Crisis in Somalia

Each day more than 1,300 people are materializing out of Somalia’s arid deserts and pouring across the border into Kenya, driven from their homes by a drought that the UN is calling “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”  Many have walked for weeks without food or water to reach the refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya.  The burgeoning camp, originally designed to hold 90,000, has become the world’s largest refugee camp, housing nearly 450,000. 

Countless Somalis, particularly children and elderly, die en route to the camp, overcome by the cruelty of one of earth’s most unforgiving terrains.  Those who do not die from hunger or dehydration often endure rape and violence by marauding militants.  Some are murdered.  Of the children who do reach the camp alive, malnutrition levels have reached 50 percent and mortality rates are on the rise.

Two years of the worst drought Somalia has seen in nearly six decades, skyrocketing food prices and brutal civil war have put 3 million Somalis in desperate need and another 10 million at risk.  Since a governmental collapse in 1991, Somalia has had no functioning central government and is ravaged freely by militant groups who previously forced all outside aid organizations out of the country.  Only recently has access again been possible. 

Driven by desperate hunger, many of those stricken by the drought and famine are selling their livestock – upon which they depend for their livelihood – for very cheap prices.  Many are going hungry even in areas such as Wajir, Garissa and Kitale, where food is available for purchase, as they have nothing left with which to barter.

“Some Somalis have found refuge in the homes of distant relatives in Kenya.  They wish to avoid registering with the government as refugees for fear of being deported back to Somalia,” says Bryan Burr, Assemblies of God missionary to East Africa and Convoy of Hope representative for the area.

In the midst of this unfolding crisis, the Kenya Assemblies of God has aggressively organized relief efforts to minister to the Somali refugees that are flooding the Somalia/Kenya border.  “The Kenya Assemblies of God has been very active in relief ministry, not only during the December 2007 Kenya crisis when tribal conflict caused death and hundreds of thousands of displaced persons, but in Northern Kenya in two other refugee situations in recent years,” says Randy Hurst, AG World Missions Communications Director.

With more than 4,000 churches, the Kenya AG is well organized.  Its churches demonstrate great unity and cooperation and have already been receiving offerings and acquiring food, which can be purchased very efficiently in-country. 

Relief funds have already been advanced to AG missionaries and a network of Kenya AG churches are prepared to help with food distributions.  The Convoy of Hope warehouse will serve as a staging area for distributions coming from Nairobi and two Convoy vehicles will assist in providing logistical support for more difficult areas.

The drought crisis reaches far beyond Somalia.  Much of East Africa, including Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Chad are also being affected. “The extent of pain and suffering being endured by the hundreds of thousands of refugees is incalculable,” states Mike McClaflin, Regional Director for Africa. “Our Kenya Assemblies of God leadership are rising to the occasion, as they have before, to minister in the love of Christ to the suffering. The Kenyan AG believers are giving sacrificially so Somalis can receive the help they so desperately need in this time of crisis.”

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