UN Secretary-General: Somali Hunger Crisis ‘A Nightmare’

The United Nations’ Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has come face-to-face with some harsh humanitarian crises since arriving in famine-stricken Somalia yesterday.

Upon his arrival in the African country yesterday, Guterres visited a hospital in Baidoa, a village about 250 kilometres from the country’s capital of Mogadishu.

Here, he saw malnourished and skeletal men, women and children as well as some patients battling cholera.

The bacterial disease has broken out in the country as a result of poor sewage systems.

Cholera causes severe diarrhea, which has only made the already malnourished patients even weaker. Doctors in the hospital have said that many of the patient’s prognoses are rather bleak.

After visiting the hospital, a clearly distraught Guterres called on the international humanitarian community to send as much aid as possible to Somalia. He called the combination of famine, cholera, drought and other diseases “a nightmare”.

“Every single person we have seen is a personal story of tremendous suffering. There is no way to describe it [sic]. We need to make as much noise as possible…Conflict, drought, climate change, disease, cholera. The combination is a nightmare [sic]” he said.

Somalia is part of three other nations that have launched an appeal for aid to the tune of US$4 billion. Other countries appealing for help to fight drought, disease and famine include Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.

Guterres also called on people around the world to pay attention to these disease- and famine- stricken countries and to not just turn a blind eye.

He was severely shaken by what he witnessed, saying:

“It makes me feel extremely unhappy with the fact that in today’s world, with the … the richness that exists, that these things are still possible. It is unbelievable.”