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Somalia

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development (Hilary Benn) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. On 17 May 2006, I visited:"Wajid, the United Nations' logistics hub for the drought relief operation in southern Somalia to which DfID has contributed £12 million; and""Baidoa, the temporary seat of the Somalia Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP) and Government (TFG)." In Wajid, I saw at first hand the effect of the drought; first in an Action Contre La Faim (ACF) therapeutic feeding centre for malnourished children brought from distances of up to 50 kilometres, and then in a camp occupied by about 11,000 people who were living in terrible conditions under very basic shelters, and being fed by the World Food Programme. Now that some rain has arrived, the menfolk have returned to their homes to begin cultivation. However, the harvest will not come for several months, and the families in the camps will need to be cared for in the mean time. I was also able to visit a UNICEF-organised tent school in the camp, where about 300 children and an equal number of boys and girls are enjoying very basic primary education for the first time in their lives. UN agency and non-governmental organisation representatives told me that despite the logistical and security problems of working in Somalia, the relief effort had averted a humanitarian disaster, and while I was there I committed a further £2 million to support what I hope will be post-drought operations. In Baidoa, I called on President Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, and Parliamentary Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheik Adan, the leaders of the transitional institutions. I was struck by the warmth of their welcome, and how, having earlier this year buried their differences, they are trying to build a new administration from absolutely nothing, working from loaned properties including a warehouse converted into a parliamentary chamber. Despite their great fragility, these transitional institutions represent the best hope for taking Somalia forward from over 15 years of internal conflict, which sadly has continued with recent fighting in Mogadishu. The President and Prime Minister emphasised the urgent need for support to education—not currently available to the vast majority (about 80 per cent) of children—and I was able to announce plans for a new £6 million DfID partnership programme with UNICEF and others over three years. Building the new institutions, and the systems to bring internal reconciliation, security and stability as prerequisites for development, will take time, but some progress is being made. I committed a further £1.5 million to the UNDP-led institutional support programme to the transitional institutions. We must all hope that the political transition in Somalia, fragile though it still is, will start to bring the stability and security for which the ordinary people of that country have been yearning for so many years. The UK will continue to provide support to the Somali transitional institutions to that end.