UN urges massive response for world's 'worst humanitarian disaster'

[News_Editor]

UN urges massive response for world's 'worst humanitarian disaster'

2011-07-12 09:32:53 GMT+7 (ICT)

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- The head of the United Nations refugee agency on Monday appealed for greater resources to provide assistance to people in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa country.

António Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, visited the Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya, where thousands of refugees continue to arrive, most of them greatly weakened by hunger and long treks from Somalia.

"I believe Somalia represents the worst humanitarian disaster in the world," he said. "And that is why we need to do everything we can to make it possible to deliver massive humanitarian assistance inside Somalia."

The UN refugee chief said many of the refugees arrive at Dadaab, currently the world's largest refugee settlement, in such an advanced state of malnutrition and sickness that their health cannot be restored. Respiratory infections, malnutrition and diarrhoea have claimed the lives of many.

The drought crisis in the Horn of Africa is affecting Ethiopia, Kenya, and central and southern Somalia, with up to 10 million people in the region in need of humanitarian assistance. In Somalia, however, the drought's impact has been most pronounced. The fall in crop production has led to higher food prices, and the situation for the civilian population is further compounded by fighting between Somali Government forces and Al-Shabaab insurgents near the Kenya and Ethiopia borders.

Valerie Amos, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, who recently visited Ethiopia where the Government estimates that 4.56 million people require humanitarian assistance, said more children are becoming malnourished.

"We are asking our donors to do more for the Horn of Africa and they are coming forward. They have been generous and I hope that that generosity will continue and will increase. We urgently need a united approach to the relief effort so that we can avoid a descent into the famine-like conditions last seen in the 1980s," she stated.

Amos said that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will convene an inter-agency meeting on Tuesday to review the UN response to the drought crisis in the Horn of Africa and to identify what more needs to be done.

According to the UN, the Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 61,000 Somalis have arrived to Kenya this year alone; 27,000 of them in June. Somali refugees have also been fleeing to Ethiopia, as 55,000 have arrived since the beginning of the year.

In total, there are more than 750,000 Somali refugees in countries in the region, mostly in neighboring Kenya (which hosts 405,000), Yemen (187,000) and Ethiopia (130,000). There also are about 1.46 million internally displaced people within Somalia.

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