Basha said the chairman and members of IIROSA’s Sixth General Assembly Meeting held in Jeddah early last May launched an urgent appeal to governments, local, regional and international organizations and UN organizations including the World Food Program (WFP) to extend urgent relief assistance to the Somali people.
In his capacity as chairman of the Cairo-based International Islamic Council for Dawah and Relief’s general relief committee, Basha called for coordinating efforts among Islamic and other humanitarian organizations. He said the organization’s office in Mogadishu and Hargeisa conducted a field survey of the most affected areas to assess the magnitude of the tragedy. According to Basha, the survey found out that millions of people in Somalia were in dire need of food and clean drinking water in order to be able to survive.
Citing the report, the secretary-general said parents would sometimes walk long distances under the scorching sun carrying their children on their backs looking for food and water and could literally drop dead from the effort.
The streets are filled with corpses of children and old men and women in addition to animals, the report said.
“Under these painful humanitarian conditions, the victims are in need of urgent humanitarian relief aid, especially in the areas most stricken by the disaster including Yayie, Jiddo, Bakoul, Central Juba and Shabelle,” he said.
The secretary-general expressed sadness over the situation in Somalia, where famine is killing tens of children and old men and women every day and increasing the rate of urban migration. “The entire world has a humanitarian commitment toward the Somali people who should be saved from hunger and need,” he said.
Bahsa expressed support for the efforts of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the UN, the WFP and other humanitarian and charity organizations aimed at helping the Somali people.
He also endorsed estimates from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that there was a pressing need for at least $1.6 billion in order to combat famine and hunger in Somalia as well as in other countries in the Horn of Africa.
He appealed for help to those affected in Somalia and said famine was threatening 3.7 million people out of the country’s population of about 17 million.
