Aid agencies to help drought-affected people in north Somalia

NAIROBI (AFP) Jan 06, 2004
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other humanitarian agencies will this week launch a second phase of emergency aid distributions in northern Somalia, where tens of thousands of people are facing food shortages because of drought.

"A succession of failed rains over the past four years has resulted in large-scale food insecurity among pastoral populations in the central regions of northern Somalia," UNICEF's Somalia office said a statement issued in Nairobi.

"Our planning is based on the assumption that children will be increasingly vulnerable to malnutrition and disease in the coming weeks," UNICEF-Somalia Emergency Officer Robert McCarthy said in the statement.

Nomadic communities which have lost significant numbers of their livestock will require continued food and non-food assistance, he added.

UNICEF, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and other agencies will this week carry out food distributions and medical treatments following a similar effort in the affected areas last October.

TERRA.WIRE