CERF Allocates $33.2 million for complex emergency in Somalia

The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has allocated $33.2 million for one of the worst complex emergencies in the world today. Seasonal assessments confirm that Somalia faces its worst humanitarian crisis in eighteen years, with half the population or an estimated 3.6 million people in need of emergency livelihood and life-saving assistance. Around 75 percent of those in crisis are concentrated in South and Central Somalia. The situation is similar among pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in the North where there have been two to three consecutive seasons of below normal rainfall.

Of increasing concern is that the escalating fighting and conflict is occurring in the same areas that are recording the greatest problems with food access and malnutrition. The low level of funding for humanitarian programmes is jeopardizing key life-saving activities such as the general food distribution and the supplementary feeding programmes that target vulnerable populations. Meanwhile, protection violations continue unabated as the conflict in Mogadishu and other areas of the South generate constant waves of internal displaced people (IDPs) to different areas of South Central as well as Puntland and Somaliland.

The CERF grant of $25 million to the WFP will cover a critical funding gap in emergency food and nutrition programmes. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will use $2.5 million to support northern and north-eastern districts of the Gedo Region recovering from recent drought through. CERF funding of $4.1 million to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) will cover the most critical inputs for Child Health Days. CERF funds of $425,000 will be used by UNICEF for protection monitoring of grave child rights violations. Finally, an allocation of $1.5 million to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will provide some 198,000 displaced people with non-food items and ensure improved living conditions for 33,000 IDP families in settlements in South and Central Somalia and in Puntland.