Some 1.85 million people now receiving rations, but response to famine still inadequate -UN OCHA
NAIROBI (AlertNet) – The response to famine-stricken Somalia is still inadequate even though the delivery of food aid has improved significantly with 1.85 million people receiving rations, up from 770,000 in July, the United Nations said in its latest report.
Humanitarian agencies are confident they will reach more than 2 million people in the Horn of Africa country by the end of September, the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its Sept. 27 update.
Four million people are in need of aid in Somalia where famine has been declared in six out of eight regions with the remainder predicted to slip into famine by the end of the year.
Despite the increase in the number of people receiving food aid, the response to the crisis remains inadequate, particularly in southern Somalia where there are 3 million starving people, the report said.
Agencies have been struggling get food aid into the south because most of it is controlled by the al Qaeda-affiliated rebel group, al Shabaab, which will not allow food shipments in.
Only 17 percent of those needing food aid in the south are being reached, OCHA said, compared to 100 per cent in the capital Mogadishu, 98 percent in central Somalia and 37 percent coverage in the north.
Although al Qaeda retreated from Mogadishu in August, several hit-and-run attacks and roadside bomb explosions are reported there each week, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a separate statement.
Tension is palpable along the Kenyan border, particularly in Gedo region, ICRC said.
It plans to help an additional one million people by the end of the year. It has increased therapeutic feeding centres for malnourished children from 18 to 27, as well as boosting the number of mobile nutrition teams from three to 12.
"We have reason to be optimistic about children receiving treatment in therapeutic feeding centres run by the Somali Red Crescent Society. At least 95 per cent of them will be cured within two months," said Andrea Health, who is in charge of the ICRC's economic security activities in Somalia, in the statement.
Somalia is at the epicentre of a hunger crisis in east Africa which is affecting more than 13 million people.
While a small harvest is expected in January, following rains in October, the situation is unlikely to improve until main harvest of August 2012.
The rains are also predicted to cause more deaths, particularly among children.
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