Displaying items by tag: Counterterrorism

Dialogue between military and civilian actors is problematic in Somalia, and no more so than in the southern port city of Kismayo, what was the Islamist group al-Shabaab’s last remaining garrison. Considered the most complex urban space in the country, Kismayo is an important trade centre less than 200km from the Kenyan border, and the ultimate prize for the warring sub-clans in the region. After the fall of Siad Barre in 1991, the city was dominated by a succession of some of Somalia’s most feared warlords, and most recently by al-Shabaab. The liberation of Kismayo, the fulcrum of al-Shabaab’s economic…

Nine years ago a bomb ripped through the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad killing 22 people including the UN's chief envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Later that same year a series of suicide bombings struck other targets in Baghdad including the International Committee of the Red Cross - the first attack of this kind in the ICRC's history. Since then August 19th has been designated World Humanitarian Day to remind us of those who put themselves at risk to provide humanitarian assistance to people in need. This year's anniversary will commemorate the highest annual incidence of major attacks…

Degan Ali, Executive Director of Adeso, spoke on Monday about risk aversion and cash in the 2011 Somalia famine, and hindrances to effective decision-making. Ali joined seven other humanitarian practitioners and academics who took part in a public event organized by the Overseas Development Institute to discuss new learning and issues associated with cash transfer programming. The event marked the release of Issue 54 of the Humanitarian Exchange Magazine, New Learning in Cash Transfer Programming, in which Ali authored an article. “By March 2012, $77 million in cash had been provided directly to beneficiaries in South Central Somalia, making this…

There is immense potential for cash transfer programming to provide humanitarian relief at scale in times of crisis. By March 2012, $77 million in cash had been provided directly to beneficiaries in South Central Somalia, making this the largest emergency cash and voucher-based response ever implemented by NGOs anywhere in the world. However, as emergency conditions in the region deteriorated into famine in 2011, it took many months for the humanitarian community to employ cash transfers as an alternative to food aid. Why was there a delay in using cash-based responses when evidence was available that cash transfers were a…

The Dadaab refugee complex in north-east Kenya was established in 1991. Originally designed to accommodate 90,000 refugees, the camps now hold over five times their intended capacity, making Dadaab the third-largest population centre in Kenya after Nairobi and Mombasa. The region is remote and harsh, with temperatures of up to 48 degrees Celsius in the dry season and extreme flooding in the rainy season. The main Dadaab complex consists of the ‘older’ Dagahaley, Hagadera and Ifo refugee camps, with three further sites, Ifo East and Ifo West (combined they are known as Ifo 2) and Kambioos. These sites are being…

Counter-terrorism laws and other measures are having a significant impact on humanitarian action in Somalia. Research by the Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) suggests that they have increased operating costs, slowed down administrative functions and operational response, curtailed funding and undermined humanitarian partnerships. They have also prevented access and altered the quality and coordination of assistance, making it more difficult for humanitarian actors to operate in accordance with the principles of neutrality and impartiality. Counter-terrorism legislation The development of counter-terrorism legislation and measures relating to Somalia must be seen in the context of global counter-terrorism efforts. Although there is no legal…

Whilst the tenth anniversary of the ‘war on terror’ has given rise to myriad reflections on the past decade of conflict, little attention has been paid to the impact that legislation to combat terrorism has had on humanitarian action across the globe. On the face of it, counter-terrorism laws and measures might not appear to have any connection with the humanitarian response to crises as diverse as that which is currently unfolding in Somalia, or the devastation wrought by the tsunami in Southeast Asia or suffering in Gaza. Yet, research by the Humanitarian Policy Group indicates otherwise. A newly released…

  In the span of a few months last spring, Pakistan witnessed one of the gravest internal displacement crises of the last two decades. Beginning in early May, each week hundreds of thousands of people streamed out of the districts of Swat, Buner and Dir into neighbouring lowland areas, driven from their homes by a sweeping military campaign against the Taliban. They joined over half a million already displaced in late 2008 by a similar campaign in the northern tribal agencies of Bajaur and Mohmand. At the height of the crisis, nearly three million people sought shelter in host communities…

After over a decade of relative obscurity, Somalia is, once again, on the radar screen of the international community, but for all the wrong reasons. After the departure of UNOSOM in 1995 and a retreat into the shadows, Somalia is now being described with such superlatives as ‘the world’s worst humanitarian crisis’, ‘the most dangerous place for aid workers to operate’, ‘the site of the world’s largest concentration of IDPs’ and so on. This negative press has forced the international community into a bout of collective hand-wringing, but little else. Millions of Somalis – some 2.6 million, at the time…

Somalia is suffering its worst civil war since the collapse of the state, with the breakdown of clan protection mechanisms complicating all aspects, including the protection of displaced people. The crisis is affecting previously peaceful areas, including Somaliland and Puntland, as well as the wider region. The lack of coherence in Western donor governments’ agendas, their failure to call for accountability by the governments they fund, and their prioritisation of Western security interests over the humanitarian imperative are contributing to the escalating emergency. This timeline provides an overview of the complex interplay of political, security and humanitarian agendas in the…