Food insecurity continues in Ethiopia’s Somali region- UN allocates 214 million USD for drought hit areas
By staff writer
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - A recently completed Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency (DPPA) led multi-agency pastoral assessment team in the Somali region of Ethiopia reported critical food security problems with records of massive livestock and human migration, reduced livestock births and production as well as increased prices of food.
The team also reported that many parts of the region have slipped into emergency conditions that was briefly eased by ‘gu’ rains and increased food aid distributions in the past few months. It said, in most areas, the available pasture and water is not likely to last until August.
“The food security prospect for the months ahead is worrying,” the team noted. “There could be an escalation of food and water shortages and increasing cases of malnutrition,” it added.
Accordingly, the situation is expected to deteriorate further as the purchasing power of pastoralists declines due to elevated food prices and insignificant income from livestock.
The United Nation’s office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is working with the DPPA, over the last two months the number of under five children in MSF feeding program in Degehabur of Somalia region has elevated from 582 to 800 and the center receives 60 new admissions every week.
Early this week, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has announced the roll-out of a 214 million USD response to help millions in 16 countries hit hard by high food and fuel prices.
The funds are to provide critical assistance by providing life-saving food rations to highly vulnerable groups, continuing to feed school-aged children even while school is out, and giving supplement food to pregnant women and young children whose mental and physical development is at stake.
WFP also aims to expand food aid to urban areas hardest hit by high food prices, including through cash and vouchers, and to support small farmers and markets in countries where the agency will purchase food assistance locally, through the initiative.
“With hunger on the rise, we are doing our best to stream incoming contributions to the people most in need in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean,” said WFP executive director Josette Sheeran.
“It is essential to launch a bold new set of responses to steam a full-blown hunger and nutritional crisis.”
The new funding will assist people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Haiti, Liberia, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan, Senegal, Somalia, Tajikistan, Uganda, Yemen and the occupied Palestinian territory.
WFP says more than half of the money, 110 million USD, will be used in Ethiopia and Somalia, where drought, insecurity, and high prices have left millions dependent on food aid.