VARIOUS: World Food Programme gaining more access in Somalia -- as famine takes a turn for the worse

Record ID: 453240

  • Title: VARIOUS: World Food Programme gaining more access in Somalia -- as famine takes a turn for the worse
  • Date: 12th August 2011
  • Summary: ROME, ITALY (AUGUST 11, 2011) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF UNITED NATIONS FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION (FAO) HEADQUARTERS VARIOUS OF FAO FLAG OUTSIDE THE ORGANISATION'S ROME HEADQUARTERS UNITED NATIONS FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION DIRECTOR GENERAL, JACQUES DIOUF, ARRIVING FOR INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNITED NATIONS FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION DIRECTOR GENERAL, JACQUES DIOUF, SAYING: "The latest information we got is that the situation is still worsening because they have maybe even more regions of Somalia that will be declared in the situation of famine which naturally could be expected because not only of the serious impact of drought but because of the conflict situation." DIOUF IN INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNITED NATIONS FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION DIRECTOR GENERAL, JACQUES DIOUF, SAYING: "I wish not really. We are having this very fundamental problem of human rights, we are seeing people dying because of lack of food or lack of water. I think this is serious enough for the international community to address this. And naturally the magnitude of the resources needed has nothing to do with the trillions of dollars that are being used to address the world financial situation."
  • Embargoed: 27th August 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya, Italy, Somalia
  • City:
  • Country: Somalia Italy Kenya
  • Topics: International Relations,Disasters
  • Reuters ID: LVA1MQVK013MDJENVKXDY4B7C96H
  • Story Text: The head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Thursday (August 11) the situation in famine-struck Somalia was deteriorating due to the impact of drought and conflict.
    "The latest information we got is that the situation is still worsening because they have maybe even more regions of Somalia that will be declared in the situation of famine which naturally could be expected because not only of the serious impact of drought but because of the conflict situation," FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf told Reuters at the organisation's headquarters in Rome.
    But in a sign that aid workers may be making inroads -- however small -- into the crisis in the Horn of Africa, the World Food Programme said it has now been able to reach more parts of Somalia in the last month.
    About 3.6 million people in Somalia are at risk of starvation as the region experiences its worst drought in decades.
    The worst-hit Somalis live in areas controlled by al Shabaab militants and many have risked their lives to travel to Mogadishu in search of food aid.
    The rebels oppose Western intervention, and have imposed a ban on aid agencies, saying aid creates dependency.
    They lifted the ban last month when the food crisis hit critical levels, only to seemingly renege on it.
    In Mogadishu, WFP Senior Public Information Officer Emilia Casella said the organisation was providing hot meals to patients in six hospitals in the capital, while also handing out meals to 92,000 people in feeding centres around the city.
    "What we are delivering is Plumpy Sup, it is a peanut-based ready-to-use food with added vitamins and minerals. We are feeding this to eighteen thousand children under the age of five in Mogadishu every day. Our most recent flight has arrived in Nairobi and that food will be destined to Somalia. We have also recently airlifted enough food into Mogadishu to feed thirty thousand children with this Plumpy Sup for a month," she said.
    But the aid could be at risk with a bleak economic outlook in the United States and Europe, traditionally major aid donors, raising fears some sources of assistance could dry up.
    Diouf, who has called a ministerial-level meeting in Rome on August 18, said he hoped the economic crisis would not affect what he called a "fundamental problem of human rights".
    "I wish not really. We are having this very fundamental problem of human rights, we are seeing people dying because of lack of food or lack of water. I think this is serious enough for the international community to address this. And naturally the magnitude of the resources needed has nothing to do with the trillions of dollars that are being used to address the world financial situation," he said.
    In a speech on Thursday United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. will give an additional $17 million in aid for Horn of Africa countries struck by famine, including $12 million to help Somalis.
    Clinton said the money, which comes on top of $105 million in U.S. assistance announced on Monday (August 8), would bring total U.S. humanitarian aid to the region to more than $580 million this year.
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