WORLD NEWS – In a hospital ward in the lawless Somalian capital Mogadishu, the sight of children with swollen belly and skeletal frame is dominant. They are starved, they are diseased, and their suffering is beyond imagination. But they are lucky, outside the medical center, one of the most dangerous cities in the world, the famine afflicted children play with real guns, gunfire rings out as people flock to medical centers for a little food hand-outs.
The country is shattered by 20 years of civil war; adding insult to the injury, the worst drought in the region has left Somalia in the brink on total disintegration. The apathetical Somali militias have made the situation beyond redemption. Islamists militias beat back the families with their gun butts as they ask for a little food in front of foreign officials.
CARE International representative Barbara Jackson shrugged the situation as a “beyond imagination” and asked for immediate help. Everyone she met in the last month, pleading for some help, to reach the outside world.
The country is cut out from the outside world, without proper attention towards this horrific situation; tens of thousands of people have already died. Analysts predict around 3.7 million people risk starvation. Islamist terrorist organization Al-Qaeda has recently lifted ban on foreign land, while the US wants assurance that terrorism activities will not interfere with distribution. On the other hand, many Somailians flee to neighboring countries, sparking a refugee crisis. The Kenyan border is flocked by about 2,000 people, and more than 70% of them are women supporting starvation children alone.
Child Soldiers
The situation has become worst when the Islamist militias take the opportunity, stepping up their recruitment of child soldiers in the famine stricken nation. The Islamist terrorist groups have controlled most of the southern and central Somalia. The children aged from 10 to 17 are recruited in the “systematic recruitment”, and even a few children aged below 8 are also seen with guns in their hands. They are mainly lured by the foreign goods like mobile phones etc. and some are kidnapped.
Schools are being raided by armed militias and kidnapped children, presumably to take them to a training camp. Those who oppose are brutally killed.
For over two decades, Somalia is been suffering from civil war and has not a functional central government since 1991 when the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was thrown out from his regime by warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid and his rebel group, the United Somali Congress (USC). The US later on put a weak and transitional government, but the government has no ability to deal with crisis. The young generation under 20 had never experienced a peaceful state, and now Somalis are affected by the food crisis.
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