Send NATO Humanitarian Efforts here you useless pack of Rednecks! Somalia famine: UN warns of 750,000 deaths

Somalia famine: UN warns of 750,000 deaths

Some 750,000 could die in Somalia unless aid is stepped up, the UN warns

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As many as 750,000 people could die as Somalia's drought worsens in the coming months, the UN has warned, declaring a famine in a new area.

The UN says tens of thousands of people have died after what is said to be East Africa's worst drought for 60 years.

Bay becomes the sixth area to be officially declared a famine zone - mostly in parts of southern Somalia controlled by the Islamist al-Shabab.

Some 12 million people across the region need food aid, the UN says.

The situation in the Bay region was worse than anything previously recorded, said senior UN's technical adviser Grainne Moloney.

"The rate of malnutrition [among children] in Bay region is 58%. This is a record rate of acute malnutrition," she told journalists in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

This is almost double the rate at which a famine is declared.

"In total, 4 million people are in crisis in Somalia, with 750,000 people at risk of death in the coming four months in the absence of adequate response," the UN's Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) says.

Half of those who have already died are children, it says.

Neighbouring Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda have also been affected by the severe lack of rain.

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Previous Major African Hunger Crises

• Niger: 2010 - Food shortages affect more than 7 million people after crops fail; 2005 - thousands die following drought and locust invasion
• Sudan 2008: Localised famine in some areas of southern Sudan due to war and drought
• Ethiopia, 2000: Three consecutive years of drought leave millions at risk, with famine declared in Gode, the Somali region
• Democratic Republic of Congo, 1998-2004: Severe food crisis caused by conflict, millions affected by hunger
• Somalia, 1991-1992: Drought and war contribute to famine across the country; at least 200,000 famine-related deaths reported in 1992
• Ethiopia, 1984-1985: Up to one million people die in famine caused by conflict, drought and economic mismanagement
• Biafra, 1967-1970: One million die in civil war and famine during conflict over Nigeria's breakaway Biafran republic
• Uganda, 1970s: Localised famine in Karamoja leaves thousands dead

• What is a famine?

'Not short-term'

But 20 years of fighting and the lack of a national government mean that Somalia is by far the worst affected country.

The UN-backed authority controls the capital, Mogadishu but few other areas.

Unni Karunakara, head of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), says al-Shabab's restrictions on aid workers mean many people in Somalia cannot be helped - and says aid agencies should be more open about this when appealing for more money.

"The grim reality of Somalia today is we are not able to get to south and central Somalia, which we consider to be the epicentre of the crisis," he told the BBC World Service.

"What is needed is a better representation of the challenges that aid agencies, including MSF, face in delivering assistance in Somalia today.

"Even if we are able to get food and supplies to the main ports of Somalia, I think there is a real challenge in being able to deliver that assistance - what I call the 'last-mile' problem.

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At the scene

Will Ross BBC News, Wajir

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In a sandy clearing surrounded by leafless bushes, people queued up for help.
Food aid is reaching Kenya's Wajir district but not enough of it. The demand is overwhelming and so the religious leaders have to pick out the most vulnerable - only they are given the sought-after parcels of rice, sugar, beans, flour and oil.
Schools are supposed to be reopening this week but there will be many empty benches as some children are too weak to make the long walk to school.
"The children are demoralised and many will not go. Also the UN has reduced the school feeding programme and the children can't learn without food," said father of five Mohammed Abdulahi.
In Griftu hospital a mother lay beside her terribly malnourished four-year-old daughter. Listless and stick-thin Ahado was being fed through a tube. The nurses are hopeful that within a month she will be out of danger.
"On the ward we now have an average of six to 10 severely malnourished children each week. The numbers have gone up. The drought is still getting worse," said Doctor Kosmos Ngis.

Some officials from al-Shabab, which has links to al-Qaeda, have accused Western aid groups of exaggerating the scale of the crisis for political reasons.

Tens of thousands of Somalis have fled their country to seek help.

BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says that even if there is rainfall in October or November, people will need food aid for several more months until the crops have grown.

"This isn't a short-term crisis," said UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Mark Bowden.

In Kenya's Wajir district, just across the border from Somalia, health workers are reporting an increase in the number of malnourished children.

Weakened by the lack of food they are more susceptible to disease.

The drought is still taking its toll on the livestock, says our correspondent, and people living in the arid areas of Kenya depend on their animals for their livelihood.

With no rain expected for several weeks the crisis is still deepening despite the presence of aid agencies.

There's no fighting in Tripoli, never has been, so why is NATO bombing the civilians and infrastructure?!

(Susan Lindauer) Here’s breaking News from a confidential source inside Tripoli. And it’s nothing like what CNN is broadcasting… Pay attention to live reports from Zawia.
First, today the power went out in all of Tripoli today. As a gift to the Muslim community for their 17th day of Ramadan, NATO bombed a power plant and six high voltage sub stations. Apparently they believed the Libyans would have no ability to repair this, and so, in their “humanitarian effort to protect civilians,” they tried to cut power to 2 million innocent people during the holy month of Ramadan and the hottest month of the year in this desert country. Well, NATO sorely underestimated these resilient people. They had the power back in 6 hours! You know, there is NO fighting in Tripoli, never has been, no fighting on the outskirts never has been. So, NATO has been continually bombing a peaceful city, destroying the infrastructure, killing and constantly terrorizing civilians.
Second, the media outside is trying to win this war by completely flipping the truth upside down. Ghadafi is stronger than ever. Today, people gathered in two areas of Tripoli where people said NATO was planning on bombing. Hundreds of thousands of people waving green flags, chanted (Allah, Muammar, Libya, Wah bes) (God and Muammar makes Libya complete). Dancing and daring NATO to come and hit them.
These people are so pissed at NATO that they would all lay down their lives before they let “The NATO” win as they say. A young woman from the Foreign Minister’s office named Sana spoke with us tonight. She said the people are so used to NATO now that they are beginning to name their worthless pets after NATO.
Sana said that the Western news media is showing old pictures of Zawia in an attempt to show bunches of rebels there. So a few people went and waved a green flag at the over pass that the media was showing on the news. And guess what? The group was never on camera, because it was not a live shot.
She also told us that the Libyans are now in complete solidarity behind the legitimate government and Ghadafi. She said all the Libyan people have offered to have Ghadafi come and sleep at their homes, he should switch homes every night, all Libyans are prepared to die for Ghadafi. She said, Ghadafi should run for president in the US, because the US is so divided and people are so disgusted with their government there. The unity of Libya behind Ghadafi is unmatched for any leader world wide, she thinks the American people need someone to unite them, not to divide them.
Spoke with the Electronic army, they say there are small pockets of rebels they liken to gangs in Misurata and the Libyan army is the middle of the city cleaning them out. Most of them are running away.
Dr Moussa Ibrahim stated yesterday that Oil Companies of the aggressor nations are trying frantically to open avenues of communication with any and every minister trying to garner favor and regain their once lucrative contracts. You won’t see that in the Western news, even though this release was given to all the journalists here in Tripoli.
That is all for now.

Gaddafi: Africa’s biggest Blessing and the West’s biggest Threat – explained by Minister Farrakhan

Interview with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan by radio host Gary Byrd of WLIB 1190AM in New York on July 31, 2011
“I don’t know if our listening audience is aware that the United Nations in March of this year was going to present Muammar Gadhafi with the United Nations Humanitarian Award for the great work that he and those with him were doing not only for the Libyan people, but for the African continent as well. Muammar Gadhafi, whether we like him or not, when you understand what this Brother has done not only for Libya, but also using petrodollars to help Africa – this man put into a bank billions of dollars to help Africa get their own satellite so we don’t have to call through Europe to get to Africa. Now we can call directly to Africa, which caused Europe to lose over $500 million last year.
Gadhafi put millions of dollars into an account to set up an African Development Bank. Gadhafi used money-oil revenue that he gets from Libya – to finance business projects throughout Africa to make Africa more independent. Instead of raw materials coming up out of the land in Africa being sent to Europe to be fashioned into goods that are sent back to Africa at a higher price, this was going to stop. Africa would take her own resources, make products and put her own products on the market.
He used billions of dollars to connect states in Africa. This man has something to make Western powers, who have grown strong sucking the blood of Africa, fearing that if Africa became independent and used the tremendous resources that Africa has, and that the Western world needs, in order to become powerful and stay powerful in the 21st century.
So he became a threat. In order to vamp on him and destroy him and destroy what he was doing with Africa and for Africa, they manufactured this false play that he was killing his own people in order to put him out of power, assassinate him, destroy the good that this man has done and put a puppet regime in power so that they would no longer have to contend with the idea of the United States of Africa, which the African Union was moving towards under Brother Gadhafi’s guidance, help and monetary assistance.
What was also leading to this humanitarian award to Gadhafi and the Libyan Jamahirya was the UN report that was issued around January 2011, a multi-country report that seemed to give Libya, and subsequently Gadhafi’s government, rather high marks and praise as early as January 2011 around a whole range of issues.
What Brother Gadhafi did coming to power in a bloodless coup is, he nationalized the oil, he removed Britain and America from their bases in Libya and he used Libyan oil to finance revolutionary movements against puppet regimes in Africa and other parts of the world. This made him persona non grata in the West, and it also set him up as an enemy of those who have traditionally misused Africa and poisoned African leadership.
When I say poison, I don’t mean with physical poison, but African leaders who wanted more for themselves than they wanted for the liberation of our people – these are the types of leaders that America supported. They did not support Osageyfo Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture and many of those revolutionaries and many of those revolutionary thinking Black leaders, Patrice Lumumba and others. These are the Black Leaders who were murdered or abandoned or who were set up to destroy their power, because they were the leaders who understood a United Africa. Not all of these separate states.
Kwame Nkrumah, Gamal Adel Nasser, they wanted to lift up the idea of the Honorable Marcus Garvey-that there should be one Africa. That is what Nasser wanted, that is what Nkrumah wanted, that is what Muammar Gadhafi spent billions of dollars trying to promote: an African Union on the way to a United States of Africa. This is what made him such a threat to the West, and unfortunately for them, he’s still there, he’s still alive. They will ultimately have to deal with that man.
If I can make a point with this. He raised the standard of living with the Libyan people to the highest on the African continent and even the highest in the Middle East. He freed women who were Muslims to be a part of government, to be a part of a society where they don’t sit back and allow men to do everything.
The women are partners with the men in Libya. He was a socialist in orientation in the early days, but as he became involved deeper and deeper with the Quran, he saw himself as a reformer of Islam, and he was in the process of reforming Islam in his country and influencing the development in others.
I was there with him, my dear brother, when he spent $33 billion to create a marvel in the 20th century where they discovered water under the desert. And he invested $33 billion to bring that water up out of the desert, and I was with him on the day that we pushed a certain button and the water began from near Benghazi into Tripoli, almost to the Tunisian boarder.
He made agriculture an absolute must for Libya, that they would produce their own food. He made it possible for the Libyans to get land and equipment to farm the land so that Libya would never have to depend on others for the basic necessities of food. This is what this man was doing, not only for Libya, but he was doing it for Africa as well. He became a thorn in the side of Europe, so now they want regime change.
The man was not in any office of power, he’s the revolutionary leader. We call him Brother Leader Muammar Gadhafi. He set up a participatory democracy where the people make the decisions for the future, and he guides the revolution.
I was with him, dear brother, when African presidents would come in, and he encouraged them and said, “Look, we are revolutionaries and you cannot have a revolution and every four years or eight years you bring somebody else in who may or may not continue the trend that you have started.” So when people say he has been in power too long, it takes a long time to bring a mind out of a colonial and slave mentality. He is not interested in power in that sense for himself, but he wants to empower the people.
And lastly, brother, he shared oil revenue with all the citizens of Libya. No Libyan has to pay for health care, education or for living in a house or an apartment.
Everybody there has a place to live. And he has sent hundreds of thousands of Libyans all over the world to study and the Libyan government pays for their education. If there is an operation that a Libyan needs and they have to go to Europe or America for that operation, the Libyan government pays for it. There is no government on the earth that does that for their people to the degree that this man has done.
That kind of leader with that kind of work for his people is an enemy to those who want to live off the sweat, blood and labor of the poor, but not give the poor anything in return. This is why some say that if this man came to America with what he has done for Libya and was trying to do for Africa, maybe they would renounce the 22nd Amendment and change it and make Gadhafi president in America for life.
You know, Gadhafi got into trouble with many Arabs in his own country because he said that Libya really belonged to the Blacks, and that the future of the world would be with Black people. He invited many Black people throughout the world to come to Libya. He gave them work and they became Libyan citizens. Now, when Arabs saw that-some of whom are absolutely racist – they felt he was doing too much for Africans and for Africa.
They rebelled against him for that. So when this group rose in Benghazi, the hatred for Black Africa and for Blacks came out of them and they’re slaughtering African Libyans, Black Libyans and calling them mercenaries when, if fact, they belong to Libya. Yes, this has gone on and it is going on, and with the help of Allah, we hope that all of this will stop, and that if the NATO bombing stops, then maybe the Libyan forces can liberate Benghazi and stop the slaughter of African people by Arabs who hate Black people.”
See here for the full interview.

NATO Libya strike in Zliten kills Gaddafi son and 30 others (Libya rebels say)

BENGHAZI: Libya's rebel forces on Friday said an overnight night NATO strike on an operations centre in the western town of Zliten has killed Muammar Gaddafi's son Khamis, and more than 30 others.

Citing spies operating among Gaddafi's ranks, Mohammed Zawawi, a spokesman for revolutionary militia groups, told AFP that Khamis was confirmed to be among the dead.

"Overnight there was a aircraft attack by NATO on the Gaddafi operations room in Zliten and there are around 32 Gaddafi troops killed. One of them is Khamis," said Zawawi, a spokesman for the United Revolutionary Forces.

Khamis, who has long led pro-government militia fighters, was said to be commanding the battle for Zliten -- a Gaddafi bastion that has halted the rebel advance on Tripoli.

The strike appears to have come just hours after Tripoli took journalists on an escorted tour of the centre of Zliten, an effort to rubbish rebel claims the town was under attack.

Fighters from the rebel enclave of Misrata, 60 kilometres (37 miles) to the east, announced this week they had made progress in Zliten, a strategic coastal town on the road to Tripoli.

But authorities in Tripoli quickly denied that claim, saying they controlled the entire town.

On Thursday an AFP journalist saw the town centre was in the hands of regime forces, although intensive artillery fire was heard in the distance.

Residents said the frontline is located at a distance of 10 to 15 kilometres (six to nine miles) east of the city centre while rebel official said they control three neighbourhoods in the town's east.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1145225/1/.html

NATO plans campaign in Syria and tightens noose around Iran

NATO is planning a military campaign against Syria to help overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad with a long-reaching goal of preparing a beachhead for an attack on Iran, Russia's envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said.

The UN Security Council condemned on Wednesday ongoing violence in Syria and urged the country's authorities to stop using force against peaceful protesters, while saying the current situation in the country has not yet called for NATO interference.

"[This statement] means that the planning [of the military campaign] is well underway. It could be a logical conclusion of those military and propaganda operations, which have been carried out by certain Western countries against North Africa," Rogozin said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper published on Friday.

The Russian diplomat pointed out at the fact that the alliance is aiming to interfere only with the regimes "whose views do not coincide with those of the West."

Rogozin agreed with the opinion expressed by some experts that Syria and later Yemen could be NATO's last steps on the way to launch an attack on Iran.

"The noose around Iran is tightening. Military planning against Iran is underway. And we are certainly concerned about an escalation of a large-scale war in this huge region," Rogozin said.

Having learned the Libyan lesson, Russia "will continue to oppose a forcible resolution of the situation in Syria," he said, adding that the consequences of a large-scale conflict in North Africa would be devastating for the whole world.

BENGHAZI UPDATE - Moussa Ibrahim - Dr. Khaled Kaim

Source Protected
7-31-11

First, the below link that were sent to me from my contact inside with Moussa Ibrahim.   http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=230836596954364&oid=187117224643451&comments http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzBk8B74cB8&feature=channel_video_title http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=135732056514541&set=o.139702676105894&type=1&theater http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150333792251900&set=o.154528817953363&type=1&ref=nf Second, from the Deputy Foreign Minister, Dr. Khaled Kaim to me on the phone 5 minutes ago. The Warfalla tribe, the largest tribe in Libya, (Sheikh Ali is the head of this Tribe and all Libyan Tribes) is lit up! They are pissed, the killing of Abdel Fateh Younes has caused a huge rift in the so called rebels and they are now actively fighting against al Qaeda in Benghazi. Last night 4 or 5 al Qaeda elements were killed. The Warfalla tribes are not armed with any sophisticated arms and some of the Libyan soldiers that were fighting for the rebels have returned to fight against the al Qaeda elements with the tribes. Also, some factions of Warfalla members in the East that had not spoken up before are now speaking and fighting, ALL OF THEM ARE PRO GHADAFI. The atrocities that are occurring now are startling. Qatar troops, tanks and helicopters are openly killing these unarmed tribal members. They have their (Qatar) tanks in the streets of Benghazi. They are speaking on loud speakers telling the people to leave and go home. They are actively shooting on unarmed civilians. NOW, tonight, Dr. Khaled stated that there are more tribes wanting to join in with the Warfalla tribe and they are making their way to Benghazi as we speak. He stated that now Libya is very worried about what NATO will do, he said "they have made a commitment, they cannot abandon them now, can they"? So, killing innocent unarmed or armed with knives and rocks civilians is what NATO and Qatar are openly engaging in. Just 10 minutes ago we had a visit from a Warfalla tribal member, he had 2 cousins killed today by Qatar and they were NOT armed. One of them was carrying a green flag and the other one had a broom stick. He stated that there has been a blood bath by Qatar and more than 120 innocent civilians have been killed and the number is raising. Ismil stated that not just Qatar is there killing innocent civilians but also US, British and French special forces are seen in the streets with Qatar, killing the innocent tribal members. Answer me this: Who the hell is Qatar, the US, UK or France to say who will rule, live or die in Libya? What the hell is wrong with them? Wasn't this war started over some LIE that Ghadafi was killing innocent civilians?? One of the problems is no money for the people in Benghazi and the East of Libya. Ramadan begins tomorrow and the custom is to fast then feast every day for the (approx) 30 days. Muslim families all over the world fill their larders in preparation for this religious period. The East of Libya cannot buy daily needs much less any feast. The pro-Ghadafi people live in fear of execution. The pro rebels suffer from lack of all goods and services. Now the Ramadan season has further demonstrated their terrible state. For months the rebels and TNC have promised money for the people. Where has all the money gone? It simply never happened. Any money that came in went into the pockets of the leaders and the paid rebel mercenaries, but none to the innocent people. The promise of FINALLY $500 yesterday became only $100. This is not enough to buy even one lamb per family for their celebrations. NATO is truly a terrorists group funded and supported by our government. NATO is actively bombing peaceful cities, openly supporting the illegal takeover of a sovereign nation. How do they get away with this?

So why did NATO launch this war against Libya?

First of all, Gadaffi was on the verge of creating a new banking system in Africa that was going to put the IMF, World Bank, and assorted other western banksters out of business in Africa. No more predatory western loans used to cripple African economies; instead, a $42 billion dollar African Investment Bank would be supplying major loans at little or even zero interest rates.

Libya has funded major infrastructure projects across Africa that have begun to link up African economies and break the perpetual dependency on the western countries for imports. Here in Eritrea, the new road connecting Eritrea and Sudan is just one small example.

What seems to have finally tipped the balance in favor of direct western military intervention was the reported demand by Gadaffi that the USA oil companies who have long been major players in the Libyan petroleum industry were going to have to compensate Libya to the tune of tens of billions of dollars for the damage done to the Libyan economy by the USA instigated “Lockerbie Bombing” sanctions imposed by the UN inSecurity Council throughout the 1990’s into early 2000’s. This is based on the unearthing of evidence that the CIA paid millions of dollars to witnesses in the Lockerbie Bombing trial to change their stories to implicate Libya, which was used as the basis for the very damaging UN sanctions against Libya. The government of the USA lied and damaged Libya so the USA oil companies were going to have to pay up to cover the cost of their government’s actions. Not hard to see why Gadaffi had to go, is it?

Add the fact that Gadaffi had signaled clearly that he saw both Libya’s and Africa’s future economic development linked more to China and Russia, rather than the west, and it was just a matter of time before the CIA’s contingency plan to overthrow the Libyan government was put on the front burner.

NATO’s war against Libya has much more in common with NATO’s Kosovo war against Serbia. But one still cannot compare Gadaffi to Saddam or even the much smaller-time criminals in the Serbian leadership. The Libyan War lies are worse than Iraq.