The Radio ERGO Somali production team: Mohamed Hassan, Abdulkadir Mursal, Mohamed Garane, Fatuma Abukar. Photo: Adan Shardi Ahmed/IRIN Radio

Through its presence in areas of Somalia with limited or no humanitarian access, local Radio Ergo plays an increasingly crucial part in the communication between the international aid agencies and the Somali people

In a famine declared by the UN to be the worst in several decades, the IMS-supported Radio Ergo continues its vital broadcasting of humanitarian information to the Somali population.

Working closely with humanitarian aid agencies

At the centre of Radio Ergo's effort to provide Somalis with updates on the drought and famine, is a focus on the plans and interventions of the international aid agencies.

This includes working closely with UNICEF to provide the hunger-stricken populations of the Horn of Africa with information on immunisations, health, hygiene, and public service announcements on the locations and details of upcoming child vaccination campaigns.

Also national relief efforts are crucial in this time of crisis. Radio Ergo recently carried out a unique interview with an official from the al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab rebels.

The official revealed that 7000 internally displaced people are being fed by al-Shabaab using funds contributed by the Somali diaspora.

"At this moment everybody is going to die of starvation"

In the northern region Sool where no aid agencies are currently present, local Ergo correspondent Abdulkarim Olol reports that the region sees a massive influx of Somalis fleeing from the southern regions.

Some have travelled from areas almost 1.400 km away, and along the way many are robbed of the few remaining belongings they have.

- "We left after our animals died during the drought and our farmlands dried up. There was nothing left for us at home and I had nothing to feed my children. I know people who died of hunger and malnutrition in my town and at this moment everybody is going to die of starvation", said Fatuma Ahmed Ali.

In Galguduud in central Somalia, local pharmacist Bashir Moalim Mohamed talked to one of Ergo's local correspondents:

- "There is widespread disease here and killer diseases are common. We haven't had aid agencies operating in this area so the situation is worsening. There are no services or infrastructure and people must travel to hospitals 80-90 kilometers away. Some patients including pregnant mothers die on the way."

IMS supports Radio ERGO through its daughter company IMS Productions ApS with a branch office in Kenya. Playing its role as a key facilitator of humanitarian information to the Somali people and communicating their immense needs to the international aid agencies, Radio Ergo is a unique and crucially important media situated in the midst of one of the worst humanitarian crises in decades.