Somalia

Two decades of conflict and worsening cycles of drought and flooding have turned Somalia into one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis. In 2011, famine was declared in six regions of south Somalia where 750,000 people at the risk of starvation. An estimated 4 million people, more than 50% of the entire population, are in need of humanitarian assistance; of these, 3 million are in the south-central regions of Somalia.

In 2011, the crises in Somalia have resulted in more people being displaced, both within Somalia and into neighbouring countries. There are over 1.4 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) settled in the south-central region, and almost one million Somalis now live as refugees in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen,

A further complication is that Somalia remains extremely dangerous for aid workers who have been declared legitimate targets of the conflict and many agencies have been expelled. In 2008 alone, 37 aid workers were killed in Somalia, representing 66% of all aid workers killed worldwide.

The European Commission is supporting life-saving interventions in the south-central regions concentrating on food security, health, nutrition, shelter, water sanitation, hygiene promotion, livelihoods support, and the coordination of aid. The Commission is also extending assistance to other vulnerable populations, specifically to IDPs and host communities in Puntland and Somaliland.

In providing assistance inside Somalia, the Commission is wholly dependent on the implementation capacity of its partners on the ground and on humanitarian access. As Somalia is too dangerous for most aid agencies to maintain expatriate workforce, many of the European Commission's partners have resorted to 'remote management', a system where operations are de facto managed from offices in either northern Somalia or in neighbouring Kenya.