNICEF is right. Yesterday's Guardian had 12 pages on the hacking scandal. Is this, a media story about the media, just journalists self-obsessing? Ironically, in focusing on News of the World failing to act correctly, journalists are potentially again neglecting their duties, this time to report what the world needs to know: the first major famine of the 21st Century.

Or perhaps it is unfair of David Bull, the fund's director, to suggest that famine is more newsworthy. While we should care about the thousands dying in Africa, is it natural to be apathetic about a disaster so difficult to relate to and so far from home, when there are dramatic goings on that affect our lives, here on our doorstep?

		The BBC's simple but informative country profile, setting out basic facts about Somalia.
		Interesting article saying that there is a second disaster: only responding to the emergency, rather than preventing it.
		An emotive UNICEF blog, this post is about the physical effects of malnutrition on children

Cameron tells Africa 'trade not aid'

Published by The Day on Tuesday, 19 July 2011
 
Today the Prime Minister is in Nigeria on a trip promoting trade between the UK and Africa. But is buying and selling enough in the face of multiple humanitarian disasters?

As the hacking firestorm blazes on, Prime Minister David Cameron today is trying to draw attention to a more important issue: Africa. On his two-day trip to South Africa and Nigeria, the PM will lay out his radical new plan for the UK's involvement with the world's poorest continent. His message? Trade, not aid.

Once it was 'China', but now 'Africa' is the word on businessmen's lips. EU economies are floundering, the US is shaky, and Asian growth is slowing, but Africa has a huge projected growth of 5.5% next year, with star performer Ghana expecting a China-beating 13.4%. Where there is growth, there are profits to be made.

Cameron is ostensibly in Nigeria today to push the idea of an African free trade area. Commerce not charity, he says, is the way to help Africa, and since only 12% of African trade is with other countries on the continent, making buying and selling within Africa easier is the first step.

But it seems that Britain also wants a slice of the (rapidly growing) pie. The PM travels with Lord Green, the UK trade minister, and 25 British business leaders, and valuable introductions are being made.

The opportunity for growth and profits in Africa is unprecedented for four key reasons. First, progress in health and education means there is an able workforce and more consumers. Second, a young population means this workforce is massive. Third, governments are becoming more transparent and democratic, providing a stable environment for trade.

And fourth, a few trailblazing technologies like mobile phones have demonstrated how successful investing in Africa can be.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is key to economic development, and whilst Africa only sees under 5% of the world's FDI, that's an 80% increase on 10 years ago. The World Bank says 'Africa could be on the brink of an economic takeoff, much like China was 30 years ago'. Africa, the cradle of humanity, represents our history, and now it may also be our future.

Ridiculous or riches?

As drought threatens 4.5 million lives in East Africa, wars rage across the continent, and over 23 million in sub-Saharan Africa are living (and dying) with HIV, suggesting trade as the answer seems ridiculous. What might be a route for Ghana or Nigeria is useless to the thirsty, the dead and the dying of Somalia, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

But for Africa's less troubled states increased trade could be miraculous, creating a sustainable escape route from poverty. An African free trade area could increase GDP by $62 billion a year, $20 billion more than current world aid to sub-Saharan Africa. Not only is this great news for Africa, but the more they trade with the outside world, the better it is for everyone else too.

		David Cameron wrote this article for South African paper Business Day on his plan for Africa.
		Despite the trade not aid motto, aid continues to Africa. Here's an article about the recent pledge from the UK for the East African drought.
		A really interesting Guardian blog post on escaping the poverty trap.
		FT article about major consultancy firm Price Waterhouse Cooper expanding its operations in Africa, reflecting the growing trend.
		Piece about the role technology is playing in Africa's growth.

Amid war and poverty a new country is born

Published by The Day (a newspaper for schools) on Friday 8th July 2011

  

South Sudan declared independence from the North this weekend after years of war. Does independence hold the answer to the region's many problems?

This Saturday night one party was bigger than most: South Sudan's population of 8 million celebrated its independence. The headlines trumpet 'the birth of a nation', Mother Africa's 54th, but all the analysts agree: if this was a birth, it was a difficult pregnancy, and the baby faces an uncertain future.

South Sudan was conceived through war. After Sudan gained independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1956, a bitter struggle for power between north and south broke out, and lasted on and off for 49 years.

The fighting cost 2.5 million lives. Finally, a 2005 peace agreement granted South Sudan autonomy and a referendum on independence this year, which produced a 99% vote for secession.

Independence leaves South Sudan with many problems. Long neglected by northern rulers in the old capital, Khartoum, the south is desperately poor. One in seven children die before they are five and half the population is fed by aid agencies.

Arab northern Sudan and the more racially mixed south were both conquered by Egypt then ruled by the British, but have little else in common. Differences between the Muslim north and the Christian and animist south were emphasised by the fact that Britain governed the two regions separately.

Travel between the two was banned. Some argue that this isolation laid the seeds of future conflict.

Worse: South Sudan is oil rich, but its oil fields are on the border with the North, and the only pipeline runs to the north, making oil disputes a strong possibility. The border has not yet been finally agreed, and fighting which continues over border areas would now be not a civil but an international war.

Straight lines, jagged politics

Many argue that other African nations have similarly arbitrary existences. Their borders are long, straight lines drawn on the maps by colonial rulers, carving up peoples and villages, creating states full of conflict since they ignore ethnicity and religion. Other African countries such as the war-ridden, impractically large Democratic Republic of the Congo would do well to follow Sudan's example and split into two.

Others warn that secession is not a magic cure. First, South Sudan may prove too underdeveloped to become a viable independent state. Second, when a state is created, positions harden and conflicts can entrench.

Q: Making a country sounds difficult, is there a lot to do?

A: There are passports to be issued, new currency and stamps need to be issued. Formal recognition by the UN and other groups of nations like the Arab League is a good idea.

Q: How's South Sudan doing?

A: Not bad. They had an X Factor-style competition to choose a new national anthem, which was sung on Saturday, and they have a flag. They don't yet have money or stamps, and there's going to be a problem finding a seat in the UN, because there aren't any desks left!

Q: What about sports teams?

A: They do have a national football team, but they've been training on scrubland because the stadium has fallen into disrepair. The country does, however, hope to take part in the 2012 London Olympics.

 

		A short news report on South Sudan's independence
		A list of the world's youngest countries
		An interesting article about what the Democratic Republic of Congo can learn from South Sudan
		Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese and the richest African alive today (he's a mobile phone billionaire), explains Sudan's failed experiment at unity.