Friday March 24, 2017
UN envoy for Somalia Michael Keating said here Thursday that the Somalia is facing urgent challenges as the Horn of Africa country is haunted by the humanitarian crisis and risk of imminent famine.
The statement came as Keating, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Somalia, was briefing the UN Security Council on the current situation in the African country.
"Despite the persistent drought in the country, scaled-up humanitarian efforts meant that more people were being reached with food aid, nutritional support, health care services and access to safe water," said Keating.
"One of the most urgent challenges includes the need for funding for immediate life-saving action, in particular for the cholera response, which now affected 11 of the 18 regions," he said.
Meanwhile, Keating noted that there was optimism in the country, however, following the recent electoral process, which had created momentum for fresh political engagement amongst Somalis.
The international community, including UN agencies, is working hard to prevent another famine in Somalia five years after the previous one devastated the country.
Across Somalia, 6.2 million people will face acute food insecurity through June 2017. Of these, nearly three million people are in Phases 3 (crisis) and 4 (emergency) of the five-phase International Phase Classification for Food Security (IPC), representing more than a two-fold increase from six months ago. Phase 5 is famine.
The grave humanitarian situation in Soma was further aggravated by drought which pushed some to flee the country in February. Since the start of the year, more than 3,770 Somali new arrivals have been recorded at Melkadida in Ethiopia, and acute malnutrition has been reported in around 75 percent of arriving child refugees.