SOMALIA: UN Says Situation is very Critical
The Alertnet report:Â Â
Famine could soon claim 10,000 lives every month in Somalia if the upcoming rainy season is as dry as forecast, United Nations aid agencies said on Friday. Extensive drought across the Horn of Africa — the worst in decades — has already caused food shortages across south and central Somalia, as well as neighbouring Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. Some 2 million Somalis suffer from drought, and without enough rain, by September about 900,000 could be facing famine, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said. “That would translate into 10,000 to 12,000 deaths per month,†Graham Farmer, the FAO’s officer in charge for Somalia, told a press briefing.“We’re not saying that that number of people will die, we’re saying that is the risk that we are working against,†he said. The U.N. Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) nearly doubled its Somalia funding appeal to $327 million in light of rocketing food aid needs since December, when it had asked for $170 million. Â
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