page_title: 2011 East Africa drought
section_title: Security
hierarchical_section_title: 2011 East Africa drought / Humanitarian situation / Security
caption_attribution_description: العربية: أطفالٌ ساروا طيلة أسابيع حتَّى وصلوا إلى داداب، والكثيرُ منهم لقي حتفه على الطريق. كما مات آخرون بعد وُصولهم بِفترةٍ يسيرة. تقفُ هذه الفتاة الصغيرة على طرف المُخيَّم الذي أُقيم للاجئين، وسط قُبورٍ حُفرت حديثًا ووُري فيه الثرى جُثمان 70 طفلًا، كثيرٌ منهم مات نتيجة سوء التغذية. تصوير: آندي هول\أوكسفام. Deutsch: Kind am Rande des Flüchtlingslagers Dadaab (Kenia) vor Gräbern in denen 70&#160;Kinder beerdigt wurden, die an Unterernährung verstarben. English: Children have walked for weeks across the desert to get to Dadaab, and many perish on the way. Others have died shortly after arrival. On the edge of the camp, a young girl stands amid the freshly made graves of 70 children, many of whom died of malnutrition. Photo: Andy Hall/Oxfam. Français&#160;: à l'entrée du camp de réfugiés de Dadaab (Kenya), une jeune fille erre au milieu des tombes récentes de 70 enfants, morts pour la plupart de malnutrition. De nombreux enfants se sont rendus à pieds dans ce camp. Beaucoup sont morts en chemin, d'autres sont morts peu de temps après leur arrivée. Cliché&#160;: Andy Hall/Oxfam. Deutsch: Kinder sind wochenlang durch die Wüste gelaufen, um nach Dadaab zu kommen, und viele sind auf dem Weg ums Leben gekommen. Andere sind kurz nach der Ankunft gestorben. Am Rande des Lagers steht ein junges Mädchen inmitten der frisch gemachten Gräber von 70 Kindern, von denen viele an Unterernährung gestorben sind. Foto: Andy Hall / Oxfam.
context_page_description: Between July 2011 and mid-2012, a severe drought affected the entire East African region. Said to be "the worst in 60 years", the drought caused a severe food crisis across Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya that threatened the livelihood of 9.5 million people. Many refugees from southern Somalia fled to neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, where crowded, unsanitary conditions together with severe malnutrition led to a large number of deaths. Other countries in East Africa, including Sudan, South Sudan and parts of Uganda, were also affected by a food crisis.
  According to FAO-Somalia, the food crisis in Somalia primarily affected farmers in the south rather than the northern pastoralists. Human Rights Watch consequently noted that most of the displaced persons belonged to the agro-pastoral Rahanweyn clan and the agricultural Bantu ethnic minority group. On 20 July, the United Nations officially declared famine in two regions in the southern part of the country, the first time a famine had been declared in the region by the UN in nearly thirty years. Tens of thousands of people are believed to have died in southern Somalia before famine was declared.
context_section_description: In July 2011, the head of United States Agency for International Development, Rajiv Shah, stated that the drought may worsen the security situation in the region. "This is happening precisely in a part of the world that our Defense Secretary Leon Panetta just said is a critical part of our fight against terrorism and our overall international security. It just underscores the deep link between food security and national security." Armed herders are violently competing for dwindling resources. In Kenya alone more than 100 herders have been killed.
  Fears of the Al-Shabaab insurgents, who control most of southern Somalia, continue to hinder humanitarian operations in the region. "We need significantly better access than we have at the moment to address an emergency of this scale." UN agencies are "in a dialogue" with al-Shabaab about securing airstrips in areas under the insurgent group's control to deliver aid. The United Nations World Food Programme is considering a return to southern Somalia, from which it withdrew in 2010 after threats from the rebel group Al-Shabaab. It estimates that there are 1 million people in areas it cannot currently access. In early July 2011, Al-Shabaab announced that it had withdrawn its restrictions on international humanitarian workers, and that all aid organizations will be allowed in.
  However, on 22 July, the group stated that the ban on certain organizations remains in place. In a statement, Al-Shabaab's spokesman Sheikh Ali Dhere indicated that his organization had no issue with allowing "Muslims and non-Muslims to help the drought affected people", but that they will "only be permitted to work if they do not have other interests". He stated that banned agencies belong to two categories: some that are acting as spies, while others, including the UN, that have "a political agenda, doing nothing like what they were claiming". He also criticized aid agencies that are providing assistance in neighboring countries, stating that "They are luring needy people with food in order to teach them their Christianity." Hassan Liban, a director of the British charity Islamic Relief which has managed to gain access through negotiations, said that Al-Shabaab were not keen on emergency relief that was not tied to longer-term programmes to help people recover their livelihoods. He stated that "To any organisation that just wants to send food, they say: 'Give us the food and go away'. But if it's sustainable and planned they will allow you to work."
  Al-Shabaab members have allegedly intimidated, kidnapped and killed some aid workers, leading to a partial suspension of humanitarian operations in southern Somalia. Ethiopia and the UN also accuse the Eritrean government of backing the insurgents. On 28 July, African Union peacekeepers launched a major offensive against Al-Shabaab militants in northern Mogadishu, Somalia, in an effort to protect famine relief efforts from attacks. Six were killed during the conflict, and key territory was seized from the insurgents. Al-Shabaab has sent 300 reinforcement fighters to Mogadishu in the preceding days, according to Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the AU peacekeeping force in Somalia. He stated that "This action will further increase security ... and ensure that aid agencies can continue to operate to get vital supplies to internally displaced." As of 1 August, the beginning of the Ramadan, the African Union offensive in ongoing. However, AU intelligence sources said that the insurgents are planning a counteroffensive during the month of fasting.
  On 6 August 2011, Reuters reported that the Transitional Federal Government's troops and their AMISOM allies managed to capture all of Mogadishu from the Al-Shabaab militants. Witnesses reported Al-Shabaab vehicles abandoning their bases in the capital for the south-central city of Baidoa. The group's spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage described the exodus as a tactical retreat, and vowed to continue the insurgency against the national government. Observers have also suggested that the pullout may at least in part have 
caption: A girl stands amid the graves of 70 children on the outskirts of Dadaab. The long desert journey to the relief camps has claimed many lives.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "A young girl stands amid the freshly made graves of 70 children many of whom died of malnutrition. Dadaab refugee  camp.", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 5D Mark II", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered"}