U.S. to Airlift Food to Combat Somali Famine

Moving to alleviate “mass death by starvation” in Somalia, the Pentagon will begin emergency airlifts of food as soon as possible, the White House said Friday.

In addition, the United States will seek approval for a U.N. Security Council resolution “that would authorize the use of additional measures to ensure that humanitarian relief can be delivered,” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said.

Starvation brought on by drought and civil war in the East African nation has taken the lives of perhaps hundreds of thousands of Somalis, and aid workers say 1.5 million more people could die within weeks.

“Because armed bands are stealing and hoarding food, as well as attacking international relief workers, the primary challenge that the international community faces is the delivery of relief supplies,” Fitzwater said.

The airlift is expected to carry at least 145,000 tons of food to four airports, mostly in southern and central regions of Somalia, in an effort to bypass the warring bands in the vicinity of the nation’s capital, Mogadishu.

The cost of the airlift was not available, a White House spokesman said. He said the United States had already donated $77 million worth of food, but he was unable to say what this amounted to in tonnage or how many people would be aided by the new deliveries.

Officials were also unable to say how many flights would be involved or how many military crews would take part. They said such details would be worked out by the Pentagon over the weekend.

Pentagon officials said that a team of military specialists, probably from special operations units, would be dispatched immediately to Somalia to survey the security and the physical adequacy of four airfields in the country’s hinterlands.

Several of those fields are considered crude and sparsely equipped and will require improvements to accommodate U.S. cargo planes. But a defense official said the Pentagon is prepared to send teams of air controllers, cargo handlers and security troops to prepare the airfields for the deliveries.

The flights of U.S. food aid, to be staged out of neighboring Kenya, are not expected to begin before next week, a Pentagon official said, after the survey teams have assessed needs at the four airfields.

Meanwhile, Marines from the Pentagon’s Central Command are expected to investigate several ports and landing sites that could be staging areas for the delivery of food inland.

One nervous Pentagon official noted that “there is not a lot of control right now” in Somalia, adding that U.S. forces would face some risks in the operation.

How much of a dent the deliveries will make in the need was uncertain. But if they are insufficient, a White House official said, “we’ll dig up some more.”

In announcing the airlift, the White House said the Administration proposed that the United Nations convene a conference of food donors that would include representatives of the major factions fighting in Somalia, “so that their cooperation can be gained.”

“Such cooperation would be the most important step to accelerate delivery of relief supplies and minimize security problems,” Fitzwater said in a written statement.

“The President calls upon other nations to join us in this urgent and important effort to alleviate starvation in Somalia,” he said.

Fitzwater said the United States would seek the support of the Kenyan government in providing food to Somali refugees and people in drought-stricken northern Kenya, and to locations inside Somalia “where there is sufficient security to support these relief operations.”

“The U.S. will take a leading role with other nations and international organizations to overcome the obstacles and ensure that food reaches those who so desperately need it,” he said, describing the “growing suffering and mass death” in the stricken country as “a major human tragedy.”

A White House official said the plan was prepared late Friday afternoon at a meeting of government aid officials and National Security Council staff members.

On Thursday, the White House announced that the Pentagon would provide transportation for a 500-person U.N. guard force and its equipment to be dispatched under a Security Council resolution to help secure the food deliveries. One day earlier, U.S. officials said they had reached an agreement with a key Somali warlord to allow the deployment of the 500 armed foreign troops to protect relief shipments entering the port of Mogadishu.