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July 7, 2011

UN: Drought, Violence Causing "Unimaginable Human Tragedy" in Somalia 
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The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is warning violence
and severe drought in Somalia is leading to a “human tragedy of
unimaginable proportions." Some 54,000 people fled Somalia into the
neighboring nations of Kenya and Ethipoia in June alone, three times the
number of Somalis who sought refuge in May. Over 50 percent of the
children arriving in Ethiopia, and up to 40 percent of those arriving in
Kenya, are reportedly malnourished. The UN is receiving increasing
reports of children under five dying en route to their destination.
UNICEF spokesperson Michael Klaus said the crisis is amplified by rising
food prices.

Michael Klaus: "The drought situation in the Horn of Africa I definitely
one of the worst we have seen in the past decade, it is worsened by the
sky rocketing food prices which we have seen, in Somalia we have seen
increases of more than 200% parts of northern Kenya more than 80%
increase compared to last year which is really very severe. We now see
more or less 10 million people in urgent need of humanitarian
assistance; some 2.8 million of those are in Somalia so that is 1 in
every 3 Somalis actually in need of assistance. Malnutrition rates
particularly in the south are really high — we see now that 1 in 3
children in the south are severely malnourished."



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