The Horn of Africa region has been hit by one of its worst droughts in decades, affecting 20 million people. According to the United Nations and aid organizations, close to 10 million Ethiopians could suffer from acute malnutrition or starvation unless help arrives.
In Ethiopia, the drought hit hard in its eastern Somali region (the least developed region of Ethiopia). The drought was caused by the lack of rain from two consecutive rainy seasons due to El Nino climate phenomena, which decimated vegetation, including rain-fed crops and pastures for livestock. The drought has caused thousands of nomadic people to walk days in search for food and water after losing their livestock. The United Nations and other aid organizations are appealing for money for drought relief; however, international response for funding is too slow to come.
Blame the world’s slow response to the current disaster on donor fatigue from other competing tragedies in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere; and the lack of media coverage on the drought, because the U.S. media have been focusing on other topics such as the Republican presidential campaigns, the Syrian war, and terrorism in Europe.
Aid agencies and the Ethiopian government say $1.4 billion is required to provide relief and long-term care for 10 million people, in addition to the 8 million people the United States feeds at the cost of $100 million every year.
So far, only $400 million has been raised from the Ethiopian government and the donors. The United States has already pledged $93 million for the Ethiopian drought, and, by far, is the largest provider for the relief effort. But unless other rich countries contribute, the drought might become a full-blown famine.
The Obama administration has dispatched a U.S. Agency for International Development disaster response team to address the situation in Ethiopia. But the drought has also been devastating throughout the region: in Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, and Somaliland, an autonomous region which used to be part of Somalia.
According to Somaliland authorities, more than 450,000 people are in need of help. The drought has affected the lives of poor pastoral communities in Somaliland, who depend on livestock for their livelihoods, for milk, for trade, and for transport. In fact, Somaliland’s economy depends on the export of sheep and mutton to the Arabian Gulf. And the response of the international community on the drought in Somaliland is minuscule.
In Somalia, violence and political instability are hampering aid reaching drought victims. More than 50,000 children in Somalia “face death” because of the drought, according to the United Nations.
The authority of the U.S.-backed corrupt and ineffective Somali government does not extend beyond Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu — where a climate of killings, car and suicide bombings and widespread fighting have prevailed for two decades. In 2013, after 22 years of service, even Doctors without Borders pulled out from the country after repeated violence against its workers.
And despite a decade, billions of dollars and U.S. counterterrorism efforts, the 22,000 soldiers of the African Union mission in Somalia, or AMISOM, from 11 countries, thus far, have been unable to impose order in the war-torn country. In fact, AMISOM is slipping into mission creep.
Next May, Somaliland, with a population of around 4 million people, will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its independence. Although not perfect, after a long journey, it has established a relatively stable, functioning democratic state that maintains law and order, protects and cares for its people, and has held free and fair elections.
However, the scale of the drought is affecting Somaliland’s hard-earned peace and stability given its limited resources.
Without diplomatic recognition, Somaliland lacks the ability to invest in drought-resistant pastures and the capture and storage of water to mitigate the impact of climate change. Moreover, Somaliland can’t receive bilateral aid from America, including humanitarian assistance.
Somaliland is a sea of calm in a region infested with terrorism, conflict, and despotism. “And we have peace, a peace owned by community …. You’d think in this part of the world, that would count for something,” Zam Zam Adan, Somaliland’s finance minister and one of the few female cabinet ministers, stated in 2007 in a New York Times story.
That unstable part of the world poses a legitimate security threat to the West, Africa, and the global maritime trade.
I believe it is about time the United States not only helped the drought effort in Somaliland, but also recognized Somaliland diplomatically and engaged this overlooked partner for peace and stability. Doing so would consolidate peace and deny the ability of extremism to take root, and would also advance vital U.S. security interests in the volatile Horn of Africa region.
The alternative is to deny Somaliland the opportunity to protect its urban and nomadic populations from the effect of climate change, and to give its citizens a fighting chance for a better life.
Ali Mohamed is the co-founder of the Horn of Africa Freedom Foundation in Lewis Center, Ohio.
To reach Ali Mohamed: aliadm18@gmail.com
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