Press Statement, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Mr. Mark Bowden

Thank you for joining us here today for the latest information on the drought and famine situation in Somalia. When I last spoke to you in this forum two months ago, it was to share the news that the drought impacting the Horn of Africa had pushed parts of Somalia into a famine. In the past 10 weeks, the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit and FEWSNET teams have been conducting assessments in the field and investigating more in depth, conducting another 8 surveys that have confirmed the following developments:

• Somalia has suffered its worst ‘Gu’ harvest in 17 years. The production of crops was 25% of the normal average. The harvest failure serves to emphasize that the agricultural producing areas of southern Somalia are the most affected.

• Combined with the soaring food prices,poor households in southern Somalia can get only 40% to 50% of the food they need to survive. They are facing massive food deficits.

• Somalia’s ‘Dehr’ rains are about to start. These short secondary rains are foreseen to be near normal. We must capitalize on these rains in order to alleviate the current food crisis by the end of the year. The rains also bring increased risks of disease. Cholera, Malaria and Measles could dramatically increase death rates in an already weakened population. Additional support will be required to ensure that we control these risks.

The latest round of surveys shows a continuing deterioration in Somalia. More people are in need of assistance and in some areas there has been a deepening of the crisis. We also know that people will have major needs for assistance well past the end of this year.

So what are we looking at in terms of the current humanitarian situation?

• There are now 4 million Somalis in crisis, more than 50% of the entire Somali population; this is an increase from the figure 3.7 million in July; 3 million of these people are located in the south, which is two-thirds of the entire population of southern Somalia.

• The entire Bay region has now been declared a famine area, so there are now six famine areas in Somalia, up from five. In these areas, there are some 750,000 people who are affected by famine conditions. This is an increase from the July figure of 350,000 people.

I am joined by Grainne Moloney, the Chief Technical Officer for theFSNAU. In the two months since the declaration of the famine, the FSNAU has been collecting data on the numbers of people in crisis, the malnutrition data. I turn the floor over to her to give you a brief explanation of the latest developments and then I will deliver a short statement and take questions. [about 2:30 to this point]

Hand over to Grainne who will do 5-6 minute explanation using the maps as reference.

Thank you Grainne.

We cannot underestimate the scale of this crisis and we cannot afford to let our guard down. Somalia, particularly southern Somalia, is the epicenter – it’s the famine area, it’s the source of most refugees and we must focus our attention and to ensure that we assist those who are there, reduce excess mortality and do our utmost to stabilize and improve access to food.

The increase in humanitarian funds that have come in since July has allowed us to immediately and significantly scale up our response, but this external support will need to be sustained. These funds have only just begun to flow in now and we can expect our activities to continue to scale-up.
Some examples of scale up:

• Over one million people throughout Somalia received general food assistance in August compared to750,000 in July;

• Aid Agencies have provided over half a million beneficiaries with agriculture and livelihood assistance in August, up from 55,000 beneficiaries in July;

• Around 500,000 children are receiving nutritional support; an increase of 200,000 from the past months.

• More than 300,000 displaced people received Emergency Assistance Packages of plastic sheeting, sleeping mats, blankets and other emergency items in 2011;

• Some 465,000 in crisis received water and sanitation support in August, up from 131,000 in July.

International and local humanitarian organisations are now better placed to deliver aid to famine-affected populations. We have scaled up in the regions of Bay, Gedo, south Bakool and Hiraan, particularly in areas along the Kenyan and Ethiopian borders. We will continue to expand our coverage by ramping up the intensity of our coverage. We know we are not yet fully meeting the enormous needs the Somali people are facing. The next four months are critical; in which we must stabilize the situation. However, this is not a short-term crisis, we still need funds to continue to scale up our work and sustain the desperately needed support to the Somali people.
Thank you.