The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) are intensifying joint efforts to assist communities in northern Somalia coping with a severe drought exacerbated by El Nino conditions.

    The two agencies are providing an integrated package of life-saving humanitarian assistance to halt the deteriorating food security and rising malnutrition in the affected areas of Somaliland and Puntland, an area that is also located in the north-eastern Somalia.

    The aid package includes food assistance, nutrition programmes, and health services, as well as support to help communities access safe water and improve sanitation and hygiene conditions. "The communities have lived through four successive poor rainy seasons, and their ability to cope with the drought has been stretched to the limit," said UNICEF Representative for Somalia, Steven Lauwerier. "Our concerted efforts are needed now to save the lives of tens of thousands of children and their families. 

    Any delay from the international community will put their lives further at risk of hunger and disease," Steven added The UN has appealed for $105 million to provide humanitarian and livelihood assistance to some 1.7 million people, most of them pastoralists and agro-pastoralists who make up three quarters of the population in Somaliland and Puntland.

Source: QNA