Aid workers need increased access - UN official

Somalia is one of the worst places for humanitarian actors but they should strive to negotiate access to help Somalis living in extremely poor and underdeveloped conditions, a senior United Nations official said on Thursday.

"We are not where we should be; even if the environment is not conducive, this should not stop us from negotiating access," Eric Laroche, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said at the launch of an appeal for US$237 million to alleviate the suffering of 1.8 million Somalis.

These include 1.4 million who are chronically food insecure and 400,000 internally displaced people (IDPs).

Somalia has 16 international NGOS and nine national ones concentrated in the northern part of the country yet humanitarian aid is required in the south and central parts, Laroche said.

"Humanitarian access is not only physical access but the opportunity for us to act the way we should without being told what we should do," he said during the launch in Nairobi, Kenya's capital.

"This will help us provide urgent assistance and protection to an estimated 1.8 million people in Somalia who are facing a livelihood crisis," Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs (OCHA), in Somalia said.

According to OCHA, an estimated 250,000 IDPs in the capital, Mogadishu, are unable to access sustained assistance and protection.

"To make things worse, Somalia now faces the possibility of war," Laroche said, "The international community must do what it can to avert such a scenario."

"If the war starts tomorrow, there will be no more international community to help the people in Somalia," he said.

However, he said, "We have not lost hope that the war is not going to start."

There is growing concern that a military conflict between rival political groups in the country could worsen the existing humanitarian crisis and prevent access to the most vulnerable communities. The country is facing more widespread flooding that has affected thousands of people.

"The call for arms is not acceptable... it is not normal to go to war when people have their feet in water," Laroche said.

According to a technical manager with the UN Food and Agricultural Organization’s Food Security Analysis Unit, Cindy Holleman, the implications of a widespread conflict would be severe, with an estimated three million people expected to be affected.

Already, an estimated 444,000 people have been affected by flooding, with 900,000 Somalis in danger of displacement if it continues raining in December, according to OCHA-Somalia.

The inter-riverine areas of the Shabelle and Juba rivers in the south-central part of the country had experienced severe flooding, displacing thousands of people, inundating crop land and destroying roads and bridges, said Holleman.

The Deyr rains are forecast to continue into January, further hindering humanitarian access to these areas, she said.

There was also a high risk of the spread of waterborne diseases due to limited access to safe drinking water, she said, "This has added another shock to the already existing humanitarian crisis."

At least $28.6 million is included in the appeal for flood relief.

Already, $10.4 million has been sourced from the Central Emergency Response Fund, a UN emergency fund set up for the timely response to humanitarian crisis.

The 2006 humanitarian appeal for Somalia has received 60 percent funding.

aw/mw