Published: July 13, 2011
More Than 11 Million People in Horn of Africa Need Life-Saving Assistance
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon today reported that more than 11 million people in the Horn of Africa are in need of life-saving assistance as they face the worst drought in decades.
He called on countries to urgently support United Nations agencies in their efforts to respond to the crisis in the region.
"Our priority is to stop the suffering now. We admit we must do everything we can to prevent this crisis deepening. The human cost of this crisis is catastrophic. We cannot afford to wait." -Mr. Ban
UN agencies have asked for $1.6 billion to pay for essential programmes in the Horn of Africa, but have only received half that amount. Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti are all facing a crisis that is being called the worst in 50 years.
Among the agencies participating in today's meeting were the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Valerie Amos, Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and head of OCHA, just returned from a trip to the region, where she visited a health centre in Ethiopia.
"The thing that I was most affected by was the women who had walked for five hours that day to get to that health centre. They had brought the children that were strong enough to accompany them. My big worry is the children they have left at home who are extremely vulnerable.So it's serious - the gravity of this cannot be underestimated." -Ms. Amos
The Executive Director of WFP, Josette Sheeran, said her agency is urgently scaling up scaling up the delivery of highly fortified, supplementary food products, especially targeting the first 1,000 days of life.
In addition to support for the wider appeal, Ms. Sheeran stressed the need for continued support for long-term initiatives that will help communities in the Horn of Africa to break out of the vicious cycle of drought and disaster.
Source: United Nations
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