Famine in Somalia

Sir, – The government of Somalia has banned foreign aid workers and journalists from entering areas of the country controlled…

Sir, – The government of Somalia has banned foreign aid workers and journalists from entering areas of the country controlled by al-Shabaab, because of fears for their safety.

This effectively means that the fate of nearly four million of the people worst affected by famine in Somalia now rests almost entirely in the hands of a terrorist group, which has previously said it would rather people starved to death than accept Western aid.

How, other than by employing a sufficient number of properly equipped and trained peacekeepers, to establish safe corridors for the delivery of aid, does the international community intend addressing the situation in Somalia?

By the UN’s own estimates, over four million people are now critically or severely malnourished, and 750,000 could die in the next four months unless food and medical aid are delivered to them. Virtually all of these people are located in al-Shabaab regions.

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Does the international community have a plan for Somalia? Or is it going to stand by while hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions – of people perish from lack of food and medicine?

If the latter is the case, then why is Somalia being treated differently to innumerable other countries, where there have been robust interventions supposedly in defence of fundamental human rights?

What could be more fundamental than the right to life? – Yours, etc,

JOHN O’SHEA,

Goal,

PO Box 19,

Dún Laoghaire,

Co Dublin.