bjbjLULU JUDY WOODRUFF: Jeffrey Brown takes the story from there. JEFFREY BROWN: The United
Nations World Food Program has been airlifting food and supplies into the affected areas
of the Horn of Africa. The second flight into Mogadishu arrived just today. It's also raising
funds to pay for aid, so far more than $250 million from donor countries, and has said
it needs to double that to support operations over the next six months. The program's director,
Josette Sheeran, recently returned from the region and joins us now. Welcome to you. JOSETTE
SHEERAN, World Food Program: Hi. JEFFREY BROWN: What is your current assessment of the situation
in those camps we saw and in Somalia? JOSETTE SHEERAN: Well, I was just in those camps,
and it really is an unfolding tragedy, as people flee the areas in Somalia where aid
workers have not had any access. About 60 percent of the people in Somalia have been
inaccessible to aid. And those are the people you're seeing in the camps. Many of those
people have walked for weeks, sometimes up to six weeks. And many of the women I talked
to reported having to leave children along the road who were too weak to make it and
who are dying on the way to the camps. JEFFREY BROWN: And who is it affected most? Is it
children like the ones we just saw there? And what are you able to do for them? JOSETTE
SHEERAN: Well, it's been called the children's famine, and so this particular area inside
Somalia that has been declared a famine zone again has been inaccessible to aid. The reason
it's hitting its children hardest is because they're the weakest when they go without food
or water. They simply cannot go for all of those weeks. And if they are not given access
to the types of food that you saw in your video, such as these ready-to-use foods -- and
we're trying to airlift in the supplies to get closer to them, to these areas that aid
workers have not been allowed in. JEFFREY BROWN: You know, let's explain and talk a
little bit about this inaccessibility issue. In Somalia, the worst-hit country, at least
some elements of the militant Islam group Al-Shabab have been trying to prevent food
from being dispersed. How do they do that and how much impact is it really having? JOSETTE
SHEERAN: Well, it's important to understand this drought affects the whole Horn of Africa,
about five countries. And we're currently reaching 10 million people with lifesaving
aid, including 1.5 million in Somalia. It's the 60 percent under the control of groups
that do not want aid coming in where there's little pockets of access, but not enough to
get in there and really give them the lifesaving support. People are on the move, and these
roads of death -- they're turning into roads of death because they cannot make it far enough,
the elderly especially and the young children. JEFFREY BROWN: And this is a country without
a functioning -- a real functioning government that is able to just go in and do something.
JOSETTE SHEERAN: Well, I was in Mogadishu a few days ago, where we're reaching 300,000
people. We're airlifting in more supplies. We can't keep up with the demand that's coming
from southern Somalia into Mogadishu. But just two days ago, there was a shoot-out at
the camp there, where the IDPs, the displaced people, are. And everything was looted, including
the food there, where people were working. So it's very dangerous, and the World Food
Program has lost 14 workers since 2008 in Somalia just trying to help feed kids there.
JEFFREY BROWN: I want to ask you about another complexion that I have seen raised, which
is the U.S. anti-terror laws that restrict aid from going to a place like Somalia, where
there is -- it might get into the hands of Al-Shabab now. How much has that been a factor,
and do you think that perhaps, even temporarily, such restrictions need to be lifted at this
point? JOSETTE SHEERAN: Well, given the life-and-death situation, United States now has really encouraged
us to get into all the areas in Somalia we can, where we can provide assurances that
we're reaching the people most in need. And so the U.S. has contributed $60 million to
help the people in Somalia. And we're now reaching some of the areas that now are newly
accessible. But also in the north and center, we can reach, again, over 1.5 million people.
This support is vital. And, again, we're airlifting in these nutritional products for children
with the support of the U.S. JEFFREY BROWN: Now, is the situation in terms of access better
in the countries surrounding Somalia? JOSETTE SHEERAN: Mm-hmm. Oh, absolutely. This is the
worst drought declared in 60 years. But we have to ask ourselves why we're not seeing
deaths in Ethiopia or Kenya, like we would have in past droughts. And in part, it's because
resiliency efforts have been put in place. The World Food Program, we have been building
up our efforts since last August, seeing this drought coming. And where we can reach people,
we're not seeing the types of deaths or out-of-control situation. So the world actually has been
doing a good job, and for -- and our world has contributed half-a-billion dollars so
far since January to build up supplies to the people affected by this drought. JEFFREY
BROWN: Now, how does something like this happen? We keep talking about a drought, and that's
been a long time in coming. JOSETTE SHEERAN: Right. JEFFREY BROWN: Every time there is
something like this, there is a manmade element to this, I suppose, right? We knew it was
coming and there it is. You have watched events like this. How does it happen? JOSETTE SHEERAN:
Well, droughts may not be avoidable, but famines are. And so what we are seeing again is, in
this place where this epic drought has hit, there's no water, there's no vegetation anywhere.
I have flown over most of the region. This can be prevented with not only pre-action,
but then emergency action when it really gets terrible. This happens. We have seen epic
flooding in other places in the world, earthquakes. This is a natural disaster. It's when you
can't get access to people that you see it turn into a famine. A famine is about the
state of individuals, not of the weather. And so the famine means that you have severely
malnourished populations. Anything over 15 percent malnutrition rate is an emergency,
and we have seen areas in Somalia now with over 45 percent. That's almost half the children
in critical shape like this video that you have just shown. JEFFREY BROWN: And before
we end, you have raised a certain amount of money. You were talking about the amount from
the U.S. But you say you need double that over the next six months. JOSETTE SHEERAN:
Yes. We're putting out an urgent call. I got a call from the king of Saudi Arabia's finance
minister giving $50 million just two days ago. We have seen Canada, we have seen Australia,
we have seen Europe, we have seen Japan, even as it suffers from its own disasters coming
in, and some of the nations of Africa now offering help for Africa helping Africa. This
is very important. We need -- in this year, about $1 billion will have been spent to protect
lives, and we need the world to respond for this last $250 million that's vitally needed.
JEFFREY BROWN: All right. Josette Sheeran is the director of the World Food Program.
Thank you very much. JOSETTE SHEERAN: Thank you. Thank you. urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
place urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags country-region urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
City Normal Microsoft Office Word Title Microsoft Office Word Document MSWordDoc Word.Document.8