Friday October 7, 2022
A combine harvests wheat in a field in the Kyiv region. REUTERS (file photo)
Mogadishu (HOL) - Germany and France announced on Thursday that they would provide $14 million each to transport and distribute 50,000 tons of wheat donated by Ukraine to alleviate the near-famine conditions emerging in the Horn of Africa.
Germany will cover the costs for the delivery to Ethiopia, while France will cover the costs for the delivery to Somalia.
"The support for Ethiopia and Somalia is direly needed: In Somalia, half of the population is dependent on humanitarian aid, 121,000 people are already in famine (IPC 5), and by December, the number is expected to reach 300,560. In Ethiopia, 24.1 million people are currently affected by drought, and more than 20 million are food insecure nationwide. In total, more than 20.5 million people in drought-affected countries Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya need food assistance."
According to experts, a famine could be declared in southern-central Somalia as early as this month. Conditions in the Baidoa and Burhakaba districts, which have been described as the "epicentre of the humanitarian crisis" by the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, will continue to worsen until March 2023 if emergency relief is not provided. Aid workers believe that Baidoa's population has increased by about a factor of four over the past few months to about 800,000.
Germany's Federal Foreign Office has provided 126 million euros for humanitarian aid in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya in 2022.In mid-September, Ukraine's Cabinet Ministry approved a plan to send 50,000 metric tons of wheat to Ethiopia and Somalia.
Ukraine's infrastructure ministry said on Sunday that a fifth vessel chartered by the World Food Programme (WFP) arrived at Ukraine's Black Sea port of Chornomorsk and will deliver Ukrainian wheat to Somalia.
A record fifth consecutive failed reason season has led to near-total crop failures and the death of livestock. After a slow recovery from the famine and food insecurity of 2011 - which killed over a quarter million people - aid workers are scrambling to assist the nearly 7.1 million Somali's already experiencing food security.
As with previous famines, children bear the brunt of famine. 1.5 million children under 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, of which 386,000 face a high risk of disease and death.