Posted on 01/02/2005 8:40:13 AM PST by WmShirerAdmirer
The toll of people killed in Somalia when a deadly tsunami tidal wave struck the Horn of Africa country's Indian Ocean coast on December 26 has climbed to 176, a presidential spokesperson said on Saturday.
"Some 142 were killed by direct hit on the ground while 34 drowned in the sea when their vessel capsized," Yusuf Ismail Baribari, a spokesperson for Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, told a press conference in Nairobi.
"The 142 people died in the Somali shorelines when their fishing villages were hit by the waves," he added.
On Thursday, Somali authorities said at least 132 people had died and up to 50 000 people were in urgent need of relief assistance.
The quake-powered waves -- its epicentre was off the Indonesian island of Sumatra -- have killed more than than 125 000 victims across the Indian Ocean since Sunday, spreading carnage across the shorelines of several Asian nations where diseases threaten to wipe out weakened survivors.
Baribari said cases of acute diarrhoea were being reported among communities along the Somali devastated shoreline.
"There is a possibility of an outbreak of cholera from the diarrhoea," he added.
UN agencies appealed on Friday for immediate assistance to communities on the Somali coast.
"We need to act now and mobilise the needed resources," Wafaa El Fadil, a humanitarian affairs officer with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), who was in a UN assessment team that flew over some of the affected areas on Thursday, told a news conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
She said the team had seen "considerable damage to structures" in the Hafun peninsula, one of the worst affected areas on the Somali coastline. The aerial mission had also seen some damage to structures in Bender Beyla, she added.
El-Balla Hagona, the UN Development Programme's director for Somalia, said that unlike other affected countries in Asia, Somalia lacked the "indigenous capacity to assess the damage" caused by the tsunami.
"That has placed that responsibility on the UN and its collaborators," Hagona said.
The remoteness of the affected areas was making efforts to assess the damage and estimate the number of affected people difficult.
"The aerial survey has not provided a complete assessment," Balla said.
El Fadil described the affected areas as "remote and harsh". "Accessibility is an issue," she said, adding that it had not been possible to assess the effects of the tsunami on the livelihoods of Somali coastal communities yet.
Thomas Thompson, a logistics officer with the World Food Programme (WFP), who was also on the aerial assessment team, told the news conference that the tsunami had compounded the effects of a four-year drought that had already ravaged northern Somalia.
"There is need for us to act immediately," he added.
WFP has started food distributions in Hafun. The agency used two all-terrain trucks on Wednesday to transport the first 12 mt of food from Foar, where regular WFP lorries got stuck. The 60 km trip from Foar to Hafun took the four-wheel-drive vehicles seven hours through mud and water because the tsunami damaged the only road, the UN said in an update.
The newly created Somali government and authorities in the self-declared, autonomous northeastern region of Puntland appealed for international relief assistance on Tuesday.
There were reports of more displaced people in Bander Beyla, Baargaal and Eyl, according to OCHA, which was coordinating efforts to assist those affected. It said the most urgent needs included food, medicine, shelter materials, cooking utensils and clothes.
Sunday's tsunami waves also slammed into Tanzania, where at least 10 people, mostly children, died, police in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, said.
In Kenya, authorities sealed off the beaches on Monday to prevent people from exposing themselves to the danger posed by the rushing waters.
Sources said three people died, but police confirmed one. The beaches were later reopened.
Damaged infrastructure was also reported in the Indian Ocean islands of the Seychelles and Madagascar.
The tsunami, caused by an earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, hit coastal areas in the archipelago, as well as in Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, The Maldives, Malaysia and Myanmar, leaving a trail of death and destruction. - Irin, Sapa, AFP
"That has placed that responsibility on the UN and its collaborators," Hagona said.
The remoteness of the affected areas was making efforts to assess the damage and estimate the number of affected people difficult.
"The aerial survey has not provided a complete assessment," Balla said."
Unfortunately for Somalia, the U.N. is taking responsiblity for getting diaster aid to them, and as usual all sorts of excuses are being made, and maybe in the "two weeks" Jan Egeland of the UN mentioned it will take to reach "all" the tsunami victims, there will 50,000 less Somalians to take the relief (victims of of acute diarrhoea and an outbreak of cholera from the diarrhoea.)
How many weeks for Jan 'n U.N. to reach the devastated areas of Burma?
"Vengence is mine" saith the Lord.
What? The idea of a God who smites poor young innocent children in retaliation for a movie you saw is not very comforting.
You're right, there were many countries him didn't even mention in his report at 11:00 AM EST.
Strange but I hadn't even thought of the Somalia (Black Hawk Down)we had tried to help and our soldiers killed and dragged in the streets in the 90s. I had only thoughts of the people in the fishing villages and shoreline (not the cities) who have been starved and ignored by the UN all along and now the UN is appealing for help. That's probably one place Americans won't ever go again in helicopters.
I'm sorry if it appeared I was being terrorist sympathetic and unthoughtful of past American lives lost. I apologize.
What in the world are you talking about. You think Americans trying to save starving Somoli's and then having Black Hawk Helicopters shot down and our Marines slaughtered and drug thru the streets was a MOVIE. Now that's sad.
Sincere apologies for my not thinking of our last encounter with aid to Somalia. The movie was made about a real and deadly event that occurred when we were trying to deliver relief aid.
"Vengence is mine saith the Lord."
What a charming perspective.
I was merely adding to the story, that Burma, which is another Stalinist grape of wrathful enlightenment, has been removed from the public eye, by the New York Times and others of the Socialist Directorate.
Of course the Black Hawk incident really happened. The point is, you get off on the idea that God would kill little children villagers in retaliation for it. When you make such utterly inane and disturbed comments, you shouldn't call other people sad.
Didn't realize what the reference to Burma meant, except that I remembered Burma being a country mentioned in the first reports of the tsunami destruction. And I thought you were right in your observation that many countries are not even being spoken about in terms of relief. Egeland said three days before relief got to South Asia, and two weeks to all others (of which he failed to name). It seemed it was nearly choking him to mention the words "aid, money and the US" in the same sentence.
I apologized (rightfully so for my thoughtlessness of our past encounter with Somalia) because sometimes it appears that some readers take offense to postings, by reading meanings not even intented.
I don't feel you did this, I just felt I better get the apology posted asap before someone else misunderstood me.
READ the BIBLE. When God takes revenge innocents die. I suppose you think EVERYONE that died in the Flood were innocent. Or that there were no children. You need to THINK a little more.
That's right. 41 tried to get aid into the starving. People were dying infront of U.N. peoples eyes. All they did was whine. We sent in our military to stop the dieing and look what they did. Oh no, not one dime to Somolia.
Burma won't let anyone in.
You might have something there. Phuket was the top destination in the world for pedophiles.
Yes innocent victims....of pedophiles. God will protect the ones that have died now.
"READ the BIBLE. When God takes revenge innocents die. I suppose you think EVERYONE that died in the Flood were innocent. Or that there were no children. You need to THINK a little more."
What about the 911 victims? Why is it that when disaster strikes us or an ally, that no one makes such comments about divine retribution?
I know you are not calling 19 Islamofascist murderers, tools of God.
That's gross. I've never been to Indonesia, soI have to reliy on people who have been there. However, there have been reports about the clid sex trade throughout the region. Not an expert on this stuff.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.