US lawmaker urges humanitarian corridors in Somalia

US lawmaker urges humanitarian corridors in Somalia

WASHINGTON — A US lawmaker called Friday for world leaders to negotiate humanitarian corridors in Somalia to allow in food aid, warning of a massive loss of life without greater effort to fight the famine.

(AFP) 

Representative Chris Smith said that so-called corridors of tranquility -- where all sides guarantee safe passage of vital aid -- have proven successful in past crises, including Ethiopia's famine in the 1980s.

"Corridors of tranquility needs to be something that is being pushed real strongly right now," Smith, who heads the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa, told C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program in an interview to air Sunday.

Smith said that President Barack Obama and other world leaders needed to put a greater focus on the Horn of Africa crisis, in which some 12 million people are battling hunger in Somalia and neighboring countries.

"We have people dying and there needs to be, I think, a much more -- much more -- focused effort and global leadership on the part of the United States and the Europeans," the lawmaker added.

He urged the international community to say "let's get the foodstuffs to the people who need it, or else we will have a massive loss of life" to add to the lives already lost in the crisis.

The United Nations says tens of thousands of people have died in a famine caused by a major drought -- which some experts link to climate change -- and the virtual anarchy inside Somalia.

Somalia has lacked a central government for two decades. Hunger is most acute in areas controlled by the Shebab, an extremist movement inspired by Al-Qaeda that expelled Western aid groups two years ago.

Smith acknowledged the difficulties of dealing with the Shebab but said it was worth making a case to all sides to lay down their arms, at least temporarily, to permit corridors of tranquility.

"I think Al-Shebab and others -- if that were presented and done so by the international community and by the Obama administration, which they haven't done yet but I think they might -- we could get that food to the people who are starving," he said.

The Obama administration said Tuesday it was ready to support aid groups that enter Shebab territory and promised it would not prosecute them for breaking anti-terrorism sanctions that bar any support for the militia.