[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 114 (Wednesday, July 27, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H5586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      FAMINE IN THE HORN OF AFRICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Payne) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, today we are witnessing a tragic humanitarian 
crisis in Somalia and the Horn of Africa, which is currently 
experiencing its worst drought in over 60 years. According to USAID, 
crops have failed; livestock has died, and prices in the local markets 
are too high for most people to buy what they need to feed their 
families.
  On July 20, 2011, the United Nations announced that famine exists in 
two regions of Somalia. This crisis is affecting over 11 million people 
throughout the region, and USAID estimates that over 3.2 million people 
are in life-threatening situations and are in dire need of food, water 
and medical attention. Additionally, over 80 percent of those fleeing 
Somalia are believed to be women and children.
  At Kenyan and Ethiopian refugee camps, Somali children under the age 
of 5 are dying at an alarming rate. I visited a camp in Kenya 2 years 
ago, the Dadaab camp, where many of the refugees from Somalia are 
going. There are five times as many people in that camp as the camp can 
handle. It was overcrowded 2 years ago, and with the drought, it is 
just becoming almost impossible to sustain life.
  An alarming 60 percent of the people at risk are still in al-Shabaab-
held territory. Al-Shabaab is supported by al Qaeda. They initially 
said there was no drought--a denial. Yet, in the part of the country of 
which they are in charge, the drought is very serious, especially in 
southern Sudan. Then they did agree that the drought was occurring and 
said they would allow humanitarian organizations to go to that area to 
distribute food and medicine. However, just last week, they changed 
their position again.
  As we saw in the nineties with Aidid and Ali Mahdi in the original 
drought during which the United States became involved in Somalia, we 
cannot have the political warlords and that situation happen again. The 
World Food Programme and the United Nations are desperately trying to 
get the food, water and medical assistance into that area, and we are 
going to continue to ask the al-Shabaab people to allow the food to 
come in.
  During a similar drought in Ethiopia during the early eighties, the 
international community was slow to respond, resulting in more than 1 
million deaths. Then world leaders said, Never again. Now we are facing 
a worsening humanitarian disaster that threatens to take even more 
lives. We must act and support those in need.
  I have to commend USAID and the work that they're doing. Yesterday, 
at a hearing we had on this situation, Ms. Cromer, from the USAID, 
talked about the fact that they had an early warning system and that 
they had pre-positioned food, which shows that planning has resulted in 
less loss of life than there would have been had it not been pre-
positioned, but we still have a serious problem.

                              {time}  1030

  Last week I introduced H. Res. 361, calling attention to this crisis, 
and we have already over 50 cosponsors.
  Indeed, Congress is taking notice. My colleagues, Jim McGovern, Jo 
Ann Emerson, members of the Hunger Caucus, along with myself and 
Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters and Gwen Moore and others have been very 
vocal on this issue. Ms. McCollum also has added her voice, from 
Minnesota.
  The crisis is worsening, though. The Famine Early Warning Systems 
Network believes that within the next 1 or 2 months, the famine will 
spread throughout all of southern Somalia. As the situation has grown 
more dire, over 600,000 Somalis have fled to neighboring countries, 
some walking hundreds of miles to refugee camps. The roads to these 
camps in northern Kenya and eastern Ethiopia have been described by The 
Washington Post just yesterday and others as ``roads of death.'' 
Thousands of women, children, and elderly are left on the side of the 
road weak from malnutrition, unable to continue. They are resting on 
those who have already died.
  So I ask all of you to respond to this very serious situation.

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