Serious drought in Somalia affecting livelihoods

“Due to the increasing severity of the situation, Islamic Relief, as part of the DEC and around the world through its Partner Offices, joined in an emergency appeal for East Africa. Further donor support is urgently needed to meet the increasing humanitarian needs emerging from the effects of prolonged drought and escalating fighting.” Said Yasmin Hussein, IRW Communications Director.

22 July 2011: Across the country, nearly half of the Somali population – 3.7 million people – are now in crisis, of whom an estimated 2.8 million people are in the south. Consecutive droughts have affected the country in the last few years while the ongoing conflict has made it extremely difficult for agencies to operate and access communities in the south of the country. Yasmin Hussein, IRW Communications Director stated: “Due to the increasing severity of the situation, Islamic Relief, as part of the DEC and around the world through its Partner Offices, joined in an emergency appeal for East Africa.

Further donor support is urgently needed to meet the increasing humanitarian needs emerging from the effects of prolonged drought and escalating fighting.” Islamic Relief has been working in the region (Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia) for several years and so have been able to accelerate and scale up our response quickly. Islamic Relief is currently working in South-Central Somalia providing support to those displaced by the violence in Mogadishu, as well as in Puntland. Our work in Somalia focuses on providing food aid, healthcare, clean water and sanitation facilities.

Recently, we constructed three boreholes which now provide 2,660 people with clean, safe water. We are working in camps for displaced people in the Afgoi corridor, providing emergency food aid to 3,425 households. We have also established health clinics in Puntland and South-Central Somalia where our health workers are providing medical care to more than 5,000 displaced people. Shabel Firuz, Head of Africa Region in IRW stated: “The number of people in crisis has increased by over one million in the last six months. Over 166,000 Somalis have fled the country to seek assistance in neighbouring countries since the start of the year, with over 100,000 of those fleeing since May. So far in July alone, almost 40,000 new Somali arrivals have been registered in refugee camps in the region”, adding that “due to the magnitude of the disaster and to enable us to scale up a lot more support is needed, as current funding is inadequate to meet needs.”