Post date: Jul 25, 2011 9:22:31 PM
Local Somali communities are struggling to feed thousands of internally displaced people forced into the capital by what the United Nations call the worst drought in 60 years.
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (JULY 25, 2011) REUTERS - Local Somali communities continue feeding thousands of newly internally displaced people forced into the capital by what the United Nations (U.N) call the worst drought in 60 years.
As the drought situation worsens in the central areas of Somalia's famine zone, streams of people come to the country's capital, Mogadishu, where the local communities and NGOs try and assist them with basic needs."I fled from Bur-hakabo in the Bay region after we lost all our goats and camel from the drought. I get my daily bread from this feeding centre with my children. I thank Zamzam Foundation that opened for us this feeding centre, " said a recently internally displaced person, Habibo Ali Qasin.
Thousands who were previously living in destroyed buildings in the Somali capital Mogadishu have now been moved to camps outside the city. However, with meagre food resources, more and more cases of malnutrition in children are now being reported.
The U.N has declared famine in two pockets of southern Somalia, and has said that 3.7 million people risk starvation and that it is launching its biggest ever relief effort.
The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) has said it cannot reach more than two million Somalis facing starvation in areas controlled by Islamist militants who imposed a food aid ban in 2010 and have regularly threatened relief groups.
The Wabari feeding centre has appealed for assistance to help them feed the many mouths starving in the city.
"Here we feed more than 2500 families newly displaced from the drought and we get help from Zamzam foundation (local NGO) and the Wabari community that supports us with water and cooking utensils. We request local or international NGO to help these people," said the Wabari Feeding Centre supervisor, Mohamed Ali.
According to aid agencies, one in 10 children in parts of drought-hit Somalia is at risk of starving to death.
Malnutrition rates were believed to be significantly higher in other conflict-torn parts of central and southern Somalia, where few aid groups have been allowed to bring food relief.
WFP and other humanitarian agencies have been unable to work in southern Somalia since early 2010, and this has restricted the UN's ability to address the nutritional needs of those living in this region - especially children.
Among the options being considered by WFP are the airlift of high energy biscuits and highly nutritious supplementary foods - for vulnerable children and pregnant or nursing mothers - into strategic locations in southern Somalia, where they would be distributed to the hungry by international and national non-governmental organisations that are active in areas where the food needs of local populations are greatest.
Plans to mobilise supplementary food products for children in response to the Horn of Africa crisis could make this the biggest ever operation to deliver these products that are highly effective in treating malnutrition in the first 1000 days of life.