Somalia and South Sudan

Half of all South Sudanese depend on food aid. This is not only because of droughts, but also bloody power struggles. The main victims in this cycle of violence and hunger are women and children. Six million South Sudanese currently depend on food aid, which is half of all inhabitants of the country. According to South Sudanese journalist, Parach Mach, many of the crimes committed by armed groups are to do with the fact that even government soldiers are often starving. At least 79 humanitarian workers have died since the beginning of the civil war in southern Sudan.
 "Innocent civilian or armed fighter — many people no longer even make a distinction," says Mach.
Aid worker Thomas Hoerz explains,  "There are far too many young men have experienced feelings of self-worth behind the trigger of a gun." 

According to the UN, almost seven million people in Somalia, or half the population, currently depend on humanitarian aid. About 800.000 are on the brink of starvation. Somalia has been in the grip of a civil war since dictator Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991, Rival clans and warlords competing for power in Somalia have torn the country apart. The state has disintegrated, leaving powerful clans to fill the vacuum. With the government weak and dysfunctional, the country is on the verge of another famine. In the past three years, back-to-back droughts have swept the country and evidence is mounting that climate change is driving up the temperatures in the region, exacerbating the problems of the scarce rainfall. The Horn of Africa is turning into a semi-desert.

"Most patients are living in overcrowded refugee camps, where there is not enough food or clean water," says Bishara Suleiman, a field health officer for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Between January and July 2017, the 28 clinics supported by the ICRC in Somalia treated almost 37,000 people, mostly for acute respiratory illnesses and diarrhea. "Malnutrition destroys the immune system," explains Bishara Suleiman. "Malnutrition itself is preventable but it is so widespread due to the collapse of the health system. Malnourished children and elderly people are particularly susceptible to infectious diseases, such as pneumonia or cholera." Chronic malnutrition also sets children back in their long-term development because it impedes neural development.  

The Islamist militants have imposed a ban on aid in areas it controls. Elsewhere, corrupt middlemen and authorities divert aid supplies for their own profit. Corruption is deeply entrenched in Somalia.  At a small market on the Via Roma in Mogadishu, for example, a 50-kilogram sack of rice intended as food aid from the World Food Program is on sale for $23 (19.50 euros). Buying in bulk earns a discount.

Michael Keating, the United Nations Special Envoy for Somalia, believes that widespread hunger in Somalia can be directly attributed to political failure. "In functioning societies, in which the institutions work reliably and in which freedom of expression prevails, there is hardly any hunger," he says. "It is something that always affects the poorest and weakest members of society. It is a direct product of social, economic and political processes."

Somalia has a new government since February 2017  and the Western-backed government wants to build a new, federal state. Foreign diplomats and businessmen are flocking to the country, including crisis profiteers hoping to turn a quick profit. Rents are skyrocketing and a housing bubble has developed in the capital. Corrupt ministers and parliamentarians are also involved with construction projects. Information Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman suggests that international aid isn't free of corruption. "The flow of money through the many multilateral sources should also be reviewed. But the focus is always on corruption on the Somali side."