UN REPORT SAYS THOUSANDS IN SOMALIA THREATENED BY FOOD SHORTAGES

UN REPORT SAYS THOUSANDS IN SOMALIA THREATENED BY FOOD SHORTAGES

NEW YORK, 27 February (OCHA) -- More than 200,000 people in Somalia's northern and central regions face extreme food shortages due to a prolonged drought considered the worst in 30 years, a new report has warned.

Several years of below-normal rainfall have caused “extreme stress” in the pastoral areas in those areas, leading to massive deaths of livestock and loss of income from sales of milk and meat, according to the report, jointly produced by the UN-EU Food Security Assessment Unit and USAID's Famine Early Warning Systems Network.

Between 20 per cent and 80 per cent of livestock in these regions had died during the years of drought, leading to sharp increases in the cost of trucked water and mounting indebtedness.  For most of the population, this has meant the inability to access food, the report said.

About 89,100 people (10 per cent) of the population of the affected districts already face a humanitarian emergency.  A further 113,900 were considered to be experiencing a livelihood crisis, the report stated.

The worst affected area is the Sool Plateau in the north, where an estimated 64,000 people are experiencing a humanitarian emergency, and another 28,600 were affected by a livelihood crisis.

Other regions affected included Togdheer, Lower Nugal, and the central area.

For further information, please call:  Stephanie Bunker, OCHA New York, tel.:  917 367 5126, mobile:  917 892 1679; Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA Geneva,

tel.:  41 22 917 2653, mobile:  41(0) 79 473 4570

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