NAIROBI, Kenya (January 4, 2007) - While widespread fighting has ended in Somalia, CARE and other aid agencies warn that sustained assistance must be forthcoming to save lives, limit large-scale refugee flows into border countries and help prevent violence. Humanitarian access remains limited, leaving agencies unable to deliver food and basic services to about 1.8 million people who have been devastated by drought, flooding and conflict in 2006. CARE calls on the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia to quickly re-establish law and order and guarantee security for aid agencies to allow them to provide immediate aid and longer-term rehabilitation support.
In addition to the critical needs for food and shelter, people who have been displaced by conflict and natural disaster also require access to health care, education and a way to support themselves. CARE plans to restart operations in areas of conflict as soon as security is ensured. Throughout the conflict, CARE continued its food distributions and other services in areas where staff could operate safely, such as Northern Gedo and in parts of Hiran, and ongoing programming in Somaliland and Puntland.
CARE has worked in Somalia since 1981, primarily on large-scale emergency relief and refugee assistance activities, construction of water facilities, primary health care, small-scale enterprise development, local institution building, primary school education, and agriculture. With the outbreak of civil war in 1991, CARE moved its main office to Nairobi but continued to maintain sub-offices in Puntland, Somaliland and Southern Somalia.
In addition, CARE began to operate relief programs in 1991 for Somali refugees at camps across the border in Dadaab, Kenya. CARE is the prime partner with UNHCR for the management of three refugee camps housing approximately 172,000 primarily Somali refugees. According to recent UNHCR figures, around 35,000 of these are recent arrivals who fled from Somalia during 2006.
