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UN says humanitarian
situation in Somalia is deteriorating
(Nairobi, May 03,
2008 Ceegaag Online)
Soaring food prices and a
worsening drought are causing a deteriorating humanitarian
situation in Somalia, according to the United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
About
2.6 million Somalis now need assistance – more than a third
of the country’s population, representing a rise of 40 per
cent since January. An additional 600,000 people in urban
areas either do not have enough food to sustain their
households, or have been forced to sell assets to buy food,
leaving them vulnerable to further deterioration.
Adding
to the problems, cereal prices, both for commercial imports
of rice, and for locally produced maize and sorghum, have
increased by up to 375 per cent in the last year and are now
at record levels.
The UN
World Food Program (WFP) has signed an agreement with the
Danish Refugee Council to continue providing cooked meals to
50,000 people a day in 10 districts in Mogadishu.
In the
last week of April, WFP supplied food aid to nearly 400,000
people in Puntland, Somaliland and south-central Somalia.
CARE
International also distributed food to nearly 90,000 people
in Galgaduud and South Mudug.
Source:
UN News Center
SOMALIA: Some 3.5 million could need food aid by end of year
Faced with a worsening
humanitarian crisis, 3.5 million people - nearly half of
Somalia's population - may need food aid by the end of the
year, a food security analysis has warned.
The Somali situation was
deteriorating fast due to rapidly rising food prices, an
abnormally harsh dry season and a delayed start to the main
April-June rains, the Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) of
the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a
statement.
"The number of people in
need of assistance [right now] has increased to 2.6 million
people... an increase of more than 40 percent since
January," it said. "This increase is mainly due to the
addition of 600,000 urban poor."
The number of pastoralists
in crisis and of internally displaced persons fleeing
clashes in Mogadishu has also increased.
For the first time, the
FSAU said, the 600,000 urban poor (20 percent of the total
urban population) were facing an acute food and livelihood
crisis and a humanitarian emergency, as they struggled to
cope with rising food and basic commodity prices.
Prices of both imported and
locally produced cereals had increased 110-375 percent in
the last year. The record high prices were also forcing
parents to remove children from schools because of lack of
funds.
"Despite all these coping
strategies," Cindy Holleman, FAO’s chief technical adviser
to FSAU, said: "Many urban poor households do not have
enough money to pay for their basic minimum needs, with
shortfalls of 10-30 percent of the total cost."
Drought
The drought was also
becoming more severe in parts of southern and central
Somalia, pushing more pastoralists into crisis, especially
in the regions of Bakool, Hiran and Central.
Conditions in coastal areas
of the Shabelle Region and pastoral areas in northern
Somalia - Sool, Nugal and Hawd [Togdheer, Somaliland] - were
also rapidly deteriorating.
Abdi Haji Gobdon, the
Somali government spokesman, told IRIN the government had
appealed to aid agencies to redouble their efforts to avert
"this unfolding catastrophe".
The government, he said,
was determined to improve the security situation in the
country to allow easier access to those in need and
facilitate the work of aid workers. It was also dealing with
the printing of fake Somali currency which was contributing
to inflation. "The government will soon be printing its own
currency, which will be the only legal tender."
Source: Irin News
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