The situation in Somalia is tragic on every front. The loss of so many innocent lives in mortar blasts in Mogadishu. The 1.5 million displaced people living in appalling squalor, beyond the reach of almost all international aid. A worsening drought, food shortages, the constant fear of ambush. The hundreds who, in a desperate bid to escape their blighted country, crowd onto rickety boats each year and drown in the Gulf of Aden.

After nearly two decades of civil war, Somalia remains one of the most dangerous and unstable countries on earth. Already this year, fierce fighting in and around Mogadishu has uprooted another 80,000 people. They join the 1.5 million already displaced inside the country and over 560,000 Somali refugees living in camps in neighbouring countries.

The United Nations now estimates that 3.8 million Somalis are in ‘urgent need of humanitarian assistance’. However, security concerns continue to hamper the delivery of food and relief. Many aid agencies have been forced to withdraw completely or limit their operations to the more stable provinces in the north.

Survival Kits for Families

In this highly insecure environment, UNHCR continues to distribute thousands of emergency shelter kits to impoverished families living in makeshift camps around the capital. These kits contain the absolute basics of survival: plastic sheeting, a cooking set, a jerry can, blankets and soap.

“These people are utterly desperate,” says Hassan Mohammed Ali, the former Head of UNHCR's office in Mogadishu. “You can't imagine how thankful people can be when they are given even a simple plastic sheet because it means their family won’t be drenched by the rain and their children won’t become sick. Even if there is never enough aid to go around, you're still making a difference.”

In 2010, UNHCR hopes to reach 80% of Somalia’s internally displaced population and increase its support for health centres, hospitals and schools in the more stable northern provinces of Puntland and Somaliland where thousands of uprooted families have fled.

However, all our relief operations in Somalia remain seriously underfunded. Now, with rising food prices, continuing drought and the World Food Program forced to withdraw from the south of the country, those very limited resources will be stretched further still.

Dying to Escape

Meanwhile, in the northern port of Bossaso, Somalis continue to risk their lives, paying unscrupulous smugglers to cross the Gulf of Aden. Around 65,000 Somalis have fled to Yemen by boat over the past two years. At least 900 have been killed or drowned and many more are missing, presumed dead. Overcrowded boats have capsized with large loss of life and UNHCR receives many harrowing reports of refugees being beaten, robbed, raped and thrown overboard miles from shore. Those Somalis who survive the journey are immediately recognized as refugees by the Yemeni government and receive UNHCR’s assistance.

In Yemen, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Djibouti UNHCR refugee camps provide shelter, water, food, education, income support and health care for 560,000 people. In the past 12 months, the massive Dadaab refugee settlement in Kenya has become the largest refugee camp in the world, home to over 300,000 displaced Somalis. Here, too, we are struggling to provide adequate water and shelter, alleviate hunger and prevent outbreaks of disease.