On-going violence and a devastating drought in Somalia have forced millions of people into a situation where the need for aid has become urgent, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has said.
“Somalia is suffering from an ongoing drought that has resulted in a poor harvest. These conditions, among others, have left as much as 35 per cent of the population in Somalia in need of urgent food aid,” the UN agency stated at the weekend.
In a statement the WFP stated that “Somalia is at a dire crossroads.
“If sufficient food and other humanitarian assistance cannot be scaled up in the coming months, parts of the country could well be in the grips of disaster similar to the 1992-1993 famine, when hundreds of thousands of people perished,” it noted.
UN officials have estimated that the number of people in need of aid could swell to 3.5 million before December.
Aid from the WFP that is meant for Somalia has been under constant threat from militants attacking trucks on roads, as well as violent piracy against cargo ships in the country’s coastal waters.
PANAPRESS
