The United Nations Declares a Famine on the one hand and Threatens 5 Million Somali Refugees with Forcible Return on the other!

Press Release

In coordination with the United Nations, Kenya is carrying out evacuations of the Dadaab refugee camp, which houses more than 350,000 refugees. It is the largest refugee camp in the world. People agreed to live in this notorious camp for decades despite its association with the spread of cholera, and cases of rape of women refugees, and almost no presence of facilities, as well as the scarcity of schools, and poor care. They have endured living in these conditions in order to flee with their lives and the lives of their children from war and famine that has dogged Somalia over the past quarter of a century.  Life was never comfortable nor safe in the Dadaab camp, but the return (to Somalia) was not an option for most of its population.

The United Nations is carrying out evacuation procedures of the camp despite the confirmation by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on 14/4/2015 that the sudden closure of Dadaab and forcing refugees to return to Somalia, is a very dangerous process, and will have humanitarian consequences. Somalia is suffering from a food crisis as a result of climate change and scarce rain. The volume of agricultural products has fallen by more than half within six months, and farmers have lost a large number of livestock. It is noteworthy that relief agencies have launched, last January, an appeal for 880 million dollars to improve the humanitarian situation.  The United Nations Coordinator in Somalia Peter De Clercq, said that "Somalia Relief Program funding has reached only 32% of its objectives."

In the midst of the evacuation process of the Dadaab refugee camp and the implementation of the program of forcible returns (that is promoted by the media as voluntary return of the refugees who agreed to return, in exchange for a financial incentive), the United Nations revealed in its report at the end of last month that about 5 million people suffer from food shortages in Somalia because of the scarcity of rain. The report added that 300,000 children, under the age of 5, are suffering from severe malnutrition and need help. This report was issued in conjunction with the fifth anniversary of the famine of 2011-2012 in Somalia, where more than a quarter of a million people died in spite of early warnings, which were not respond to by the international community; that only condemns and denounces and publishes reports and then laments over the sufferings of the afflicted.

The United Nations sounds the alarm bells on the one hand, and warns the world of the dangerous situation in Somalia, and on the other hand, it is coordinating with Kenya for the return of the refugees at the rate of a thousand people a day (Foreign Policy 26/09/2016). It is sending them back to famine in some areas and to an unemployment rate of up to 67 percent, which is among the highest in the world, and a local economy that depends on foreign currency exchange from Somalia’s people residing abroad. It is sending them back to the problems of inflation and a lack of facilities and the collapse of institutions, which resulted from a quarter of a century of wars and internal unrest and the American invasion and the intervention of the Ethiopian and Kenyan forces

The world is repeating the overlooking of a slow death policy pursued by the UN Agencies that sought the systematic destruction of the agricultural sector and turned Somalia from a self-sufficient country to relying on external support and aid from those who do not care about the Somalis or their children. The foreign intervention in Somalia left behind it only a barren land, a political vacuum, a mess and weapons’ circulation into the country, which forces people into illegal immigration after their suffering in the camps of humiliation and shame. Allah (swt) suffices us, and is the Best Supporter.

﴿وَقَالُوا حَسْبُنَا اللَّهُ سَيُؤْتِينَا اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ وَرَسُولُهُ إِنَّا إِلَى اللَّهِ رَاغِبُونَ﴾

“…and said, "Sufficient for us is Allah; Allah will give us of His bounty, and [so will] His Messenger; indeed, we are desirous toward Allah.” [At-Tawba: 59] 

Women’s Section

in The Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir