Headed by its executive director. Joan Holmes. the group. including Valarie Harper. Ted Howard. and Jonathan Deull. visited several refugee camps. learning firsthand the dimensions of the catastrophe now gripping Somalia. Their report. a portion of which I insert to be printed at this point in the REcoRD. vividly captures the plight of the Somalian refugees: Once seen. it can never be forgotten: more than 76.000 people. 90% of them women and children. clustered together on a barren hillside. their only shelter small huts made of thorn bush branches. animal skins. and pieces of cloth. No one in the camp had received food rations in two days. and it was uncertain when the next food supply truck would arrive.... There were no blankets at all. even though at night temperatures fell into the low 40s. The entire water supply for 76.000 people consisted of two shallow. handdug wells. each of which had only six inches of murky water remaining. enough for just one more week. In any case. the water was contaminated. the cause of widespread diarrhea among the refugees. Thousands of children were infected with measles. thousands more were seriously ill from diseases made worse because of severe malnutrition. Sixty percent of the adults had tuberculosis. There were only two doctors for the entire camp and virtually no medical supplies. We were witnessing firsthand the worst refugee crisis in the world today: 1.5 million people on the brink of starvation in the East African country of Somalia. Somalia. where one out of every four people is a refugee. is representative of the staggering hunger and refugee problem throughout much of the continent of Africa: up to 60 million people facing starvation or acute malnutrition. The problem is most severe in the Horn of AfricaSomalia. Ethiopia.
Keywords matched
refugee refugees