UNITED NATIONS SEEKS $377.7 MILLION TO SAVE LIVES IN HORN OF AFRICA

Press Release
IHA/708
AFR/239

UNITED NATIONS SEEKS $377.7 MILLION TO SAVE LIVES IN HORN OF AFRICA

NEW YORK/GENEVA, 7 June (OCHA) -- The United Nations is appealing for $377.7 million to address the immediate needs of 13.4 million people affected by the drought in the Horn of Africa. Three consecutive years of poor rains and crop failures have exhausted the coping mechanisms of populations in the region.

The appeal targets 10 million beneficiaries in Ethiopia, 2.2 million in Kenya, 750,000 in Somalia, 335,000 in Eritrea and 150,000 in Djibouti. Timely assistance may mark the difference between life and death for many of these people. There is an immediate need for medicines and health services, safe water, food, seeds and tools and support with livestock. “If relief aid is late and inadequate”, said Catherine Bertini, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Drought in the Greater Horn of Africa, “this humanitarian crisis can easily become a human tragedy of historic proportions”. As part of efforts to ensure the successful provision of assistance to those affected, relief agencies will need to mount a large-scale logistics operation including common transport, communications and safety systems in the region.

During the coming months, humanitarian agencies will focus simultaneously on addressing the immediate relief needs and developing modalities to undertake longer-term recovery activities. “Two factors are of particular importance”, said Carolyn McAskie, Emergency Relief Coordinator a.i. “The first is the need to ensure coordinated humanitarian strategies in border areas to avoid exacerbating population movements across borders. And the second is to ensure that humanitarian agencies are equipped to respond quickly. To this end, we will reinforce our monitoring, information exchange and early warning systems.”

The appeal has been presented for the region as a whole, while the specific needs of the drought-affected populations in Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda will continue to be undertaken within the context of the ongoing humanitarian programmes for these countries. Coordination of these activities will be pursued by the Office of the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Drought in the Horn of Africa, located in Addis Ababa.

The serious effects of the drought can be contained if the required resources will be made available quickly. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs urges donors to respond generously to the present appeal.

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