Tuesday, December 19, 2006
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GENEVA, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Tuesday reported "growing food insecurity" in Somalia, where fighting and floods have cut off people from vital aid supplies.
The U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) said it is only reaching 278,000 of the 455,000 Somalis in need, amid fears of a war between the Western-backed interim government and Islamic rivals who have taken Mogadishu and control most of the south.
Food airdrops to flood-hit areas in southern Somalia and to 160,000 Somali refugees staying in camps in northeastern Kenya will begin in coming days to avert hunger in the region.
"We're concerned at growing food insecurity in Somalia, notably in the Bay region," Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a Geneva news briefing.
Farmers in parts of Bay region have fled in the past week due to food shortages and conflict fears, which have been compounded by flooding, Byrs said. Cases of watery diarrhoea and malaria were also reported rising in the Bay and Bakool regions.
Baidoa, the interim Somali government's base which is located in Bay, is among the areas with deteriorating health and sanitary conditions because of heavy rains, Byrs said.
Poor road conditions in Bakool and "increasing tension" in Bay are limiting humanitarian workers' access, she said.
The WFP will also start air drops on Wednesday with Antonov aircrafts to Kenya's Dabaab region, where some 160,000 Somali refugees who fled drought, Islamist rule and possible war in their homeland are staying.
In Kenya, an estimated 723,000 people have been affected by flooding, according to the United Nations. Food prices have skyrocketed, with the price of sugar doubling.
Worst off are an estimated 190,000 people near the Tana River, who need food, shelter and medication after crops were washed away and food and houses submerged, it said.
The WFP says nearly 1.5 million people need food aid in the Horn of Africa -- 455,000 in Somalia, 663,000 in Kenya and 362,000 in Ethiopia.
For Somalia, $5 million in donations has been received towards a U.N. appeal of $18 million launched earlier this month, Byrs said. The U.N. has released another $10 million from its new central emergency response fund.
Source: Reuters, Dec 19, 2006