UN warns of dire crisis in East Africa
Source: Agencies |
July 13, 2011, Wednesday
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UN officials sounded the alarm yesterday about a deepening humanitarian crisis in East Africa caused by a severe drought and fighting in Somalia, and warned that tens of thousands of children are at risk of dying.
The UN children's agency, UNICEF, said 65,000 children in Kenya alone are at acute risk of dying - a threefold increase since 2009. In Somalia, the agency said, one in six children are now dying before their fifth birthday.
Children are suffering the worst effects of malnutrition and exhaustion on the long foot journeys through the sunbaked region.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has warned that the movement of people and poor sanitation in overcrowded camps and towns is increasing the risk of cholera, typhoid and measles epidemics.
Overall some 10 million people in northern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and South Sudan require emergency assistance across the region because of the worst regional drought in 60 years, the UN said.
Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency, said the UN is unable to say how many people are on the move in East Africa right now but "we don't see things turning a corner yet."
Thousands of Somalis are arriving at the Dadaab camp in neighboring Kenya each week, he said. The camp, already the world's largest, has swelled to hold almost 400,000 in recent months. Others are fleeing to nearby Ethiopia, where conditions are increasingly chaotic.
"We are in a situation where we are struggling to keep up with the volume of new arrivals," Edwards said in Geneva, Switzerland.
The World Food Program said yesterday it was urgently scaling up food deliveries. But WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said the agency must come up with US$189 million more in donations to cover the US$477 million that it needs to meet needs in the region known as the Horn of Africa.
Sheeran also warned the crisis might become a permanent problem as climate change is affecting weather patterns in the region.
"Communities that used to have the relative luxury of several years of regular rainfall to recover from the occasional year of drought are now learning to live in an almost constant state of food insecurity due to a lack of water," she said.
Shamsul Bari, the UN's independent expert on human rights in Somalia, said that the situation is "markedly worse" than in March, when he complained the world was slow to react.
The UN children's agency, UNICEF, said 65,000 children in Kenya alone are at acute risk of dying - a threefold increase since 2009. In Somalia, the agency said, one in six children are now dying before their fifth birthday.
Children are suffering the worst effects of malnutrition and exhaustion on the long foot journeys through the sunbaked region.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has warned that the movement of people and poor sanitation in overcrowded camps and towns is increasing the risk of cholera, typhoid and measles epidemics.
Overall some 10 million people in northern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and South Sudan require emergency assistance across the region because of the worst regional drought in 60 years, the UN said.
Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency, said the UN is unable to say how many people are on the move in East Africa right now but "we don't see things turning a corner yet."
Thousands of Somalis are arriving at the Dadaab camp in neighboring Kenya each week, he said. The camp, already the world's largest, has swelled to hold almost 400,000 in recent months. Others are fleeing to nearby Ethiopia, where conditions are increasingly chaotic.
"We are in a situation where we are struggling to keep up with the volume of new arrivals," Edwards said in Geneva, Switzerland.
The World Food Program said yesterday it was urgently scaling up food deliveries. But WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said the agency must come up with US$189 million more in donations to cover the US$477 million that it needs to meet needs in the region known as the Horn of Africa.
Sheeran also warned the crisis might become a permanent problem as climate change is affecting weather patterns in the region.
"Communities that used to have the relative luxury of several years of regular rainfall to recover from the occasional year of drought are now learning to live in an almost constant state of food insecurity due to a lack of water," she said.
Shamsul Bari, the UN's independent expert on human rights in Somalia, said that the situation is "markedly worse" than in March, when he complained the world was slow to react.
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