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Somalia

UN humanitarian chief visits displaced populations, assesses drought impact, on first mission to Somalia

(Galkacyo/New York, 2 February 2011): The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ms. Valerie Amos, visited Somalia today, on her first official visit to the country.

Somalia, which just marked its twentieth year without a functioning government, is facing a severe water shortage following the failure of this year's Deyr (October to December) rainy season, heightening fears of a deepening humanitarian crisis. Malnutrition rates, already above emergency levels, have risen due to the lack of clean water and the loss of milk and income from livestock herds that have been forced to migrate seeking food and water. Children are the first and most seriously affected: one in four children in southern Somalia is acutely malnourished and this figure is on the increase.

On her first stop in the Puntland administrative capital of Garowe, Ms. Amos met government officials, including the President of Puntland, to discuss humanitarian concerns and priorities such as drought response, support to displaced populations and protection of civilians. She then went to Galkacyo, the capital of the Mudug region, where she met first a local drought committee, set up to respond to the growing needs of the drought-affected populations in Somalia. According to the latest country-wide assessment, 2.4 million Somalis are in need of emergency humanitarian assistance, a figure that has increased due to the deepening drought conditions.

"We need to remember that it is the people who are suffering most from this crisis - girls and women, boys and men - who desperately want a normal life: parents wanting to support their child and children desperate to go to school," said Ms. Amos. "I have seen firsthand the terrible cost of this ongoing conflict, and now the drought, on the day-to-day lives of Somalis."

Ms. Amos also visited the Halabokad settlement for internally displaced people (IDP) located on the outskirts of Galkacyo town, one of the few IDP settlements where the displaced people own their land, the result of a local initiative in April 2010. There are 1.46 million people in Somalia who have been internally displaced due to conflict and civil insecurity. In the past month, at least 20,000 were displaced due to the severe water shortages in the country.

"Our actions in the next few months are critical," stated Ms. Amos. "Somalia is teetering on the brink of a much larger crisis if the next rains, due in April, fail. We - the government, the aid community, authorities in areas with populations in need - must act now to ensure we can respond to any downturn quickly and strategically."

Tomorrow, 3 February 2011, Ms. Amos will meet humanitarian partners, UN Country Teams for Somalia and Kenya, and UN staff in Nairobi. She will also hold a press conference at the Sankara Hotel in Westlands, Nairobi at 10:45am. Members of the media are invited to attend.

For further information, please call: OCHA- Somalia in Nairobi: Dawn Elizabeth Blalock, +254 734 210 102, blalock@un.org; for interviews in Somali and Arabic, Abdi Yussuf Noor, +254 734 210 103, nooryussuf@un.org;

OCHA-New York: Stephanie Bunker, +1 917 367 5126, mobile +1 347 244 2106, bunker@un.org;

Nicholas Reader +1 212 963 4961, mobile +1 646 752 3117, reader@un.org;

OCHA-Geneva: Elisabeth Byrs, +41 22 917 2653, mobile +41 79 473 4570, byrs@un.org.

OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int.

For more information about Somalia, please see http://ochaonline.un.org/Somalia

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