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UN:
UN FOOD AGENCY PROVIDES MEALS IN SOMALI CAPITAL FOR FIRST TIME IN 15
YEARS: 03/12/2007 (MaximsNews Network)
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UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network /
- 03 December 2007 --The
United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners have started
providing meals to tens of thousands of people in the Somali capital of
Mogadishu in a first since Somalia's 1993 emergency.
The
effort, which began on 25 November, aims to provide meals in up to 10 districts
with a target of up to 50,000 people each day.
“The
depth and scale of the crisis in Somalia is extremely alarming to us all – in
some parts acute malnutrition levels surpass emergency threshold levels,” said
WFP Somalia Country Director Peter Goossens, adding that the success of the
operation demonstrated the determination of WFP and its partner SAACID to reach
the hungry despite a multitude of obstacles.
WFP was
forced to start what it calls “wet feeding” in Mogadishu after fatal
shooting incidents halted distributions of dry rations in the capital in late
June. Dried rations, stored in one-month batches in the homes of those using
them, are more liable to be looted than prepared meals eaten on site.
Mr.
Goossens said insecurity in Mogadishu was also causing the disruption of markets
with consequent hyperinflation, while acute malnutrition rates among children
under the age of five estimated to be reaching 15 per cent or more.
The
agency also continues feeding many of the estimated 600,000 people who have fled
Mogadishu this year. Last week, it distributed a one-month ration in the Afgoye
area to 180,000 of the displaced.
Given
Somalia's pressing needs, WFP is appealing to donors to bridge a $31-million
funding gap.
Meanwhile,
the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes made a brief
visit to Somalia today. He travelled to the Afgoye corridor – a 17-kilometre
stretch between the town and Mogadishu – where up to 200,000 internally
displaced persons (IDPs) were said to be camped.
Speaking
to reporters after returning to Nairobi, the latest stop on the UN humanitarian
chief’s trip which has also taken him to Ethiopia and Sudan, Mr. Holmes
described the living conditions of the IDPs as “deplorable,” noting that
residents only had the clothes on their backs and lived in rudimentary shelter.
He also
reported on a visit to Somalis who were on the front lines of the relief and
humanitarian efforts, including Hawa Abdi who, together with her medically
trained daughters, has been running a clinic in Afgoye since 1991. Today Dr.
Abdi’s clinic provides therapeutic feeding for children and has expanded from
20 to 60 beds to deal with the current crisis.
Mr.
Holmes, who is also the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, flew to the town of
Baidoa, in central Somalia, where he met the new Prime Minister, Nur Hassan
Hussein. They agreed on the need for new and better coordination structures
between the humanitarian community and the Government, as well as on the need to
ensure better protection of civilians.
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
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