Somaliland “severely malnourished” need resources

A move by humanitarian agencies to help severely malnourished children in resettlement camps in Hargeysa, in the self-declared state of Somaliland, northwest Somalia, will depend on how quickly resources can be mobilised, a UNHCR official told IRIN today. A recent nutrition survey carried out by UNICEF, the USAID-funded and FAO-implemented Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) and the Somaliland ministry of health, had found a “worrying” 15 percent malnutrition rate among returnees who have come from refugee camps in neighbouring Ethiopia.

Kulunga Lutato, UNHCR representative for Somalia, told IRIN that he had spoken to the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Randolph Kent, on Wednesday. “A humanitarian response is being formulated...how soon depends on how quickly we can mobilise resources,” Lutato said. A spokesman for the UN Coordination Unit, Andre Le Sage, said that the nutritional survey had been initiated because “the UN is aware of the harsh economic conditions faced by returning refugees and the urban poor”.

Over the last two years, temporary camps and structures have mushroomed among destroyed and abandoned buildings on the outskirts of the town. “Urban poverty is now an enormous problem here,” a Somaliland humanitarian worker told IRIN. [For more details see IRIN separate SOMALIA: Somaliland “severely malnourished” need resources]