Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Food that does get through can save only a few Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 15:11:15 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \HD Food that does get through can save only a few \BY Jonathan Stevenson \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT BARDERA, Somalia BARDERA, Somalia - Under a tree outside a UNICEF-run hospital, about 50 nearly wasted people sat in a rough circle hoping to scrounge whatever food wasn't eaten by the 1,000 malnourished children inside. Just outside the circle lay two bodies, one a young woman's, the other a small boy's, wrapped head-to-toe in the colorful sarongs they had worn. They had died that day of starvation. On the edge of the nearby Juba River, a bloated, decomposed corpse got hung up on a crag. The Somalis working on the riverbank simply kicked the carcass loose to continue its float downstream then went back to digging shallow graves for the dozens who had starved the day before. Unlike most troubled places that have received the attention of the world community, the situation in Somalia is not getting better. "Mogadishu is swimming in food," Rick Grant, CARE's spokesman, said of the situation in the Somalian capital. "But we can't get it to the people who are dying in the dirt." Intensified fighting between clans has interrupted relief operations in the interior of the country and reversed what little progress had been made in containing Somalia's famine. Bardera is the proof. Like most of southern Somalia, Bardera is dependent on expatriate help. Although the city sits amid the largely arid country's best farmland, the disruption of war drew refugees from miles around and ruined the fall planting season. Even if food is airdropped, feedings run by locals seem to end up disorganized affairs at best, riots at worst. In early September, when relief agencies started operating in Bardera, 160 people were dying daily of malnutrition. By mid-October, food from CARE, UNICEF and the World Food Program had reduced the death rate to less than 50 per day. But on Oct. 13, forces loyal to ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, led by his son-in-law, Gen. Mohamed Siad Hersi Morgan, attacked and took the town from troops commanded by Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid, Somalia's most powerful warlord. Most expatriate aid workers were evacuated from Bardera and from Baidoa, situated 100 miles to the northeast. By the time they returned to Bardera three weeks later, the death rate was back up to about 150 per day, even though the fighting has shrunk the population of the town and immediate vicinity to 20,000 from 60,000. According to Harry Johnson, the International Committee of the Red Cross' deputy relief coordinator, more than three-quarters of that population needs immediate food or medical assistance. The only drinking water available comes from the river, but it is badly contaminated by the rotting bodies of displaced people who had no families left or clans nearby to see to their burial. Most of those who drink from the river contract diarrhea, dysentery, worms, or even typhoid. Malnutrition finishes off many of them. The aid groups have started over again. Oxfam, the British charity, is installing tanks for storing and sanitizing the water. CARE and UNICEF are cooking food for 5,000 people a day at a massive feeding center two miles outside of town. Four other feeding centers staffed by UNICEF and the Red Cross are now operating. The Red Cross plans to open at least 10 more and to increase dry-food distribution to those in better shape. But making up for lost time is difficult. No food flights came in for two weeks after the invasion. Since CARE, WFP and the Red Cross resumed the flights, an average of only 30 tons a day has arrived - "not nearly enough," according to CARE team leader Bob Allen. He estimated that 50 tons a day is needed to feed the people in Bardera and its 196 outlying villages. Overland convoys from Mogadishu port, where the vast bulk of Somalia's food is delivered, are the most efficient means of getting large cargoes of food to Somalia's interior, but they continue to be plagued by looters. The obvious short-term answer is more airlifts, but the U.S. and Canadian transport planes that do most of the work are already spread thin servicing cities such as Baidoa and Belet Huen, which are in even worse shape than Bardera. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM