SOMALIA / AID AIRLIFT

A UNHCR-chartered aircraft carrying emergency aid for thousands of displaced people landed in Mogadishu on Monday, the agency's first aid airlift to the city in five years. UNHCR

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:34
• Production Date: 9 August 2011
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS; DISASTER PREVENTION; DISASTER PREPAREDNESS; DISASTER RELIEF
• Geographic Subject: SOMALIA
• MAMS Id: U110809b

Description

STORY: SOMALIA / AID AIRLIFT
TRT: 2:34
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SOMALI / NATS

DATELINE: 8 AUGUST 2011, ADEN ADBULE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AND AL ADALALA SETTLEMENT (NEAR THE AIRPORT)

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, Aden Adde International Airport Exterior
2. Various shots, aid from plane
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Bruno Geddo, UNHCR Representative, Somalia:
“We have got plastic sheeting to provide emergency shelter, sleeping mats, blankets, kitchen sets and jerry cans. This will be immediately usable by IDP's, by Internally Displaced Persons because right now they have to collect their food with plastic bags”
8. Med shot, Amina with her young son
9. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Amina, Displaced:
"I left to find something to eat, I am sick and I came here to find help for myself and my child."
10. Wide shot, settlement entrance 'Dallada Alcadaala Middowga Kaamamka'
11. Wide shot, Al Adalala Camp
12. Med shot, refugees standing
13. Med shot, Mohammed Adan examines a malnourished young boy 'Adam'
14. Mohammed reties the boy's robe for him
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Mohammed Adan, Senior Field Assistant, UNHCR:
“I think this child now, like any other children here, most of the children here if you see, the widespread disease that they came in Mogadishu with is measles and besides having a lot of problems in terms of malnourishment and what so ever, children here do not have enough health care for example, having no health facilities around.”
16. Various shots, children and mothers
17. Various shots, Amina and her son
18. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Amina, Displaced:
"If the conditions improve, the rain comes and the famine goes and the livestock can live and if life becomes normal, then that’s the time I can go back home. For now I have nothing to go back to."
19. Various shots, mother and child huddled together
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Bruno Geddo, UNHCR Representative, Somalia:
"We have now been able to give out 20,000 emergency packs. We are going to give out another 35,000 between now and the end of August. All in all we aim at assisting 330,000 between July and August. In all we aim at assisting 330,000 between July and August. "
21. Med shot, aid with 'UNHCR' logo
22. Wide shot, worker loading aid onto truck

Storyline

A United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR)-chartered aircraft carrying emergency aid for thousands of displaced people landed in Mogadishu yesterday (8 Aug), the agency's first aid airlift to the city in five years.

Landing in at the Aden Abdulle International Airport, it was the first out of three scheduled flights. It brought in 31 metric tons of tents and supplies from the UNHCR’s warehouse in Dubai, aid that will go to the thousands of Somalis displaced by famine and drought.

SOUNDBITE (English) Bruno Geddo, UNHCR Representative, Somalia:
“We have got plastic sheeting to provide emergency shelter, sleeping mats, blankets, kitchen sets and jerry cans. This will be immediately usable by IDP’s, by Internally Displaced Persons because right now they have to collect their food with plastic bags”
Amina had a small farm and two cattle in the area of Baidoa. When her cattle died she left. It took her 20 days to reach Mogadishu.

SOUNDBITE (Somali) Amina- Displaced:
“I left to find something to eat, I am sick and I came here to find help for myself and my child.”

In this makeshift paper and plastic settlement, called Al Adalala, UNHCR estimates there are over 2000 households as many as 12,000 people, all displaced, all in need of food, water and shelter.

This young boy, Adam, shows signs of severely malnourished. He is not alone said UNHCR’s Mohammed Adan.

SOUNDBITE (English) Mohammed Adan, Senior Field Assistant, UNHCR:
“I think this child now, like any other children here, most of the children here if you see, the widespread disease that they came in Mogadishu with is measles and besides having a lot of problems in terms of malnourishment and what so ever, children here do not have enough health care for example, having no health facilities around.”

The children and most vulnerable will receive high energy biscuits to help rebuild their strength.

According to UNHCR, the conditions in this settlement are some of the worse in the Mogadishu area, and the needs of many acute.

An estimated 100,000 people have fled to Mogadishu over the past two months a city that has been at war for years, but at least here there was a chance of finding some help. Even before the latest crisis, the war-torn Somali capital sheltered more than 370,000 displaced people.

Amina would go home, she said, but only if the rain comes.

SOUNDBITE (Somali) Amina, displaced:
'If the conditions improve, the rain comes and the famine goes and the livestock can live and if life becomes normal, then that’s the time I can go back home. For now I have nothing to go back to.'

UNHCR will be sending in two more aid flights next week, meaning many more people will be help.

SOUNDBITE (English) Bruno Geddo, UNHCR Representative, Somalia:
“We have now been able to give out 20,000 emergency. We are going to give out another 35,000 between now and the end of August. All in all we aim at assisting 330,000 between July and August.”

These flights and their cargo give the thousands of displaced a chance to stay in their country, sparing them the ordeal of fleeing even further from their homes to neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia, and it buys them time while they wait for the rains to return.