“Promising signs” but high malnutrition in Somali region

People displaced by drought in the Somali region of southeastern Ethiopia are suffering increasing malnutrition and food insecurity, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Monday. Despite improving conditions in the region as a whole, food aid reductions, combined with poor access to health services, had led to “deterioration of the situation among the drought-displaced population in various locations in Somali region,” WFP said . However, improved pasture and water supply, and an imminent increase in milk supply are “all promising signs” for the region in general and the affected pastoralist communities, the emergency report said. Surveys in Jijiga, Gode, Degeh Bur, Warder and Fik zones had shown high levels of malnutrition among children under five, WFP said. The federal Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) had responded by allocating more food aid to drought-displaced populations in both Denan and Gode zones, said the UN food agency. Additional grain and some supplementary food had also been allocated to the drought-displaced in Jijiga Zone. Food aid reductions and problems with targeting affected populations, combined with seasonal disease patterns and general lack of access to health services had contributed to the deterioration of the situation, said the WFP emergency report. Meanwhile, in the northeastern highlands, extended rains meant that South Tigray, North and South Welo and North Shewa were looking forward to a good Belg harvest, with consequent improvement in food security and nutrition levels, WFP added. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that some agencies in the affected areas of southeastern Ethiopia were having to cope with “a difficult security situation”. There is a heavy military presence in parts of southeastern Ethiopia because of activities by the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), the source said.