The UN is seeking a further 900 million dollars this year for Somalia, where more than six million people need humanitarian assistance and 275,000 malnourished children are at risk of starvation.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday as he presented revised humanitarian response plan.
“UN is seeking an additional 900 million dollars to the end of the year,” Guterres said in opening remarks to an international conference on Somalia hosted by British Prime Minister Theresa May.
NAN reports that the UN says the humanitarian situation in Somalia continues to deteriorate and an elevated risk of famine persists in some parts of the country, only six years after the devastating 2011 famine led to the death of over a quarter million people, half of them children.
The world body said over 6.7 million people are estimated to be in need of protection and humanitarian assistance, more than half of the population of Somalia.
Major disease outbreaks are spreading, with over 36,000 cases of Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD)/Cholera and nearly 5,700 suspected cases of measles reported since the beginning of the year.
No fewer than 680,000 people have been displaced due to drought since November 2016, including 7,000 people who have crossed into neighboring Ethiopia and Kenya.
The UN of the 6.7 million people in need, it is estimated that more than 1.5 million are women of childbearing age and nearly 130,000 pregnant women may require urgent care.(Reuters/NAN)
