SOMALIA: Revised Humanitarian Appeal Launched
The United Nations has launched a new revised humanitarian appeal for the drought-stricken Somalia and Somali regions in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Aid agencies have launched a revised appeal for US $326.7 million to avert a humanitarian disaster in drought-stricken Somalia, where some 2.1 million people are threatened with starvation following several successive seasons of failed rains. “This current drought is unprecedented in 10 years, and the impact it is having on food, water, health, education and livelihoods is alarming,†said Christian Balslev-Olesen, the United Nations acting humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, during the launch of the revised Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) on Tuesday. Humanitarian agencies had asked for $174 million in December 2005 to help drought-affected people in Somalia. As of 20 March, donors had committed $79,703,293 million - about 25 percent of the funds required to sustain humanitarian operations in Somalia until the end of 2006.