According to al-Shabaab, there's no famine. And that's that. There are surely some macabre calculations on the part of the jihadists: fewer people to fight and control, and fewer people with the physical wherewithal even to complain. They will starve the country to starve out the resistance to their taking over. "Al-Shabab prevents aid from reaching 2.2M Somalis," by Jason Straziuso for the Associated Press, July 23:
DADAAB, Kenya (AP) — The World Food Program can't reach 2.2 million Somalis in desperate need of aid in militant-controlled areas of Somalia, WFP's director said Saturday, meaning refugee camps in nearby Kenya and Ethiopia are likely to continue seeing thousands of new refugees each week.
The needs of those in Somalia's expanding famine zone are extraordinary, prompting parents to sweep up their small children and start a dangerous walk that can last days or weeks — one that many die on. Livestock have perished, and crops no longer grow after consecutive rains failed to fall in south-central Somalia.
The journey is so long and so perilous that few Somalis are eager to return to their war-torn homeland, a facet of the dual crisis of the Somalia conflict and Horn of Africa famine that has Kenyan officials — who are only reluctantly accepting more refugees — in a bind.
Josette Sheeran, the executive director of WFP, traveled to eastern Kenya on Saturday to visit the drought-stricken town of Garissa and the world's largest refugee camp, Dadaab. Sheeran talked with refugees who just completed the perilous trek from Somalia, and asked if they would consider returning if conditions improve.
"I walked 25 days to get here. I have no money," a translator quoted a refugee as telling Sheeran. He said he had passed many others on the sandy route to Dadaab who dropped off the pace and never made it here. "He said he can't go back anytime soon."
So many people are in need in Somalia because the militant group al-Shabab won't let aid in. The group, in fact, denies a famine is taking place, disputing the U.N.'s view that tens of thousands of people have already died.
WFP can't operate without the militant's permission; 14 WFP employees have been killed there since 2008. Sheeran called Somalia "the riskiest environment we operate in the world today."
Al-Shabab signaled in early July that it would accept aid groups it had previously banned, but changed course on Thursday, saying groups like WFP are not welcome. The group's refusal to accept aid from Western and "Christian" aid groups means millions could starve — or be forced to begin the hike to help to Kenya, Ethiopia or Mogadishu, the Somali capital, which is also being overwhelmed with refugees....
The group's refusal to accept aid from Western and "Christian" aid groups means millions could starve
Typical Islamic paradise; starvation, backwardness, visceral hatred, total absence of any kind of logic, force used as first resort, and of course, innocents paying the price of exalting Allah and his paedophile prophet with their lives.
Clowns!
Well Allah didn't promise paradise to everyone...Some people he created just to starve them...Isn't he just too sweet?
And how wonderful of those religious pious to help him by withholding food in his name...Wouldn't you do the same thing if you were them?
And liberal tools are blogging that "if rich people would donate more the Somalian pirates wouldn't have to attack ships simply for daily neccessities."
Sometimes I think liberals are more dangerous to the West than mohammadans.
This may be one time I agree with the jihadists to a certain extent. From other reading, many Africans believe UN aid leads only to dependancy on more aid, and a loss of proficiency at self-sustainment. This is an example of leftists, usually in the form of Norwegian women working for the UN, filling the childless void in their lives with a sanctimonious display of caring that in reality is simply undermining another culture and extinguishing their own.
Oh, and by the way, these people are Muslims also, just like the Al-Shabaab terrorists inspired by Islam. Who during WWII would defend a mission to feed Nazi families before Hitler was dead? As first denazification, then food, so too, deislamization, then food, with the near-term objective of self-sustainment.
Leftists create what they hate.
It would be more useful to park buses along the exodus route so that they can be delivered more safely to sympathetic countries and cared for there. If aid can't reach the people, get the people to reach the aid.
As an additional note, al-Shabab and Boko Haram don't get their money from western donations, they get them from hostage ransoms. It is a difficult decision to let your loved ones die because you refused to muster the money on principle.
We should not be sending one penny or one grain of rice to any muslim nation.
Let them fend for themselves, we know if the tables were turned, muslims wouldn't send us food, they'd come to convert, enslave or kill us.
I remember an incident once in the early '90s when the US and UN attempted to help these Godforsaken people out of their miserable predicament--so that these poor, starving people could survive. For those not in the know, just look up "Blackhawk Down."
Nineteen American servicemen lost their lives trying to make sure that the UN food shipments went to the hungry, and not to the warlords who were stealing the food to increase their own political power.
Did the Somalis even thank the US for their sacrifice in trying to feed their people? No, they ended up dragging the dead bodies of the Americans through the streets of Mogadishu.
Seriously, I hope the US stays out of this one. Don't those wealthy Saudis care about their poor muslim brothers in Somalia?
Secular/Western kindness trumps islamo-fascist devotion. Though I do wish Somalia had a Fr. Zakaria Botros on their side.
The Muslims are afraid the people might begin to wonder why all their food comes from Infidels and not Muslims.
Allah, Most Merciful and Wise!
Muslims always think "Allah willed it" when the Western infidel gives them aid. Always have done and always will do. There's no such thing in Islam as gratitude to the infidel. We can give them all the food in the world today (Sunday), and by the middle of the week, say Wednesday, they'll get back into infidel-hating mode.
Apparently Somalians are being turned back at the South Sudan border, where they have been crossing northern Kenya to get to; they like the greenness of South Sudan. But there is already enough trouble in South Sudan from Somalians.
If I was in control, I would say that we will let them in temporarily, or for longer if they leave their religion at the door, because their religion will NOT be accommodated in any shape or form.
Then see how hungry they are...
It looks like Southern Sudanese might want to avoid the nasty consequences of "compassion", which revolve around jihad, either by force or by stealth.
The problem with South Sudan's approach is that they risk losing aid themselves from PC aid groups, who cannot abide the notion of national self-preservation.
Muslims always think "Allah willed it" when the Western infidel gives them aid. Always have done and always will do. There's no such thing in Islam as gratitude to the infidel. We can give them all the food in the world today (Sunday), and by the middle of the week, say Wednesday, they'll get back into infidel-hating mode.
I feel a majority stuck in their ways will, but enough will question it... the most we can do in a humanitarian way to is to chip-chip-chip away.
Also, "Blackhawk Down" was a glamourised movie. Never take some lily liberal whitewash hollywood story to heart... It'll always wind you up with a broken heart.
The group's refusal to accept aid from Western and "Christian" aid groups means millions could starve
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Oh, I'm sure Muslim "charities" will step up here... sarc/off
Istanbul Chick wrote:
And liberal tools are blogging that "if rich people would donate more the Somalian pirates wouldn't have to attack ships simply for daily neccessities."
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Too true, Istanbul Chick. Here's a stupid article Care2 sent me:
"UN Declares Famine in Somalia: Why Isn’t the US Helping?"
The article also features an angry petition:
"President Obama, Help Get More Aid to Somalia!"
I'd post a link, but it displays my name. If anyone is interested in reading this article, they can Google it. Actually, some of the comments—surprisingly—are pretty sane. I guess even some of the Care2 folks are catching on.
It's very telling that the trolls that have been commenting and screeching victory on the thread about the *POSSIBLE* right-wing, anti-muslim Chrisitian crusader are NOT here explaining to us why the mohammadans in charge who are not allowing Western and "Christian" charities to stop the famine IS NOT racist.
In fact, I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you, that they're not on this thread telling us how this all the fault of the West.
I hate libards and socialists more than I hate islam.
It is interesting, but not surprising for the Associated Press, that nowhere in the article is there even a mention that Al-Shabaab is an Islamic group. Instead, the term "militant group" is used, as if the motive for this genocidal action is not ideologically and religiously motivated.
You can be sure that if were Christian group doing this, it would figure prominently into story.
Stories like this led me long ago to start noting the originating sources of articles in the newspapers, which is usually listed along with the story author right after the headline at the top. The Associated Press is one of the worst in avoiding the association of actions like this with Islam. This kind of dishonest journalism can take many forms, such as in the present case where it is not mentioned that Al-Shabaab is an Islamic group, or avoiding ethnic or cultural identification in cases of crimes involving Muslims, instead calling them "youths" etc. One can be sure that, in the rare cases where there is a Christian connection, no matter how tenuous or unsubstantiated, such as with the Norwegian shooter, this would be loudly trumpeted by AP.
Michelle Obama should be pleased that the Al-Shabaab jihadists have a program to deal with childhood obesity.