Horn of Africa : situation set to get worse for millions of children
Posted on the 19.07.2011 by Alain Hubert
If no improvement in the overall food security conditions takes place before early 2012, the already severe nutrition situation will likely worsen further. UNICEF has called for an immediate expansion of assistance across the Horn of Africa where half a million are at imminent risk of dying.
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"...People are either too poor or too weak to be able to try to walk for help."
The situation is cristal clear : more than 10 million people living in the North of Africa need urgent humanitarian help. Amongst these 10 million there are 2 miilion children under five and under these, half a million of them are at imminent risk of dying.
This situation is the most serious crisis we have know in this part of the world for the past 60 years. It is due to a combination of dramatical drought, political local conflicts, the rising fuel and food prices, and the loss of the rain. The countries which are the most at risk are Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya.
"... Now we are going to go another four to five months before there will be a harvest and we all have a huge job ahead,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake at the end of a four-day mission to Kenya. “In many of the poorest communities people are either too poor or too weak to be able to try to walk for help.” Across the region, nearly 11 million people are at risk. Thousands of women and children are fleeing central and southern Somalia every day. The crisis, however, extends well beyond the daily flow of refugees into Kenya and Ethiopia: it is also affecting millions of subsistence farmers and pastoralists in these two countries who are dependent on the rains for their survival. ..."
25% of the children living in North Kenya are suffering of malnutrition. In the Turkana district, this percentage goes up until 37,4%. Families by dozens leave Somalia and try to reach réfugiés camps near Dolo in Ehtiopia and near Dadaab in Kenya -camps which are already overpopulated. For instance, camps which normally give shleter to 90 000 people have to welcome today more than 360 000 people.
Anthony Lake pledged UNICEF’s continued support, stressing that the international children’s agency would continue working closely with partners to scale up an emergency response in the region, which has been underfunded for many years. He called on the international community and private donors alike to step up funding for UNICEF, WFP, UNHCR and other partners, and to focus new effort on finding solutions that address the deep-seated poverty and vulnerability in the region.
Unicef never stops working on the field...
Across drought-affected areas in the Horn of Africa, UNICEF is working with partners to treat acute malnutrition through therapeutic feeding programmes; provide medicines and vaccinations to prevent disease; gain access to clean water through the repair of pumping stations, dig boreholes, chlorinate water sources and truck in water; support education through temporary learning spaces and the use of School-in-a-Box kits; and scale up of protection measures to ensure children are safe from violence, abuse and exploitation. UNICEF has appealed for US$ 31 million to cover the costs of most urgent scale up of operations.
If we take the case of Somalia alone, UNICEF considers that a sum total of 10 million dollars should be necessary to cover the most urgent needs for the next few months. For Kenya and Ethiopia, this amount is reduced respectively to 3 and 4 million dollars.
UNICEF Belgium has launched a call for solidarity for the people and ithe children in the Horn of Africa.
You can donate by sending your contribution to this bank account BE 31 0000 0000 5555 with mention 'Urgent help for children of the Horn of Africa". Or go on line at : www.unicef.be/don
Kenya, 2011: Somali children and women refugees await food and other assistance at a camp near the town of Dadaab.
© Unicef / Niho / 0995 Holt
