Somali famine refugees face attack by gangs of criminals

MARAUDING gangs and criminals are attacking Somali famine refugees more frequently as they flee across the border to Kenyan camps, but Kenyan police say they do not have enough manpower to stop them.

The lack of manpower underscores a larger problem for Kenya: officials say they are being overwhelmed by the influx of tens of thousands of Somali refugees, and cannot stem the attacks.

One 30-year-old woman who watched two of her five children die as they trekked through Somalia was raped after reaching what she hoped would be the safety of Kenyan soil.

“I constantly ask myself, ‘Would this have happened to you, or would you have lost your children if you had been in your country?”’ said the woman.

“My mind always says: ‘You ran away from a problem and ran into another.’”

Kenya now hosts nearly 500,000 Somali refugees, and while US and UN officials are quick to praise Kenya for their response to the famine crisis, Kenyan officials are just as quick to tell the US, UN and world leaders that they cannot take many more.

President Mwai Kibaki told the US vice-president’s wife, Jill Biden, during her visit to Kenya this week that the Somali refugee population was placing Kenya under extreme pressure and burdening its resources.

Meanwhile, a global social media campaign featuring a Bob Marley song was launched by some of the music industry’s top stars this week to help stem the hunger crisis that is increasing in the Horn of Africa.

More than 150 stars including Lady Gaga, U2, Justin Bieber, Jay-Z, The Rolling Stones, and Paul McCartney are among the well-known figures using their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds to urge fans to donate money to help the numerous families starving in the region.

The campaign, called “I’m Gonna Be Your Friend,” can be found at www.imgonnabe-yourfriend.org. It shows a video of Bob Marley & The Wailers’ 1973 song, High Tide or Low Tide, accompanied by footage of malnourished children created by award-winning film director Kevin Macdonald.

The “I’m Gonna Be Your Friend,” campaign estimated it would reach over a billion people with partners such as Universal Music Group, Yahoo, Facebook, AOL, MSN, YouTube and Twitter and the power of celebrities’ reach. The combined power of using Facebook and Twitter pages alone will reach 730 million, the campaign said.

Donations or downloads of High Tide or Low Tide, for $1.29 will go to the Save the Children appeal for east Africa and used for food, water and medicine.

Other stars participating include Sting, David Beckham, Eminem, Rihanna, Annie Lennox, Bruno Mars, Madonna, Ricky Martin and Lily Allen.