The Dreaded “F” word

            A four year old boy, Adam weighing 15 pounds, is the new arrival to this place. His mother carried him for 5 days searching for water through, what the locals & international media calls, ‘the death road’ (terror of militias). She died on the way. This place is the UN refugee camp in the horn of Africa…Somalia. Somalia is suffering from yet another famine and this time it is more grave then the ones before. As if Mother Nature has not troubled them enough, the local militant affiliates of Al Qaeda, Al-Shabab, has banned international humanitarian agencies to enter the area.

            World remembers Somalia from the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu when 19 American soldiers died in an ambush, which ended the US involvement in this dark corner of the African sub continent. Somalia doesn’t have any functioning government since 1991. The lawlessness has helped bred militia groups like Al-Shabab in every nook and corner of the country, who in the name of the religion spread terror, even in these sensitive times. UN has refugee camps on almost permanent bases in this country. Famines have become an annual affair in this part of the world. The recent famine has affected more then 2.2 million Somalis. After pleading with local militias for days, today a UN plane carrying 10 tons of food was allowed to enter the famine hit region, hopefully one of many more trips.

            People living in other continents, doesn’t show any surprises to what occurs in Africa for it seems so distant from the hi-tech world that we live in. Africa has become the most happening place for anything that seems in-human to the rest of the world. There are some pockets of success like South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, but majority of the 53 countries suffer the same fate as Somalia.

Hopefully world will come together, again, to support Adam and many more like him.