|
As starving Somalis flood into Ethiopia, UN sends in emergency aid team
25.08.2011 09:03 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) —
The United Nations has deployed an emergency team to south-eastern Ethiopia where 18,000 new refugees fleeing drought, famine and conflict in Somalia have recently poured in, compounding a situation already fraught with high mortality from malnutrition and measles.
«A priority for us remains the need to save lives among this badly weakened population,» UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Adrian Edwards told a news briefing in Geneva on the latest chapter in the crisis wracking the Horn of Africa, where more than 12 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and particularly Somalia are in urgent need of help and tens of thousands, many of them children, have already starved to death.
«Ensuring that new arrivals get food, water and medical attention is critically important,» he said, noting that the UNHCR emergency team had been sent to the Gode area, 250 kilometres north of the refugee camps already been set up in Dollo Ado. «Our team includes experts in health, nutrition, protection, field coordination, and registration.»
Last week UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Anthony Lake warned that some 390,000 Somali children in the region were suffering from malnutrition, with nearly 140,000 of them «facing imminent death» from severe acute malnutrition.
UNHCR will airlift aid for up to 20,000 people in Gode from its stocks in Dubai, including blankets, plastic sheeting, jerry cans, kitchen sets, sleeping mats, buckets and mosquito nets. Some 3,000 tents, supplied locally, are also being rushed in. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with field presences in the area are already helping with health needs, nutrition and water, and UNHCR will provide additional support where necessary.
Also available:
|
| |
|
|