Sunday, August 12, 2012
NAIROBI, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- The UN humanitarian agency said on Saturday that some2.51 million people in Somalia are facing humanitarian crisis and additional 1.29 millionare at risk of sliding back into crisis without sustained assistance.
In its humanitarian update received in Nairobi, the UN Office for Coordination ofHumanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said tens of thousands of Somalis died in the crisis, butthe massive influx of donor funding, a rapid scale-up of humanitarian assistance and anexceptional harvest at the beginning of the year helped overcome the famine byFebruary.
"We need to act now to build on the gains," Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia MarkBowden said in the statement.
"Parts of southern Somalia are already expected to deteriorate to emergency levels incoming months and the underperformance of the April-to-June Gu rains will likely resultin a harvest that is smaller and later than usual," Bowden said.
Following the mid-year review of the consolidated humanitarian appeal for Somalia,humanitarian NGOs and UN agencies in Somalia are urging donors to provide 576million U.S. dollars to address the enormous needs over the next six months.