Famine in Somalia (Paperback)

Daniel G. Maxwell

ISBN 10: 1849045755 / ISBN 13: 9781849045759

Published by C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, London, 2016

About this Item

Paperback. Some 250,000 people died in the southern Somalia famine of 2011-12, which also displaced and destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands more. Yet this crisis had been predicted nearly a year earlier. The harshest drought in Somalia's recent history coincided with a global spike in food prices, hitting this arid, import-dependent country hard. The policies of Al-Shabaab, a militant Islamist group that controlled southern Somalia, exacerbated an already difficult situation, barring most humanitarian assistance, while donors counter-terrorism policies led to cuts and criminalized any aid falling into their hands. A major disaster resulted from the production and market failures precipitated by the drought and food price crisis, while the famine itself was the result of the failure to quickly respond to these events-and was thus largely human-made. This book analyses the famine: the trade-offs between competing policy priorities that led to it, the collective failure in response, and how those affected by it attempted to protect themselves and their livelihoods.It also examines the humanitarian response, including actors that had not previously been particularly visible in Somalia-from Turkey, the Middle East, and Islamic charities worldwide. A hard-hitting analysis of an African famine: why it happened, why it need not have happened and how the securitisation of the victims hindered attempts to bring aid relief Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781849045759

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Famine in Somalia (Paperback)
• Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, London
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1849045755
• ISBN 13: 9781849045759
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Some 250,000 people died in the southern Somalia famine of 2011-12, which also displaced and destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands more. Yet this crisis had been predicted nearly a year earlier. The harshest drought in Somalia's recent history coincided with a global spike in food prices, hitting this arid, import-dependent country hard. The policies of Al-Shabaab, a militant Islamist group that controlled southern Somalia, exacerbated an already difficult situation, barring most humanitarian assistance, while donors counter-terrorism policies led to cuts and criminalized any aid falling into their hands. A major disaster resulted from the production and market failures precipitated by the drought and food price crisis, while the famine itself was the result of the failure to quickly respond to these events-and was thus largely human-made. This book analyses the famine: the trade-offs between competing policy priorities that led to it, the collective failure in response, and how those affected by it attempted to protect themselves and their livelihoods.It also examines the humanitarian response, including actors that had not previously been particularly visible in Somalia-from Turkey, the Middle East, and Islamic charities worldwide.

About the Author

Daniel Maxwell is a Professor of Nutrition and Humanitarian Studies at Tufts University, Boston. Nisar Majid is a researcher and consultant specialising in food security transnational studies with reference to Somali populations.