Sir, – The focus of Irish Times on the hunger crisis in Somalia (“Millions of displaced people put charitable nature of Somali culture to the test”, World, December 21st) is welcome, especially as we prepare for Christmas and all that the season brings.
The coverage comes amid much debate about whether the extraordinary suffering of people in conflict and drought affected countries in the Horn of Africa meets the definition of a famine.
Declarations of famine occur when at least 20 per cent of households face an extreme lack of food, at least 30 per cent of children suffer from acute malnutrition, and two people in every 10,000 die each day due to outright starvation or a combination of malnutrition and disease.
That our consciences are only pricked at the formal declaration of famine is like saying we’ll only respond to a fire when it is big enough, and by which time it is almost always already too late to control.
The reality is that across the Horn of Africa today hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of starvation, regardless of whether we call it a famine or not. According to the UN, at least 36.1 million people are affected by one of the most severe and longest droughts in recent history, a drought expected to continue well into 2023. This includes 7.8 million people in Somalia where Trócaire has worked for the last 30 years.
It is vital that the international community keeps a focus on this devastating crisis. There is no respite in sight with drought in the Horn of Africa expected to continue well into 2023.
Famine is just a word. A famine declaration does not tell us of the enormous suffering of people forced to leave their homes.
It does not tell us of small children having to walk days with their families to reach places of safety. It doesn’t tell of people dying on the move, and being hastily buried by family members on the side of the road.
It does not tell of girls forced to leave school to work, to care for sick family members, and who in the middle of prolonged drought and armed conflict are left exposed to sexual violence during ever longer journeys to fetch water and firewood.
A famine declaration does not tell us that lack of food is caused by our failure to protect the lives, rights, dignity, and aspirations of all members of society equally. – Yours, etc,
CAOIMHE de BARRA,
CEO,
Trócaire,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.