UN calls for safe access as ICRC steps up aid

United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Maxwell Gaylard has called on Somalis and their political leaders to ensure the safe transport of food aid to drought-affected people in the southern regions.

"It is imperative that community elders, religious and political leaders, businessmen and militia create an environment conducive to impartial and independent humanitarian operations," Gaylard said in a press statement on Tuesday.

He warned that the humanitarian situation in Somalia could rapidly deteriorate.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has stepped up its emergency operations for at least 500,000 people in areas affected by drought and armed violence in Somalia and Ethiopia.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the ICRC said it was particularly concerned by the situation in southern Somalia, where severe drought had compounded an already dismal humanitarian situation.

Somalia, which has suffered 15 years of civil strife, "has the highest number of weapon-wounded casualties in the whole of Africa," and lacks basic health and education services, ICRC said.

The agency has this week distributed two months' worth of food rations to 48,000 people in Bakol region and 58,000 people in Gedo region, both in the southwest of the country.

"The drought is making an already dire situation worse for the majority of people in southern Somalia," said Pascal Hundt, the ICRC’s head of delegation in Somalia.

"In this difficult and precarious situation, we are working with the Somali Red Crescent to bring assistance to the most vulnerable people in isolated rural areas," he added.

In Ethiopia, ICRC said, the drought is concentrated in the southern areas of the Somali Regional State. The agency said it was helping at least 300,000 people by improving access to drinking water, providing free treatment for livestock, distributing food and seed and providing medical supplies to health facilities.