WUNRN
SOMALIA - HUMANITARIAN CRISIS - DROUGHT - HUNGER & MALNUTRITION - DISPLACEMENT - WOMEN & CHILDREN
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Photo: Jehad Nga for The New York Times
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14037963
SOMALIA - SERIOUS HUMANITARIAN CRISIS - DROUGHT - HUNGER &
MALNUTRITION - DISPLACEMENT - POVERTY
The relentless violence that's compounded by a terrible drought
has forced more than 135,000 Somalis to flee Somalia so far this year” - Melissa Fleming
UNHCR
Spokesperson - UN Refugee Agency
6 July 2011
The levels of
malnutrition among children fleeing Somalia's drought could lead to a
"human tragedy of unimaginable proportions", the UN refugee head Antonio
Guterres has said.
Young
children are dying on their way to or within a day of arrival at camps in
Ethiopia and Kenya, the UNHCR says.
It
estimates that a quarter of Somalis are either displaced within the country or
living outside as refugees.
The
worst drought in 60 years has been compounded by the violence in Somalia.
"It's
so extreme," said UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. "Our people are
saying they've never seen anything like it."
The
warning comes as the UK aid agencies Oxfam, Save the Children, and the Red
Cross launch emergency appeals in response to the food crisis which is
affecting more than 12 million people in the Horn of Africa.
The
agencies are collectively asking for nearly $150m (£93m).
The
UNHCR says the need for food, shelter, health services and other life
saving aid is urgent and massive.
Life-long impact
The
agency says more than 50% of Somali children arriving in Ethiopia are seriously
malnourished. In Kenya, that figure is between 30% and 40%.
"What is the most
tragic for us to witness, is that there are children who do arrive in such a
weakened state that despite our emergency care and therapeutic feeding, they're
dying within 24 hours," Ms Fleming told a press briefing in Geneva.
"We
estimate that one quarter of Somalia's 7.5 million people are now either
internally displaced or are living outside the country as refugees," she
said.
The
UNHCR recently opened a third camp in south-eastern Ethiopia, which is quickly
reaching its capacity of 20,000, and is now planning further camps.
A
relief plane chartered by the agency is flying to Addis Ababa on Tuesday and a
convoy of 20 trucks carrying tents and other aid is on its way as well.
In
north-east Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp, some 1,400 refugees are arriving every
day. Aid agencies fear numbers could rise to half a million.
Badu
Katelo, Kenya's Commissioner for Refugee Affairs, said food and water distribution,
shelter and space were all over stretched and that the security situation was
getting worse.
"We
would like to see a vibrant, committed intervention from the international
community," he said.
The
BBC's Ben Brown, at the Dadaab camp, says infant mortality has risen threefold,
with many children under the age of five dying within a few days of arrival.
Families
have walked for days with hardly any food or water to reach the camp, says our
correspondent - some say they were robbed or raped on the way or attacked by
animals.
Exodus continues
Some
say they have to wait days on reaching the camp before being given more than a
few basic rations.
Aid agencies
fear there could soon be half a million people in the Dadaab camp
Nicholas
Wasunna, senior adviser for World Vision in Kenya, said malnutrition in
children under five could affect them for the rest of their lives.
"If
they do not get the nutritional requirement they need in the first five years
of their lives, there will be stunting and this [is] irreversible, and
therefore they will never be able to live really their full potential," he
said.
"We
have to see as something we address immediately because it is unacceptable that
children should be stunted."
Ms
Fleming said there was no sign of the exodus of Somalis ending.
"The
relentless violence that's compounded by a terrible drought has forced more
than 135,000 Somalis to flee Somalia so far this year," she said.
"In
June alone, 54,000 people fled across the two borders, and that is three times
the number [of people who fled] in May. So this is a huge spike."
Somalia
has been racked by constant war for more than 20 years - its last functioning
national government was toppled in 1991.