With more than $1 billion in aid still needed, images emerging from the Horn of Africa of starving women and children must serve as a ?wake-up call? to donors, said the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator today, as she briefed correspondents on that region?s worst drought in 60 years.
Tens of thousands had already died in Somalia ? the heart of the crisis ? said Valerie Amos, who is also the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs. She added that, with the situation intensifying, hundreds of thousands more now faced starvation. Overall, an estimated 12.4 million people were in need of assistance in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti; a state of famine had been declared in two regions of Somalia in recent weeks and, unless there was a ?massive increase? in response, it could spread to five or six more regions.
?It?s hard to imagine the horror of mothers forced to leave their infants behind to die? as they trekked for weeks to reach the relative safety of refugee camps, said Ms. Amos. Those haunting images should serve as a catalyst for an urgent redoubling of funding, she added.
The crisis was further exacerbated in Somalia by the country?s ongoing violent conflict. There were armed groups rejecting the presence of aid workers on the ground, said Ms. Amos. There was particular concern that conflict could disrupt the work of World Food Programme (WFP) feeding centres that had been set up throughout the capital, Mogadishu, but that had not happened to date.
The drought, which was the region?s worst in decades, ?did not take [the United Nations] by surprise?, she said. In 2010, the Organization had appealed for $1.6 billion in aid to avert the crisis, and, as of last week, more than $1 billion of those funds had been raised. Added to that was an appeal in 2011 for $1.4 billion. While some in the media had questioned why more prevention efforts ? including structural improvements ? had not been made, many new programmes had, in fact, helped to lessen the impact of the disaster. Employment programmes in Kenya, among others projects, had helped people to lift themselves out of poverty and avoid the worst of the crisis.
While such efforts had been carried out across the region, said Ms. Amos, much more remained to be done. ?We know what we have to do, but we need to do it more consistently and on a greater scale,? she stressed. Airlifts of aid were arriving, way stations were in place and relationships had been established with local communities to manage and streamline assistance.
However, the international community was the ?third line of defence? in such a crisis, with national Governments and institutions, as well as regional organizations, bearing the primary responsibility, she said. But those bodies ? like the affected population itself ? were ?weak and malnourished?. Additionally, without peace in Somalia, success would remain limited.
Fonte: UN