Somalia: Man-Made Disaster

Independent Films, Social Responsibility Movies, Politics

The United Nations (UN) independent expert on Somalia Shamsul Bari has told the Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva that the famine and the "vicious" armed conflict in the country is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.

The latest UN survey indicates that four million people are in crisis in Somalia – three million in the south and of these 750,000 risk death in the next four months. With the onset of rains in October there is concern that those displaced may be hard hit from water borne diseases.

According to Shamsul Bari, much of the human suffering could have been avoided if the international community had paid more attention to early warning signs.

He said that it was a golden opportunity for the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia to demonstrate its leadership by dealing with the humanitarian crisis.

The Somali ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Yusuf Mohamed Ismail, said the government was willing to implement most of the recommendations made by the independent expert in his report on the human rights situation in Somalia but that the time was not right for Somalia to sign up the statutes of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Tags

• Somalia
• Eritrea
• Angola travel
• UNICEF

Directors:

• Muhamed Sacirbey (UNTV)

Producers:

• Susan Sacirbey (UNTV)