Families queue for food in Badbado IDP camp, Mogadishu |
As a devastating
drought grips Somalia, UNICEF and the United Nations World Food
Programme (WFP) are warning that only a massive and immediate scale-up
of humanitarian assistance can help the country avoid falling into
another catastrophe.
The drought that
the northern regions have struggled with for the last year has now
spread throughout Somalia, threatening an already fragile population
battered by decades of conflict. Almost half the country's population,
or 6.2 million people, are either severely food insecure or in need of
livelihood support.
It is expected that
944,000 children will be acutely malnourished this year, including
185,000 who will be severely malnourished and in need of urgent
lifesaving support. It is very likely that this projected number of
severely malnourished children could increase 50 percent to 270,000 over
the coming months.
The UNICEF and WFP
representatives this week have been visiting some of the worst-affected
areas in the northern Puntland region, where the two agencies are
delivering much-needed assistance.
"Huge numbers of
Somalis have come to the end of all their possible resources and are
living hand-to-mouth," said Steven Lauwerier, the UNICEF Somalia
Representative. "We have a small window of opportunity to avert this
looming catastrophe and save children's lives and we are determined to
work with all partners and stakeholders to succeed."
The ongoing drought
and other shocks have left communities with little to no resources to
fall back on. Whole villages have lost their crops or seen their
livestock die.
The prices of water
and locally produced food have risen dramatically, and thousands of
people are on the move in search of food and water.
The drought has
also led to an increase in waterborne diseases with more than 4,000
cases of Acute Watery Diarrhoea/Cholera this year.
"Humanitarian
assistance has saved lives in the drought-affected north over the past
year, but as the crisis spreads we have no time to lose," said WFP
Country Director Laurent Bukera. "Together with UNICEF and other
partners, we are moving as quickly as possible to reach many more people
with lifesaving support using every option we have, including
cash-based transfers, specialized nutrition support and airlifting of
relief goods."
The agencies noted
that humanitarian access remains worryingly limited in some
drought-affected areas of the south, but that WFP and UNICEF are
reinforcing their joint efforts to scale up the response in areas that
are accessible, where millions of lives are at risk.
The agencies are
responding together to the drought by providing food and water vouchers
to hundreds of thousands across the most affected areas of Somalia as
well as nutrition assistance.
As additional resources are mobilised, this joint response will continue to expand in the most vulnerable regions.
Funds have been
generously provided by international donors from Europe, Asia, North
America and the UN system for life-saving services in nutrition, food
security, health, education, water and sanitation.
With the growing
needs, UNICEF and WFP together still require more than US$450 million to
be able to provide urgent assistance required in the coming months.
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