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Unicef’s Dubai warehouse to speed up Somali supplies

The Gulf today
Saturday, November 12, 2011

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DUBAI: Unicef continues to scale up its relief efforts in East Africa by opening a new warehouse for nutrition supplies in Dubai. The warehouse will serve as a transit hub and will help speed up the delivery of life-saving supplies to heavily affected Somalia.

Currently there are 1.5 million children in southern Somalia who are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. 450,000 children are acutely malnourished, including 190,000 children who are so severely malnourished that they are at high risk of death within weeks without the necessary assistance.

Dennis McKinlay, executive director of Unicef NZ said, “Having just recently visited the Horn of Africa, I saw first-hand the tremendous logistical challenge that comes with delivering emergency aid.”

“Storing and transporting supplies are the most costly part of any emergency response. The location of this new warehouse will make our aid distribution more cost-efficient and effective,” added McKinlay.

Before the Dubai warehouse, all of Unicef’s emergency supplies entered the Horn of Africa through the port of Mombasa.