FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
From NPR News, this is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Farai Chideya. Ed Gordon is on vacation.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the devastating tsunami that struck more than a dozen countries bordering the Indian Ocean. It was quickly dubbed the Asian tsunami, but countries on the African coast were affected as well, particularly Somalia. We're joined now by NPR's Africa correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault to tell us how Somalia is doing a year later.
Charlayne, welcome, and tell us about the political situation on the eve of the tsunami. How did this exacerbate the effects in Somalia, and how were those effects different or comparable to those in the Asian countries affected?
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT reporting:
Well, Farai, in the best of times life was hard for the Somalis. They lived on the farthest tip of Africa and that's where the tsunami hit. The people there had been in--on the receiving end of a 13-year civil war. There had been drought and famine. Many of them were living in camps. And those who could earn a living were eking out one by living off the sea. They caught fish. They took the water from the sea. But then the tsunami ended their livelihood and whatever good health they had because the water became poisoned and because the government--there was no government. You know, the civil war had rendered Somalia a failed state. There was a government in exile, but nobody to respond to the people as there was in Asia. So I think 50,000 houses were washed out to sea and, you know, there was nothing compared to the enormity of the tsunami in Asia, and yet comparatively speaking it was even worse because there was nobody, initially, to respond.
CHIDEYA: Charlayne, let me just ask about the poisoned water. What was the cause of that? Industrial pollutants seeping in because of the...
HUNTER-GAULT: Well, you know, who knows what came into those waters once they got all stirred up from the tsunami. There could have been pollutants. I know that some time ago when I was in Somalia during the time of the Bush administration's so-called rescue mission, a lot of companies were dumping offal and blood into the waters, which brought sharks into the areas where people lived and they started eating people. So these beautiful waters over there on the farthest tip of Africa became unusable for people or unswimmable. So who knows what all the stuff was, but it was poison, and people had to drink it because they had nothing else.
CHIDEYA: Given that the Asian regions affected--which were, as you say, tremendously affected--were the focus of the aid efforts, did Somalia lose out on any kind of aid to the people?
HUNTER-GAULT: Well, for the most part it lost out on the visits by President Clinton and former President Bush. It lost on any real attention except for some of the aid agencies like UNICEF. And when they began to go in there, they had to truck water over 40 miles to bring it in--you know, safe drinking water, and then they had to treat it for cholera and other waterborne diseases that were stirred up by the tsunami. And, of course, this only made a bad situation worse because the other things that they needed--the health care, the education, you know, all of the things that don't exist in a failed state just became even farther out from their reach. So when the aid agencies got there, it was of course a relief to many, but the job that they had to do was just almost unimaginable.
CHIDEYA: Finally, we didn't hear much about the African regions affected here in the United States. In African media--since you're on the ground in Africa--was that issue covered and is Somalia still being covered as a place that was affected by the tsunami?
HUNTER-GAULT: Well, a year later it may be. We'll have to see. I know that I covered a story where Africans--South Africans held a huge rally in Johannesburg to--the churches came together to raise money for the victims, and they were attempting to respond to the crisis as best they could. They raised money, they sent provisions and so forth, and it was a big story. And I think that there--it stirred the resentment among Africans that here, once again, Africa is marginalized in the minds of the West, that people just don't care about Africans. I know I gave a talk in Boston at Harvard and I was making the point about the dreadful situation the Somalis found themselves in and even a journalist said to me, `Well, you know, they didn't lose as many--nearly as many people, and how can you compare it to the Asian tsunami?' And I said, `Well, comparatively speaking, it was worse because there was no government, there was no help until the agencies like UNICEF were able to gradually get in and provide some relief.'
CHIDEYA: NPR's Africa correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault spoke to us from the BBC studios in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Thanks, Charlayne.
HUNTER-GAULT: Thank you, Farai.
CHIDEYA: And now we're joined by Siddharth Chatterjee, UNICEF senior program officer for Somalia. He's based in Nairobi, Kenya. Mr. Chatterjee has worked in the Sudan, Indonesia and Iraq, and was assigned to his post in Somalia one month before the tsunami hit. He witnessed the situation on the ground in Somalia, and he's here to tell us how locals are faring.
Mr. Chatterjee, thanks for joining us.
Mr. SIDDHARTH CHATTERJEE (Senior Program Officer for Somalia, UNICEF): My pleasure.
CHIDEYA: So you became a senior program officer in Somalia just weeks before the tsunami happened. What can you tell us about the immediate aftermath?
Mr. CHATTERJEE: The word `tsunami,' as you would realize, doesn't exist in the lexicon of a number of countries that were actually affected by the tsunami, and the last that we could have ever expected that it--for it to have come up to the Horn of Africa, and that is in Somalia. So on the 26th of December, we were informed by the local administration in Puntland that the tsunami wave had come and struck the eastern coast. UNICEF along with the World Food Program got together and immediately sent in a reconnaissance team to do a quick impact assessment. And we were really surprised at the scale of the tsunami and the scale of the devastation there.
Now this part of Somalia has been relatively untouched by any form of aid recovery (technical difficulties) work. And, frankly, what the tsunami really did was pointed the aid agencies, the local authorities into an area of Somalia which had been kind of left in a vacuum. And they kind of straggled through a kind of a barter or a trading system, but they kind of eked out an existence. But the state of Puntland has been challenged by repeated natural disasters. I mean, it just defies imagination because we first protracted droughts there. These were followed by floods. These were then followed by extreme winter rain leading to chilling, icy conditions. And then comes the tsunami.
So as Charlayne was mentioning--well, in the state of Puntland, actually, there is an administration, though fledgling, and they are trying to get their act together. And what did happen was a solid partnership of different UN agencies and non-governmental organizations that came together. Mind you, that within 72 hours relief reached the worst-affected area, called--a place called Hafoon. There were other places along the area called Bander Beyla and Eyl and Carad(ph). Health supplies were put in place; temporary shelters for schools were put in place; family relief kits were distributed. So it was, you know, frankly an amazing effort by the different UN agencies and international and local NGOs that really came together.
But what it did was, strangely, was that--you know, as the old adage goes, that out of the ashes of tragedy rises the phoenix of good hope. This is exactly what has happened there. The tsunami was very unfortunate. But today as we speak, there is a six-classroom school there, a thing that was unheard of in that part of Somalia. There are health facilities which are coming up. There are water systems which are being put in place. UN Habitat and UNICEF are working on a shelter project for 400 families. The World Food Program is--along with FAO are working on livelihood and restoration of livelihood issues. A host of organizations have come together.
CHIDEYA: So what were the biggest problems that you faced? We've talked about the water, the loss of infrastructure, and you also have talked about rebuilding. At this point in time, what are the issues on the table that remain in Somalia?
Mr. CHATTERJEE: Essentially, I think the international donor community kind of needs to keep a focus on Somalia, not just on the tsunami-affected areas but all of Somalia, because, as you know, that Somalia is way down on the Human Development Index. It's probably third in the performing countries in terms of poverty. I mean, that--this part of--without a functioning administration--there is a transitional federal government in place. There are several challenges that confront it. But in the immediate term, I think places which are affected by the tsunami, access is the big, big, big challenge. And I had to repeat it three times to underscore it.
So there are several of these issues that need to be addressed and, as I said, that the UN family has put together a recovery and development plan which kind of seamlessly get plugged into the Joint Needs Assessment which is starting off in Somalia now. And we really hope that this tsunami has actually helped us or pointed us to people that have been highly underserved for a very, very long time. And now we are seeing a large number of children going back into school. For UNICEF, children will remain the center stage of our attention and focus. And we've actually been able to rally other UN agencies around the children's agenda, which in turn, you know, helps the community at large.
So there is--you know, there is an overall improvement that we can see over there. And the most important thing is the participation of the community itself and the community taking responsibility for its own affairs. And this is the bright side of things. And women and others are able to kind of look at livelihood issues and not be bothered about, you know, just depending on relief. And, you know, the Somalis are a very proud people and they want to be, you know, on their own feet, and this is exactly the direction that Somalia is taking, and particularly the tsunami-affected areas.
CHIDEYA: Final question for you. Mr. Chatterjee, when you have a situation like this, with a transitional government and fighting still going on in some areas, how are Somalis going to empower themselves to lift up their country?
Mr. CHATTERJEE: Well, I must say that the Somalis are a very entrepreneurial people. In fact, if you see the kind of developments which have taken place in Somaliland and in Puntland, it is mind-boggling. The private sector has come in as a big way. I mean, there are, you know--there are different organizations and agencies that are helping to build capacity at different levels, but, you know, certainly the Somalis have to take charge of their own lives. But they certainly need the support of the international community to kind of point them towards that direction. And let me tell you, the year of 2005 and going into the year of 2006, that promise is in the horizon. But we have to be affirmative in our support for the different administrative structures and particularly the transitional federal government and the regional authorities all across Somalia.
CHIDEYA: Siddharth Chatterjee, is the UNICEF senior program officer for Somalia. He joined us from the BBC's studios in Naroibi, Kenya.
Thanks for speaking with us.
Mr. CHATTERJEE: Thank you.
CHIDEYA: Coming up, the cultural meanings behind holiday music from different cultures, eras and styles. A special music Roundtable, next.
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