East Africa Summit: Drought Aid Failing, Security Risk Rising
September 09, 2011
VOA News
Desperate famine victims in Somalia are not getting the food and relief supplies they need, and some African leaders say that failure could soon risk the region's security.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki told delegates at a United Nations' summit in Nairobi Friday that famine victims continue to pour into relief camps in his country. And he warned smugglers have started using the massive, uncontrolled movement as a cover for transporting small arms and other light weaponry.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said another problem is the failure to get relief supplies to Somalia's worst famine-stricken areas, including areas not under the control of Islamist militants like al-Shabab.
Zenawi called on the international community to help get aid to those areas by creating "corridors of humanitarian assistance," saying it would help reduce the flow of refugees.
East African heads of state in Nairobi for the two-day summit are hoping to produce an "action plan" to deal with both immediate and long-term effects of the drought and famine.
The draft document released Friday calls for the mandate of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to be transformed from "peacekeeping to peace enforcement." It also calls for U.N. peacekeeping troops to help stabilize Somalia.
The Horn of Africa is struggling with a severe drought that has left nearly 13 million people in need of food aid.
Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have fled their homes in search of food and water, migrating to refugee camps in the Mogadishu area or in neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia.
Experts have warned that despite international relief efforts, famine is likely to spread to other parts of Somalia over the next few months.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
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