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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Jul 21 2011 - 07:03:53 EDT
Djibouti Appeals for International Aid to Curb Drought Effects
By Mohamed Osman Farah - Jul 21, 2011 9:04 AM GMT+0200
Djibouti appealed for $21 million from international donors to help deal
with a drought that has left about 120,000 of the country’s citizens
vulnerable.
Almost all of the dams and wells in the Horn of Africa nation have run dry,
resulting in a scarcity of drinking water among the rural population,
Communication and Culture Minister Abdi Ahmed Houssein said in a press
briefing broadcast on state television yesterday. Cattle mortality rates
have also increased, Houssein said.
Parts of East Africa are facing the worst drought in 60 years. The United
Nations yesterday declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia, amid
a lack of rain that has resulted in food prices almost tripling over the
past year.
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UN requests more than $4 billion in humanitarian aid for the rest of this
year
20 July 2011 –
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39096
<http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39096&Cr=amos&Cr1>
&Cr=amos&Cr1=
Relief agencies require another $4.3 billion to assist millions of needy
people around the world during the second half of this year, the United
Nations humanitarian chief said today, adding that donors have so far made
available 45 per cent of the funds requested at the start of 2011.
UN agencies and their partners had asked for $7.4 billion for humanitarian
emergencies in 2011, but that figure has since risen to $7.9 billion as a
result of increasing needs in some regions, including the Horn of Africa,
where a severe drought has left 11.5 million people in need, Valerie Amos,
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs,
<http://ochanet.unocha.org/p/Documents/USG%20Press%20briefing%20on%20CAP%20m
id%20year%20review.doc> told reporters in Geneva.
Some $3.6 billion of the requested amount has been received, Ms. Amos said
after presenting a mid-year review of the status of humanitarian funding to
UN Member States.
“Our key concern is that there are persistent imbalances in funding among
crises,” said Ms. Amos, who is also the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.
“The funding percentages of different appeals range from 29 per cent to 60
per cent.”
The least-funded appeals are the regional appeal for West Africa and the
funding requests for Zimbabwe, Djibouti and Niger.
“We expect humanitarian needs in the second half of 2011 and in 2012 to
continue, at least at current levels, as the effects of high commodity
prices, adverse weather conditions, disasters and conflicts persist,” said
Ms. Amos.
“As I said to donors during our mid-year review launch, I hope that they
will close the funding gaps. It will make a big difference to the millions
of people we need to help,” she added.
The launch of the mid-year review of the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP)
coincided with the classification of the drought emergency in southern
Somalia as a famine in two regions.
In response to a question, Ms. Amos said that child malnutrition levels in
parts of southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions of Somalia had risen to
50 per cent, with mortality rates exceeding six deaths per 10,000 people a
day.
More than 100,000 malnourished children had been treated in 800 nutrition
centres throughout Somalia between January and May 2011. A total of 554,000
children in southern Somalia are suffering from malnutrition, she added.
Other drought-affected Horn of Africa countries that require humanitarian
assistance are Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. Newly-independent South Sudan,
Yemen, Côte d’Ivoire and Libya, among others, will also require significant
humanitarian interventions this year.
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