title: “How Do You Spell Relief " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-16” author: “Manuel Chernosky”
The United Nations’ difficulties weren’t restricted to the Horn of Africa: fierce fighting over Somali aid has taken place at U.N. headquarters in New York, where posturing has sometimes replaced real work. That is nowhere better illustrated than in the cashiering of Mohamed Sahnoun, who in late October lost his post as U.N. special representative to Somalia.
Sahnoun, a 61-year-old Algerian diplomat, improvised his role. When he arrived in April, he got a feel for Somalia by meeting with clan members and elders and by venturing into villages shunned by U.N. agencies. He targeted new areas in desperate need of assistance, won approval from local clan lords for 500 U.N. troops to protect Mogadishu’s port and airport and held high-level meetings between the principal warring factions. He also proved to be the bane of a few senior U.N. officials. Appalled by the inadequacy of relief efforts, Sahnoun sounded off in the press, trying to shame the world into focusing on Somalia and jolt the United Nations out of its torpor.
He excoriated U.N. headquarters for its refusal to try novel approaches, thundering that its failure of imagination had cost lives. “The whole function of the United Nations is to develop an early-warning system and a process of intervention which must be constant,” said Sahnoun. “Wherever there’s oppression or a violation of human rights, the secretary-general should take the initiative of sending wise men very quickly.” Sahnoun also criticized U.N. agencies for abandoning the country after the Siad Barre dictatorship fell in January 1991, leaving relief work in the hands ofthe NGOs and the International Committee of the Red Cross-without the traditional support of the world organization. The private groups, he complained, rarely got the help they deserved. After one of his public tantrums, Sahnoun embarrassed a U.N. agency into sending medical supplies to several needy health centers run by NGOs.
The United Nations never really supported its envoy, either. After Sahnoun painstakingly negotiated 500 U.N. troops in the capital with Gen. Muhammad Farah Aidid, a top Somali warlord, U.N. officials unexpectedly announced their intention to send an additional 3,000 troops. Sahnoun hadn’t even been briefed about the new developments. “I heard it on the BBC,” he says. Outraged, Aidid threatened to send any new U.N. troops home in body bags.
Sahnoun’s outspokenness eventually cost him his job. U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali fired off a letter of rebuke. “I sent him a letter back and said, ‘As an old friend, I might’ve become a liability for you…’,” said Sahnoun. “‘I’ll resign and I’m ready to become a special envoy for you; that way I wont have to deal with the bureaucrats and the nomenklatura at headquarters’.” Boutros-Ghali accepted his resignation but not his other offer.
As for its performance in Somalia, the United Nations pleads guilty-with several explanations. Yes, it has been slow to respond. But its donor nations, distracted by the gulf war, were indifferent to the catastrophe and contributed little to the relief effort; the United States, which has successfully airlifted thousands of tons of food of late, virtually ignored Somalia for more than a year. But the chief problem, say U.N. officials, is its limited mandate. “The procedures and constraints of the United Nations didn’t allow a full-blown job in Somalia,” argues James Jonah, U.N. under-secretary-general for the department of political affairs. Take the issue of security. U.N. agencies traditionally don’t go into a country without the approval of a bona fide government or belligerent groups; Somalia has no government and a dozen warring factions. “We must stabilize the country and then work on development,” says Jan Eliasson, U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs. “Otherwise, food aid is just an umbrella in a hurricane.”
Relief organizations like the Red Cross and CARE have learned far better how to survive in the storm. Without waiting for the arrival of peacekeepers, they’ve gone into remote regions to serve the ill and the starving, often hiring locals to guard supplies. With some success, they have flooded certain areas with food, reasoning that an abundant supply will diminish one source of violence. But the NGOs can’t win the battle against starvation until the United Nations brings order to the chaos. That requires a viable peace process and progress on a long-term political settlement. With other African disasters brewing in Angola, Mozambique, Zaire and Sudan, Boutros-Ghali will have to make tough choices about resources and procedures in Somalia-quickly.
