New humanitarian reports

UNICEF, in its latest series of situation reports, said it had dispatched over nine relief flights into Horn of Africa countries since April. These included four to Eritrea, three to Ethiopia, and one each to Kenya and Djibouti. Each flight carried up to 40 mt of relief supplies, including therapeutic milk and biscuits for malnourished children, medical equipment, and water purification supplies. It said the bulk were being procurred locally within each country, speeding delivery and supporting the local economy.

Manuel Aranda da Silva, the United Nations Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Horn of Africa, said: “Generous donor support is absolutely essential if we are to avert the current crisis from degenerating into widespread famine.”

Somalia

UNICEF said that a decade of conflict had left villages, schools, and health facilities looted and destroyed. In addition, crop production and livestock trade had suffered as families had been forced to abandon their home communites for security reasons. Nationwide, Somalia’s infrastructure was in need of major repair. The current state of the infrastructure, it said, made the distribution of humanitarian assistance even more difficult.

Sudan

Sudan, it said, was one of the six countries most at risk in the Horn of Africa facing a potential famine. The UN estimated that 1.7 million people in Sudan would need food aid this year, with 75,000 at immediate risk.
UNICEF for its part, was concentrating its emergency efforts on supplimentary and therapeutic feeding, providing essential drugs and vaccinations, and ensuring access to clean water supplies, without which weakened children could not survive, it said.

Ethiopia

The UNICEF report said more than half of the Ethiopian population - over 10 million people - were at risk of starvation. It said 1.4 million of them were children under five. Aid workers reported dozens of children in regions of southern Ethiopia dying each day from malnutrition and diseases such as measles and tuberculosis. “While food is necessary, it is by no means alone,” UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said after a recent five-nation tour of the Horn of Africa. “Malnourished children need supplemental feeding and special attention. Immunisations are required against disease. Sanitation and clean water prevent the spread of disease to begin with.”

UNICEF said its response to the situation in Ethiopia was therefore multi-faceted, and included nutrition, health, water and environmental sanitation, shelter and agriculural needs, as well as education, landmine awareness, and women and children in need of special protection.

Eritrea

The report said that out of a population of 3.1 million, 1.5 million people were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance because of the border conflict with Ethiopia and severe drought conditions that had stricken the nation. Ninety percent of those in urgent need were women
and children, the report said.

For the full report, see: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/vLCE/Horn+of+Africa+Drought?OpenDocument&StartKey=Horn+of+Africa+Drought&Expandview