The first consignment of Irish Government aid for victims of the famine in Somalia will be flown into its capital city Mogadishu early tomorrow morning.
38 tonnes of emergency supplies worth over €250,000 will be involved in the first airlift.
The material has been assembled at a pre-position depot in Dubai and will be flown to Mogadishu overnight.
It will be distributed in the city over the coming days. The area is flooded with people fleeing from drought and famine conditions in the country.
Some 40,000 famine-hit people have fled to the Somali capital over the past month in search of food and water, according to the UN refugee agency.
‘A further 30,000 have arrived at settlements around Mogadishu,’ said Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
‘In total, it is estimated that Mogadishu has received up to 100,000 internally displaced people over the last two months. The daily numbers are still around 1,000 in July.’
Among the items being flown in are thousands of tents and tarpaulins for erection of temporary shelters, blankets, water containers, mosquito nets, sanitary supplies and food preparation equipment.
A spokesman for Irish Aid described the airlift as significant and said it was particularly important that it was being delivered into Somalia within the next 24 hours.
Members of the four-man Irish Aid technical team who are to carry out an assessment of the seriousness of the famine situation and the best way to respond to it are flying from Dublin to Nairobi today.
They will visit some of the major refugee camp sites in Kenya in the coming days and will return to Dublin to report on conditions next week.
Committee discusses crisis
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of Concern said the world was witnessing the first famine of the 21st century, which he described as a humanitarian crisis of acute proportions.
Speaking to the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, Tom Arnold said when Concern visited a clinic in Mogadishu last week he saw things he never wanted to see.
He said one clinic had a malnutrition rate of 80%, a figure he described as 'unprecedented'.
The Chief Executive of Trocaire said the international community has to stop treating Somalia as a failed state and must be held to the commitments made to the country
Justin Kilcullen said hunger is something the world has come to tolerate and the fact that 1bn people are starving seems to be acceptable.
He said people need to be put before politics and that a proper response is needed from the US and other major European donors to the crisis in East Africa.
Yesterday, the World Bank pledged more than $500m yesterday, with the bulk of the money set to go towards long-term projects to aid livestock farmers, while $12m would be for immediate assistance to those worst hit by the crisis.
Charities have voiced disappointment at the international response.
‘It is shameful that only a few of the richest and powerful economies were willing to demonstrate today their commitment to saving the lives of many of the poorest and most vulnerable,’ said Barbara Stocking, the head of Oxfam.
French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire called for the creation of a rapid reaction unit within FAO to respond to food crises, more research into drought-resilient crops and a crackdown on high food prices.
‘If we don't take the necessary measures, famine will be the scandal of this century,’ Mr Le Maire said.
Charities clash over UN involvement
Concern and Trocaire have rejected suggestions by the aid agency GOAL that UN peacekeepers should be sent into Somalia.
Tom Arnold of Concern described the suggestion as 'regrettable' and said such a move would be 'utterly counter-productive'.
He said it could put the lives of aid workers at risk and said he was certain that senior UN officials would agree with this.
Mr Arnold also said that although the US should be doing more to help the people of East Africa, Middle Eastern countries who because of the price of oil earned $234 million more than expected last year should play their part.
Justin Kilcullen of Trócaire said he expected the Irish public to donated €20m to this disaster and said that, combined with the Government contributions, this was a very significant response.
He said Ireland commitment to aid, despite its economic situation, should give it leverage to demand that other European partners step up to the plate.
