Lausanne World Pulse – Themed Articles – Somalia: An On-going, Overlooked Crisis
By Carl Moeller
November 2008
The situation in Somalia is probably the most overlooked, under-reported crisis in the world. The country has been devastated by civil war, famine, drought, floods, assassinations, and suicide bombings. There are one million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 1.7 million people in need of food. United Nations officials who work in Somalia have stated that the country has higher malnutrition rates, more bloodshed, and fewer aid workers than the Darfur region in Sudan. There are four doctors per 100,000 people, and only twenty-nine percent of the population of 8.4 million has access to safe drinking water.
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“The situation in Somalia is the worst on the continent of Africa,” Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, a top United Nations official for Somalia, told the New York Times in 2007. Reuters reported in July 2008 that insecurity and attacks in southern Somalia have forced many aid groups to scale down or halt humanitarian operations “to cope with one of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies.” Pirate attacks on unescorted ships have been a growing problem in Somalia. According to the International Maritime Bureau, three European freighters were hijacked off the Horn of Africa in June 2008, adding to the twenty-seven other reported attacks this year. Some of those pirated ships contained humanitarian aid for Somalia.
Somalia is the only country in the world which has been without a government for the last seventeen years. Warlords continue to control parts of the country. In 2007, thousands of civilians in Mogadishu were killed or wounded. Somalia has no constitution or any legal provision for the protection of religious freedom.
Christianity in a War-torn Country Somalia is 99.96 percent Muslim, with just four to five thousand Christians. The conditions for Christians and others in war-torn Somalia have continued to deteriorate. Currently, there are pockets of believers living under extremely dangerous conditions. Some converts to Christ from Islam have lost their lives shortly after coming to faith. Somalia is ranked number twelve on Open Doors’ World Watch List of fifty countries where Christians face the most severe persecution.
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Dr. Carl Moeller is president/CEO of Open Doors USA. Open Doors is an international ministry which has supported and strengthened persecuted Christians for fifty years. Moeller formerly ministered with Campus Crusade for Christ and Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, USA. |