5 August 2011
Somalia: emergency relief for over a million people
Geneva/Nairobi (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is scaling up its emergency operation in
central and southern Somalia to assist an additional 1.1 million drought-and conflict-affected people. The organization
is asking donors for 67 million Swiss francs in additional funding, bringing its total 2011 budget for Somalia to over
120 million francs (more than 155 million US dollars).
"The move comes in response to a situation that is becoming ever more desperate," said Jakob Kellenberger, the president
of the ICRC. "Hundreds of thousands of Somalis face life-threatening food and water shortages." The situation is the
result of 20 years of armed conflict compounded by severe drought. The effects of previous dry spells, high inflation
and the worldwide rise in food and fuel prices have further aggravated the long-standing crisis since the beginning of
the year.
"In the central and southern parts of the country especially, where only a small number of humanitarian organizations
are present on the ground, the need for aid cannot be overstated," said Mr Kellenberger. "Despite the difficulty of
operating in one of the most conflict-riven countries in the world, we cannot let people down. We are confident that we
can deliver assistance successfully, in close cooperation with our partners from the Somali Red Crescent."
The ICRC is active in all provinces of central and southern Somalia and able to carry out large-scale distributions. The
budget extension will enable the ICRC to further expand its therapeutic feeding programmes and its food distributions to
help people get by during the extremely difficult period until the next harvest in December. Some 49,000 malnourished
children and 24,000 pregnant and lactating women will benefit from the supplementary and the therapeutic feeding
programmes.
"A first round of food distributions completed this week by the ICRC covers the needs of 162,000 people in central and
southern Somalia for the coming month," said Mr Kellenberger. "The distributions were carried out as planned and without
delay." In addition, the ICRC and the Somali Red Crescent have started to expand services in existing outpatient
therapeutic feeding centres and health-care facilities. In central and southern Somalia, the ICRC has provided over
250,000 people with household essentials and made clean water available for 400,000 people since April.
Food distributions constitute an emergency response to the most urgent needs. They are complemented by sustainable aid
aimed at enabling the population to carry on their livelihoods with no outside help. Examples are the upgrading of wells
and boreholes, irrigation schemes and other cash-for-work infrastructure projects to reduce farmers' vulnerability to
extreme weather conditions.
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ENDS