Somali Envoy Calls for More UN Aid for Country on Brink of Famine

Somalis who fled drought-stricken areas arrive at a camp for the displaced on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
Somalis who fled drought-stricken areas arrive at a camp for the displaced on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
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Somali Envoy Calls for More UN Aid for Country on Brink of Famine

Somalis who fled drought-stricken areas arrive at a camp for the displaced on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
Somalis who fled drought-stricken areas arrive at a camp for the displaced on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

Somalia's special envoy to the UN sought Wednesday to draw attention to the gravity of the crisis in his destitute country in order to mobilize more aid.

Millions of people are at risk of starvation across the Horn of Africa, which is in the grip of the worst drought in four decades after four failed rainy seasons wiped out livestock and crops.

"We are here to lobby, to bring your attention to the magnitude of this crisis, the level of humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia," Abdirahman Abdishakur told AFP.

During meetings with UN agencies and member states since the beginning of the week, Abdishakur has repeated that there is still "a huge gap" between the promised aid and Somalia's current financial needs.

The UN said at the end of August it had received 67 percent of its $1.5 billion aid target for Somalia. But with the fifth consecutive failed rainy season forecast in the fall, the amount needed will increase.

"If there is not enough humanitarian response... the famine will happen," Abdishakur warned.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said last week that Somalia is on the brink of famine for the second time in just over a decade.

He said the situation was worse than the famine in 2011 when 260,000 people died, more than half of them children under the age of six.

"We have a very narrow window to save lives," Griffiths warned, speaking alongside Abdishakur at the UN headquarters in New York.

"People are dying today."

And children are being hit hardest. The number of children aged six months to five years suffering from severe malnutrition has shot up from 389,000 to 513,000, according to figures released Tuesday by UNICEF.



EU Sanctions Iranian Individuals Accused of Targeting Dissidents

European Union flags fly outside the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
European Union flags fly outside the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
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EU Sanctions Iranian Individuals Accused of Targeting Dissidents

European Union flags fly outside the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
European Union flags fly outside the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

The EU has imposed sanctions on eight people and one entity responsible for the targeting of Iranian dissidents for assassination on behalf of Iran's government, the European Council said in a statement on Tuesday.

The sanctions, over what it called "serious human rights violations" and "transnational repression", included asset freezes and travel bans, the council said.

The Council listed the Zindashti Network, which it said was a criminal group uconnected to the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security that has carried out numerous acts of transnational repression, including assassinations of Iranian dissidents, Reuters reported.

It also included the Zindashti Network's boss Naji Ibrahim Sharifi-Zindashti - who it said was an Iranian narcotics trafficker and organised crime boss - and some of his associates. Zindashti and his network have previously been sanctioned by the United States.

The Council, the European Union's governing body, is also targeting Mohammed Ansari, the leader of the Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Unit 840, who it said ordered the assassination of journalists critical of the Iran.

It said that the listings confirmed the EU’s concerns about transnational repression by Iranian state bodies through the use of proxy agents, in particular involving criminals and organised crime networks targeting dissidents and human rights defenders across the world, including on EU territory.