Thursday, August 18, 2011
She was in the Somali capital of Mogadishu last weekend and says that improvements are being made and lives are being saved.
She adds that an emergency measles campaign reaching over 100 thousand people in the capital is underway as well. The problem of the famine is anything but solved however as UN officials report that Somalia's chaotic conditions have given rise to other criminal activity. The UNHCR says that includes the sexual abuse of refugees.
According to Amos the UN is also investigating reports of refugees being sexually abused upon arrival at the Dabaab refugee camp which is the largest of its kind in the world.
Nearly a million Somali refugees have sought refuge in the neighboring countries of Kenya Yemen -- Ethiopia and Djibouti and more than one and half million Somalis are internally displaced mostly in the South Central region of the country.
Undersecretary says that progress has been made to get food aid into areas controlled by Al-Shabaab and negotiations are underway for more access so that more lives can be saved.
Amos also refuted an Associated Press report that UN food aid is being diverted by insurgent groups and sold on the open market.
The UN is appealing to member states for an additional 1.2 billion dollars since the famine is still spreading according to the Undersecretary who says that the current humanitarian effort must be made stronger -- and sustained over the coming months.
The conditions in surrounding countries are barely better she adds since they are already suffering from the drought -- but now have hundreds of thousands of refugees to cope with as well.