It’s now eight months since the December 26 tsunami. It was never the “Asian Tsunami” as too many have described it, and I’ve written about Somalia before. This report from IRIN:

YEMEN: Tsunami damage underestimated, FAO

SANA, 28 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - A recent mission to Yemen by United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that Yemen was more severely affected by the tsunami in December 2004 than originally estimated.

Though only five deaths were reported, the mission found that 2,000 fishing families were directly affected with damage totalling about US $2.2 million.

Hans Bage, who led the mission, said that representatives from the Yemeni Ministry of Fish Wealth were surprised by the findings of the mission and the extent of the damage. ?There were significant impacts on the livelihoods of local people, especially fisherman,? he said.

The mission, undertaken in July 2005, surveyed 34 coastal communities in Socotra, an archipelago 350km south of the mainland, close to the tip of the Horn of Africa, and the governorate of al-Mahrah, in eastern Yemen, bordering Oman.

High waves damaged boats, engines and fishing gear as well as infrastructure vital to the fishing sector, such as ice plants, storage sheds and jetties.

Some 653 boats, 569 engines, 1,625 nets and 16,980 fishing traps were either damaged or completely destroyed, and many landing beaches and natural harbours were also severely compromised, according to the latest estimates made by the joint FAO/government mission.

“Many fishermen have not been fishing for six months now,” said Bage. Moreover, he noted that the halt in fishing has in turn had an economic impact on buyers, sellers, processors and others who make a living in fisheries-related activities.

Lack of financial and technical resources and the remoteness of these communities meant very little information about the impact of the tsunami had been gathered, and authorities did not immediately perceive the need for international relief efforts.

However, as early as February 2005, Minister of Water Mohamed al-Eryani had estimated that the total cost of the tsunami to Yemen would be US $3 million.

Despite this warning, the mission saw little in the way of government activities to help those affected by the tsunami. “We only saw the construction of some gear sheds by the Ministry of Oil and Gas,” Bage explained.

The FAO is now working on getting Yemen included the list of countries affected by the tsunami, so that it can receive international assistance.

The FAO is proposing a US $2.2 million post-tsunami fisheries rehabilitation project in Yemen and is urging donors in the Arab world to support it.

Bage said that, given suitable assistance, ?it will take at least a year for the fishing sector to be restored to its previous level of activity?.

The fishery sector plays an import role in the Yemeni economy and provides employment to more than 53,000 fishers and workers in related sectors.

However, these coastal communities are amongst the poorest and most food-insecure in this under-developed country, and Bage hoped that the rehabilitation project would do more to help them than just restore them the level they were at prior to this disaster.

IRIN also learnt that while over $6 million was pledged in private donations in Yemen towards the international relief effort in Southeast Asia, very little of the promised money was received.

An aid source said that the private sector was not confident that the government would deliver the money to the intended beneficiaries, due to a lack of visibility or accountability.

(This report is reproduced with permission via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. Copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2005.)

It always irks me to hear talk of the December 26 calamity as the “Asian Tsunami”. Somalia was affected badly too. This report from IRIN (originally at http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46502):

SOMALIA: War and tsunami force Somalis into slums

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI, 7 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - Civil war and December’s tsunami have inflicted mass devastation on Somalia’s housing situation, a Somali government official said on Tuesday at the 20th Governing Council of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.

“Because of the frequent movements and internal displacements due to the civil war, certain areas of Somali cities are extremely overpopulated, while other areas are not populated at all, and have become ghost neighbourhoods,” Qasim Hersi Farah, the permanent secretary in Somalia’s ministry of environment, said during a plenary session.

“This has led to heavy garbage disposal everywhere, shortages of shelter [and] water, and the growing spread of communicable diseases,” he added.

Delegates from 58 UN member-countries are attending the five-day meeting, opened on Monday by Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki. The conference is expected to give new impetus to plans for meeting the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in particular target 11 of MDG 7 - improving the living conditions of at least 100 million slum dwellers by the year 2020.

Somali delegates at the conference estimated that 85 percent of their population were currently living in slums or partially destroyed homes.

A special theme of the meeting is “post-conflict and natural and human-made disaster assessment and reconstruction”, a subject with special meaning for Somalia, a country devastated by 15 years of civil war and, more recently, the 26 December 2004 tsunami that tore through its northeastern coastline, leaving more than 20,000 people in need of aid.

UN-HABITAT estimated that up to 1,500 buildings and 40 villages in northeastern Somalia were damaged by the tsunami. The agency aims to repair 1,000 houses and build 500 new ones in affected areas, at an estimated cost of US $2 million.

Moreover, Farah explained how Somali society was abandoning its traditional, pastoral way of life.

“It is estimated that no fewer than 60 percent of the Somali population are living in urban areas with [or] without adequate shelter,” he said. “This statistical proportion shows that the situation has changed from what it once was - a country in which 75 percent of people were nomadic or farmers before the 1980s.”

Several years of drought have also exacerbated the humanitarian situation in the country.

According to UN-HABITAT, crises such as Somalia’s can “turn back the development clock”. It noted that a significant majority of Somali victims were civilians, especially women and children, in a world that already had to protect an estimated 20 million refugees and 25 million internally displaced persons.

For all the devastation that occurred across South-East Asia, particularly in Aceh and Sri Lanka, as a result of the December 26 tsunami, we must remember that it’s not just an Asian disaster. Somalia was hit hard. This report from IRIN:

Tsunami survivors need help to overcome the trauma

HAFUN PENINSULA, 28 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - Nurfo Ibrahim Mudey, a 27-year-old widow and mother of four, is still unable to go to the shore where her home once stood in the Somali hamlet of Hafun, destroyed by the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December. Her husband and her six-month-old baby drowned when the surging waves swamped their house.

“I do not want to see the sea again because it reminds me of my husband and my baby,” Mudey told visiting reporters, as she sat pensively next to a makeshift shelter made of plastic sheeting donated by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The people of Hafun, a fishing hub on the northeastern coastline of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, lost most of their homes as well as their fishing boats - and thereby their livelihoods - to the killer waves. Many are now terrified of the sea.

“A quarrel between a man and his wife recently caused people to run out of their shelters believing that the sea was surging again,” Said Muhammed, an education officer with UNICEF in Hafun, said.

“Children are seriously traumatised and counselling facilities are not available locally,” Maulid Warfa, an assistant programme officer with the UN World Food Programme (WFP), told IRIN. “They do not want to go anywhere near the beach.”

According to Hawa Said Ismail, a volunteer teacher in a makeshift primary school that UNICEF built, children are still in a state of shock.

“They speak of having dreams [about the tsunami] and look confused,” she said.

The mayor of Hafun, Abshir Abdi Tangi, said that the focus should now be on the rehabilitation of livelihoods and infrastructure in Hafun.

“We are a destroyed town that needs everything,” Tangi said. “We have received assistance, but it is not enough. Hafun was a historic town and was growing - we had facilities - water, shelter, education - but all that is now gone and we have to start from scratch. Our livelihoods depended on fishing and our fishing equipment has been destroyed.

A few days after the tsunami, WFP distributed some 83 mt of rice, maize, pulses and vegetable oils to an estimated 800 families who were in Hafun. The agency plans to distribute more food to 500 families in a week’s time.

“The old Hafun is still a ghost town,” Leo van der Velden, WFP’s deputy country director for Somalia, said. “Even the sand dunes that provided protection [from the sea] were washed away.

“We plan to assist the people for six months and after that we might think of doing food for work and school feeding,” he continued. “WFP is also handling logistics for others agencies.”

The tsunami disaster could not have come at a worse time for Hafun and the neighbouring communities. The northeastern region of Somalia has been ravaged by four years of drought that depleted livestock, the mainstay of the area’s economy.

Many people had turned to fishing as an alternative means of survival and the income was helping.

“The loss of fishing as a source of livelihood means that the vulnerability levels have gone up,” Warfa said. “The major issue now is rehabilitation and livelihood reconstruction.”

He pointed out that temporary shelters now housing those displaced by the tsunami could be swept away by the strong monsoon winds that lash the region from July.

“Nobody will be able to go to the sea [during the monsoons],” Warfa said. “This is a critical period for the people of Hafun.”

According to various relief agencies working in the region, about 150 people are estimated to have died throughout Somalia, while 54,000 were in need of emergency assistance. Northeastern Somalia was the worst affected, particularly a stretch of around 650 km between Hafun [Bari region] and Garacad [Mudug region].

The damage extended to other parts of the Somali coast, including the Lower Juba area, south of Mogadishu. The livelihoods of many people residing in small villages along the Somali coastline were devastated.

(This report is reproduced with permission via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. Copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2005.)

I think we have our first nomination for Dickhead of the Year. This report from the ABC:

The Australian Shareholders Association (ASA) has moved to clarify comments that it does not approve of companies pledging money to the tsunami relief effort in Asia.

This morning on ABC Radio, association spokesman Stephen Matthews said firms should not generally give without expecting something in return.

Mr Matthews said that in most circumstances, donations should only be made in situations that are likely to benefit the company through greater market exposure.

He said corporate donations of any kind should not be made without the prior approval of shareholders.

The association’s chief executive officer Stuart Wilson has since issued a statement clarifying the report.

He says “the ASA is not opposed to corporations making donations to assist the victims of the tsunami” and “it is in everyone’s interest that the affected communities and economies recover as soon as possible.

“Obviously, as with individuals, it is a matter for corporations to determine the extent of the assistance that will be provided. As these donations are a distribution of shareholders’ funds, the companies should publicly disclose the amount and recipients so shareholders are kept informed.”

Earlier, Mr Matthews told ABC Radio that boards of directors do not have a mandate from their shareholders to spend money on donations.

“They have no way of possibly knowing whether or not their shareholders want their money, the shareholders’ money, spent in this way,” he said.

“It’s an attempt to shift the cost to a particular sector of the community, that is the shareholders.”

Mr Matthews said an exception would be those companies which could benefit from making donations.

“There is a role for business to make a contribution in relation to the tsunami, particularly those businesses who have activities up in south Asia and companies like Bluescope Steel come to mind,” he said.

“Where their businesses are dependent on those sorts of markets, there could possibly be a benefit for shareholders in them making donations to relief.”

(Source: ABC Online)

Listen to the audio of the report from this morning’s ABC radio if this all sounds incredible.

John Howard is to be commended for the billion-dollar aid package that he announced in Jakarta last night (media release | press conference) . I’m a bit guarded about some of his attitudes following the disaster, but on the whole I think he has handled things well to date. The initial offer of $10 million in aid was small, but the government has been adding substantially to that as the scope of the disaster became known. Today is the regional disaster response summit in Jakarta. We’ll see how that goes.

A handful of things, minor details hopefully, make me feel a little uncomfortable. Howard seems unwilling to retire foreign debt to affected countries. Reading through transcripts on the Prime Ministerial web site, he doesn’t appear to ever use the word “tsunami”. Why? And his announcement of a national day of mourning on January 16, while commendable, seems worryingly superficial in his understanding of religious sensitivities.

Finally on Howard, I hope that Australia’s involvement in Aceh is focused wholly on the humanitarian and reconstruction effort and that we do not become a party to any continuance of civil war there.

As for the other major political parties in this country, the absence of comment until yesterday from the ALP is disappointing. All that we expect at a minimum is a message of condolence and a show of bipartisan support for the Government (or a statement of dissent if appropriate). Mark Latham has said nothing. We learn today that he has had a relapse of pancreatitis, and I do wish him a speedy recovery, but why has his office not even issued a simple statement on his behalf?

ALP national secretary Tim Gartrell authorised a page of links relating to tsunami information and relief on the party web site on January 1. Senator Chris Evans, acting ALP leader while Latham and Jenny Macklin are away, issued a statement yesterday endorsing the National Day of Mourning.

But the Labor Party’s best response to date has come from the keyboard of shadow foreign minister Kevin Rudd, without doubt the most articulate man in Federal Parliament on South-East Asian affairs. Read his op-ed in Wednesday’s The Australian.

Senator Lyn Allison of the Australian Democrats has been keeping abreast of events, but the Greens have been nowhere to be found until this morning. A quote from Senator Bob Brown supporting the Government’s aid package a few hours ago is all that I have seen from them to date. It appears that their website will not be updated until their office reopens after Christmas on January 12.

Socialist Party Australia, while electorally almost a non-event in this country (Yarra Council notwithstanding), have been making frequent reports on the tsunami situation as well as launching their own appeal.

Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, and with that in mind I thank this gentleman for linking to my website. I offer no further comment.

http://stubbornlikeamule.net/index.php?p=93

I had to smile when I saw this:

New Delhi, Jan. 4. (PTI): In the first contact between the administration and the endangered Sentelese aborigines in Sentenel Island in Anndaman and Nicobar, the tribals greeted the Coastguard helicopters by firing arrows at them.
(source: The Hindu)

The Telegraph of Kolkata carries a similar story. It seems that the aboriginal tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have survived.

A rather staggering report from Indo-Asian News Service:

Indian sports federations reluctant to help tsunami-hit
By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Dec 31 (IANS) While people in different walks of life are coming forward to help the survivors of the tsunami disaster, leading sports federations of India have shown a certain lack of interest in doing so.

Over 122,000 people, including thousands in southern India, died in South and Southeast Asia in Sunday’s tsunami.

Ironically, even as top Indian sports federations, whom IANS spoke to Friday, sounded indifferent towards the affected people, it has been announced that the Indian cricket team would donate their fees from either a Test or a one-dayer for the rehabilitation of the disaster victims.

The Australian cricket board and the country’s players have pledged 34,000 Australian dollars, while the Pakistan Cricket Board, the United Cricket Board of South Africa and the International Cricket Council have also promised to help.

In India, so far only the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced a donation of Rs.10 million.

But even that was done on second thoughts — after members of the national team announced they would donate the fee from a match.

The BCCI nonetheless took the decision despite restrictions on its functioning imposed by the Supreme Court, which is hearing three cases involving the board, including its September election.

Other prominent national sports bodies, like the All India Tennis Association (AITA), Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), Athletics Federations of India (AFI) and All India Football Federation (AIFF), are either yet to take a decision or have said they would not contribute at all.

“The AITA committee will meet and decide on the issue,” AITA secretary Anil Khanna told IANS.

“But we are not a rich body like the BCCI,” he said, without setting a date by which AITA would donate or if at all.

“I wish Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly were playing tennis, so that more people would have come to watch them (and make AITA richer),” he said in a lighter vein.

The football federation will decide Tuesday whether to donate money to the affected and displaced people in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and various island territories.

While AIFF president Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, who is also water resources minister, was not available, a federation official said a decision would be taken Tuesday when officials of prominent clubs meet in Delhi.

“If not at this meeting, a decision to contribute for tsunami-hit people will be taken by teleconferencing between the president, the secretary and the executive committee members,” he said.

The athletics federation, headed by Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi, too is unlikely to contribute, hinted AFI secretary Lalit Bhanot.

“So far no discussion has taken place on tsunami contribution,” Bhanot told IANS.

“But we would think about it once the president, now out of town, returns to Delhi,” he said.

While Bhanot kept a flicker of hope alive, IHF president K.P.S. Gill boldly said any contribution from the national hockey body was virtually ruled out.

“We have not discussed this as yet. We will see later,” he said when contacted.

After a pause, Gill said: “There is an IHF meeting of some officials on Jan 4. But most probably we won’t (donate) as we are not a very rich body.”

IHF recently signed a contract, believed to be lucrative, with ESPN-STAR Sports to televise its innovative and month-long Premier Hockey League starting Jan 13 at Hyderabad.

The national shooting association too is uncertain if it would make any contribution. Secretary-general Baljeet Singh Sethi said: “NRAI is a society, so its president or secretary alone cannot take a decision on this.

“Our general body meeting is on Jan 20, when the matter could be discussed as it is a national cause. I think there should be no problem.”

Indo-Asian News Service

Online at http://www.eians.net/2004/12/31/31tsu.html

I’m starting up a page on Cricketwoman with the intention of listing fund-raising activities within the cricketing fraternity (games, auctions, collections etc) being conducted in aid of the tsunami relief effort. Please see the item at http://www.cricketwoman.net/portal/Article1222.html.

If you have any activities you wish publicised on that page (and they don’t have to be women’s cricket or even cricket) please drop me a message on my feedback page with the details.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are among the hardest hit locations as a result of Sunday’s earthquake and tsunami, being close to the epicentre of some of the quakes. There are fears that some or all of the races indigenous to the archipelago, namely the Great Andamanese, Onges, Jarawas, Sentinelese and Shompens, may have been wiped out entirely.

Wednesday afternoon however, India’s Union Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the Ongi people had escaped to higher ground and were safe, and that some Sentinelese and Jarawas were known to have survived. Further information of course is still very very sketchy.

The Indian government website of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands has information about the indigenous tribes. See also this ANI report on the Union Defence Minister’s comments.