22 Mar 2011 17:38
A Somali family sits outside their hut in Medina Xoosh district in Mogadishu January 12, 2011. REUTERS/Feisal Omar
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) used World Water Day to urge warring sides in the semi-arid Horn of Africa country to allow access to drought-stricken communities, so that U.N. aid workers could repair and build wells and boreholes.
“I am extremely concerned about the impact of the current drought on the well-being of children, women and the general population in Somalia,” said Mark Bowden, the United Nations’ Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, in a statement.
“Access to populations in need is shrinking at the same time as their needs are expanding, particularly in the south where 80 percent of the people most in need live.”
Somalia has been in the grip of a severe drought since October. One-third of the population, or 2.4 million Somalis, need emergency assistance, up from 27 percent in February, due to severe food and water shortages and a recent escalation in fighting.
Local cereal prices have risen by 40 to 80 percent in the south over the last year. One in four children is acutely malnourished, according to the U.N.
Al Shabaab rebels, who profess loyalty to al Qaeda, have forced a number of aid groups, including the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) to cease operations in parts of the country, parched by the failure of recent rains.
Insecurity in Somalia, which has been mired in conflict since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, has forced nearly all aid agencies to bar expatriate staff from working there.
Since 2008, 18 aid agencies have been expelled from south-central Somalia.
“We ask all those controlling territory in Somalia to facilitate the provision of life saving assistance to their constituents,” said Kate Ashton of U.N. OCHA Somalia.
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