United Nations Radio

The crisis in Somalia of fighting and displacement of civilians has been called a long-running "genocide in motion" in that Horn of Africa country. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for that country, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, says that more international attention should be paid to the tragic situation there:

Ould-Abdallah 1: It is very sad to see a capital city I have known in the 80s becoming a shanty town.

Narrator: At a recent press conference, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Somalia, expressed his regret and dismay at what he witnessed in the capital city, Mogadishu following a recent visit.

O-A 3: Somalia is an unfortunate country taken hostage by its elite. Those who are still fighting - and I went to Mogadishu as I told you on Monday - it is sad to see how the city has been destroyed and every day it is further destroyed.

Narrator: Mr. Ould-Abdallah says he's concerned about an over-riding problem that has received little press.

OA- 2: It is the problem of impunity. People who have killed, displaced, maimed are still around in Somalia or in their new country home. And those who are inside Somalia promoting(?) violence, have put their families in safe havens.

Narrator: And even after the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops, fighting had continued even though it was claimed that the presence of foreign troops was prolonging the conflict.

O-A 4: There is a government. It is weak, no doubt about it, but it is there.  So somebody...should at least assume, those who are fighting and killing, assume the responsibility they are doing it because it has become a fulltime activity or a business or whatever. There are no Ethiopians.

Narrator: Hassan Noor, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Somalia Programme at Oxfam, has also recently visited Somalia. He says half of the country needs humanitarian assistance and more than a million people have b een displaced. In comparison to other emergencies he's seen, he finds the conditions there worse than those in the Congo, Darfur or Uganda.

Noor 1: Basically the humanitarian situation in Somalia, in particular Mogadishu and Afgooye corridor, is indeed one of the most challenging and worrying. And in fact the pictures there look very appaling. The condition of the civilians there is indeed really the worst of a kind.

Narrator: Mr. Noor says the borders to the country have been closed, making it difficult for internally displaced persons to go anywhere to seek refuge, with almost everyone seeming to be in a desperate situation.

Noor 2: You can imagine at displacement gatherings where people - almost half a million, more than 400 thousand -- idps are placed there. And as far as your eye can catch, people displaced with little humanitarian support reaching them there.  The situation actually requires urgent attention from all directions of the humanitarian aid in the international community.

Narrator: Hassan Noor, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Somalia Programme at Oxfam. Oxfam is providing shelter and mosquito nets to families who have arrived there in recent days, and has expanded its water and sanitation system to aid an additional 84,000 displaced people. Oxfam is now supplying water to over 200,000 people in Afgooye and plans to increase its efforts further in the coming months. The agency's local partner organisations will also soon begin providing specialist care and food to 9,500 of the most severely malnourished children and mothers in Mogadishu itself.

Producer: Gerry Adams
duration: 3'50"