Security for Concern's aid workers is huge issue
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SOMALIA has been identified as one of the countries in the world most in need of international aid according to Lusk man and Concern chief executive, Tom Arnold.
While the country has hit the headlines in relations to its infamous 'pirates', what lies behind those headlines is a humanitarian disaster.
Political instability and violence have led to 'between half and a third of the population being in serious need', according to Tom Arnold, who says the situation on the ground is not being written about.
He said that bringing aid into what has become an almost lawless society poses its own difficulties and dangers for aid workers.
Security for aid workers is becoming a huge issue for organisations like Concern. The threat was brought into sharp focus this year when two GOAL workers were kidnapped but even before that incident, Mr Arnold said that security measures were being tightened at Concern. In many of the 25 countries that the organisation now works in there is political instability and violence. Aid workers are discouraged from travelling alone and in some countries, they operate within a strict curfew, the Concern chief executive explained to the Fingal Independent. Concern has not escaped the recession and has closed down operations in four countries in 2009 but remains active in 25 where increasingly, it has to take the threat against workers seriously.
Darfur is another region that has all but disappeared from the daily headlines but the massive population displacement that happened in that African region will be felt for generations, according to Mr Arnold.
its The huge refugee camps put in place to house migrating populations in the region are still there, some of them holding up to 100,000 people, becoming tented cities where there was never a significant population before.
