MORE THAN 3 MILLION SOMALIS WILL NEED HUMANITARIAN AID IN 2009, UN REPORTS

MORE THAN 3 MILLION SOMALIS WILL NEED HUMANITARIAN AID IN 2009, UN REPORTS
New York, Feb 6 2009 3:10PM
More than three million people in Somalia, a third or more of the total population, will remain dependent on humanitarian assistance this year, according to a United Nations analysis.

So far this year, the UN World Food Programme (<"http://beta.wfp.org/">WFP) has handed out 34,000 tons of food to some 3.4 million people every month, according to the assessment by the UN Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) on the strife-torn country, which has been riven by factional fighting and has not had a functioning central government since 1991.

There is new hope amid the recent election of the new President, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who is expected to appoint a prime minister and form a government of national unity in the coming days, in a bid to bring stability to the country.

The UN Children's Fund (<"http://www.unicef.org/">UNICEF), for its part, is working to create a permanent sustainable water system. UNICEF and the UN World Health Organization (<"http://www.who.int/en/">WHO) are helping to protect some 1.5 million children aged five and under against preventable and water-borne diseases.

Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (<"http://ochaonline.un.org/">OCHA) has reported that only 18 per cent of funds needed for humanitarian work in the Horn of Africa country has been disbursed.

Providing consistent aid to Somalia will remain a major challenge, a situation certain to worsen now that the European Commission has pulled out from among the top donors, it added.
Feb 6 2009 3:10PM
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