Somalia faces food shortages
2005-09-15 13:26
Nairobi - Nearly a million people, including displaced civilians, face food shortages in Somalia, a shattered African nation that is struggling to emerge from 14 years of interclan fighting, the United Nations said on Thursday.
The latest edition of the UN's monthly report on the humanitarian situation in Somalia said "almost one million people - including 370 000 to 400 000 displaced people - found to be in urgent need of assistance will be the priority target group for the humanitarian response in 2006".
Of the figure, around 345 000 people are in a state of livelihood crisis while 197 000 are experiencing a humanitarian emergency.
"Particular attention will go toward assisting 169 000 people who are experiencing a humanitarian emergency along the Juba Valley," a southern region beset by high morbidity and malnutrition rates, chronic food insecurity, crop failure, insecurity and flooding, the report said.
High malnutrition rates
In May, the US-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (Fews Net) said a delay in the April-June rainy season affected parts of the south, the country's breadbasket that accounts for more than 50% of Somalia's cereal production.
In some parts, the rate of malnutrition is as high as 20%, according to the UN report.
About 43% of the $164m appealed to help Somalia by the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), has been received, compared to 27% that had been covered by the same time last year.
Somalia, a nation of up to 10 million people, has been without a functioning government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre plunged the Horn of Africa country into anarchy and violence.
Insecurity and attacks on aid workers in the country have hampered swift delivery of humanitarian supplies.
A transitional government which relocated from exile in Kenya in June is currently based in the Somali provincial town of Jowhar, arguing that Mogadishu, epicentre of the violence, is too unsafe.