All the attention going to Darfur, such as the Global day for Darfur protests that have been planned to take place all over the world next month is a great way to highlight the devastation taking place there. However, my frustration comes from the lack of international attention on Somalia. It's no news that a lot of celebrities and otherwise 'important' people have been standing up for the genocide in Darfur for a while now whilst the on-going devastation in Somalia rarely makes headlines, despite the fact that the situation in Somalia is far worse than Darfur:
"Many of these kids are going to die," said Eric Laroche, the head of UN humanitarian operations in Somalia. "We don't have the capacity to reach them. If this were happening in Darfur, there would be a big fuss. But Somalia has been a forgotten emergency for years. The officials working on Somalia are trying to draw more attention to the country's plight, which they feel has fallen into Darfur's shadow."
"Many of these kids are going to die," said Eric Laroche, the head of UN humanitarian operations in Somalia. "We don't have the capacity to reach them. If this were happening in Darfur, there would be a big fuss. But Somalia has been a forgotten emergency for years. The officials working on Somalia are trying to draw more attention to the country's plight, which they feel has fallen into Darfur's shadow."
There's no doubt that there are a lot of African countries in a state of emergency right now but there seems to be a growing sensationalism around Darfur that unfortunately does not spill over to the other countries also in need.
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