DRC opened its first South and Central field office in Belet Weyne town of central region of Hiiraan in 2005. The Mogadishu office was created in early 2007.
DRC’s South and Central Somalia programme is concentrated in the Banaadir Region (Mogadishu and its environs) and Hiiraan region. In these two regions, DRC provides life-saving assistance, supports livelihoods activities and builds and rehabilitates infrastructure and works with the clan elders to improve governance.
In Banaadir region, for example, in partnership with other local and international organizations, DRC provides daily meals to some 80,000 people through 16 feeding centres scattered across the city.
South and Central Somalia has remained the epicenter of violence since the early 1990s. Many areas of this region continue to experience widespread violence, lasting political instability and recurrent drought resulting in a lasting humanitarian crisis.
Banaadir, Lower and Middle Shabelle, Hiiraan, Galgaduud and Bay and Bakool regions are the worst affected by such violence. As a result, the region records the highest number of IDPs in the country, a figure which stands at more than a million.
More recently, in May 2009, nearly 121,000 people were displaced following violent conflicts between insurgent groups and government forces in Mogadishu. The majority of these people fled to safer areas within the city, while the rest joined the more than 400,000 IDPs that have been displaced since 2007 in the Afgooye corridor on the outskirts of Mogadishu.
The Government of National Unity (GNU) which was set up in Djibouti in early 2009 is currently based in Mogadishu. However, it has limited capacity to expand its authority to other regions to bring peace, stability and good governance.
Limited access to education is a serious challenge in Somalia. Not even one child out of five has access to primary education in South and Central Somalia, according to a UN report on Gross Enrolment Rate.
The nutrition situation remains of great concern with continuing critical levels of global acute malnutrition being recorded across population categories. An estimated 180,000 children are believed to be acutely malnourished, of which 26,000 are severely malnourished and in need of urgent nutritional rehabilitation.
Donors and partners: Danida, ECHO, EC/AET, MFA – Norway, SIDA, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP
