Medair Responds to Emergency Food Crisis in Horn of Africa

* Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

On 20 July, the United Nations declared a famine in two regions in southern Somalia, while a much-wider region in the Horn of Africa faces an emergency food crisis that continues to escalate in severity. Tens of thousands of people—mostly children—have died in the past few months from malnutrition-related causes. In Somalia, 25 percent of the population have fled from their homes in hopes of finding food and water or to escape regional conflict. Millions of people urgently need assistance from the international community.Medair is in an ideal position to bring life-saving emergency relief to malnourished and starving children affected by the drought. For three years, we have been running a comprehensive malnutrition treatment programme in Somaliland, a region in the north of Somalia. Last year, Medair treated more than 11,000 malnourished children in Somalia and Somaliland. In Burao and the surrounding rural area, Medair runs 20 outpatient therapeutic programme sites to treat children with severe malnutrition, and we run a supplementary feeding programme for children with moderate malnutrition. For the most severe cases, we refer children to our stabilisation centre at the hospital. “Today we are treating children who are malnourished, but without urgent action, there will be more and it will get worse,” said Dr. Wendy Dyment, Medair’s Health and Nutrition Advisor. “People are starving and we want to prevent deaths and honour our commitment to this community.” With the situation becoming increasingly desperate for malnourished children, Medair is seeking additional funding so that we can expand our life-saving programme. We have already sent out one additional mobile therapeutic feeding team to reach malnourished children in extremely rural areas. We have also sent an assessment team to report back on the needs of communities and displaced people in the Sool-Sanaag plateau, a region of Somaliland far beyond the current area of operations.Furthermore, the needs remain high in the areas where Medair currently works, and there are rapidly increasing numbers of children under five being admitted into the nutrition programme for treatment. Each week, as we reach out to communities with our services, we find more children who are severely malnourished and who need to be treated at the stabilisation centre. “As our services are reaching more malnourished children, our stabilisation centre has been running at near full capacity for the past two months,” said Emma Le Beau, Country Director, Medair Somalia/Somaliland. “All the beds are usually occupied, and at times the ward has been overflowing. We want to increase the capacity of this life-saving centre.” In Burao and the surrounding rural area, there are now approximately 30 displacement camps, full of people who have fled here from other regions in hope of receiving humanitarian aid and/or living in peace. These people need food and treatment for malnutrition, but they also need health care, water, and other emergency support. With your support, we will expand our current nutrition programme to reach many more starving children, and we will provide additional humanitarian aid to save and sustain the lives of displaced and desperate families. “We want to respond to the increasing needs we are seeing around us and be prepared to treat many more,” said Emma. “We still have time to act, but we must act quickly.” Your donation can save a child’s life. Please make a donation to Medair today._____________________________________________________________________For Media: Medair Headquarters SwitzerlandTimothy Chapuis Marketing ManagerTel. +41.79.9319429E-mail timothy.chapuis@medair.orgMedair’s Somalia/Somaliland programme is supported by the Department for International Development (U.K.), the E.C. Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme, and private donors. Medair has been working in Somalia and Somaliland since 2008. In Burao, Somaliland, Medair provides nutritional support, health services, and improved access to water, sanitation, and hygiene to people severely impacted by chronic drought and conflict. Somaliland declared itself independent from Somalia in 1991. Its independence has not been recognised by the international community.This web update was produced with resources gathered by Medair field and headquarters staff. The views expressed herein are those solely of Medair and should not be taken, in any way, to reflect the official opinion of any other organisation.