Somalia: Humanitarian situation "increasingly acute"
Somalia is moving more rapidly than expected into a serious humanitarian crisis, with an estimated 3.2 million people both in urban and rural areas facing extreme poverty, according to humanitarian officials.
NAIROBI, 27 August 2008 (IRIN) - "Somalia is really at a stage where the situation is getting increasingly acute and a cause for major concern," Mark Bowden, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, said in an interview with IRIN on 27 August.
He attributed the crisis to drought and high food prices, coupled with the collapse of the Somali currency and continuing instability, making the country "one of the most difficult crises to deal with”.
The Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) [www.fsausomali.org] of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) termed the humanitarian situation in Somalia as one of the worst in world.
"Within the first six months of this year, the number of people requiring emergency livelihood and humanitarian support increased 77 percent, from 1.83 million to 3.25 million, affecting 43 percent of the entire population of the country," said the agency in a statement issued on 26 August.
FSAU said: "One in six children under the age of five is acutely malnourished, and the number is continuing to increase.”
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