"The international community must put Somalia at the top of its agenda and press for change before it is too late," said Peter Goossens, WFP's Country Director for Somalia. "We call on all authorities in Somalia to help us reach those in need and urge donors not to give up on this country."
"All efforts on the security and political front must be urgently scaled up," Goossens said. He added that an inclusive political process that leads to true national reconciliation was vital to put a lasting end to conflict since 1991.
"Unless real action to end insecurity is taken very soon, the world is in danger of seeing a whole generation of Somali children growing up having only known war," said Goossens.
WFP warned that the lack of access to the most needy in Mogadishu was becoming untenable. The Somali capital is currently gripped by rising fuel and food prices, which are hitting the poorest families hardest when they were already struggling to survive with few opportunities to work.
So far this year, fighting between government and anti-government forces has caused some 20,000 people to flee their homes in Mogadishu every month. A total of 700,000 people - mostly women and children - escaped from the capital in 2007.
Fighting in the capital has caused widespread human suffering and more hunger. Nutrition assessments have been unable to take place in Mogadishu. Nothwithstanding the insecurity, hot meals made with WFP food continue to be given to a daily average of 52,000 people in Mogadishu - 90 percent women and children - the first such programme in Somalia since the 1992-1993 famine. Food assistance is also reaching the vast majority of people in need outside of the capital.
Somalia is considered the most difficult place in the world for humanitarian agencies to work. WFP staff and beneficiaries risk their lives daily. Beyond Mogadishu, fighting and attacks have forced WFP staff to pull out of some key areas.
In order to help ensure food for some 1.5 million people in the country, WFP is urgently appealing for US$10 million, particularly in cash, required between now and July. Without urgent new contributions, WFP warns that it will start running out of pulses in April, cereals and vegetable oil in May and corn-soya blend in June.
WFP has recently raised the number of people it expects to feed in Somalia this year to 2.1 million.
The top 10 donors to WFP's two-year Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation in Somalia ending in July are: the United States (US$75.6 million), Canada (US$10.3 million), Japan ($8.9 million), Netherlands (US$8.9 million), Britain's Department for International Development (US$6 million), multilateral funds (US$4.4 million - including US$1.9 million from Sweden,), Saudi Arabia (US$3.3 million), Ireland (US$3.2 million) Germany (US$3 million), United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (US$2.5 million - for CERF see: http://ochaonline.un.org).
BACKGROUND:
On 26 February, heavy fighting in Dinsor in southern Somalia between anti-government groups and forces of the Transitional Federal Government forced WFP to suspend a food distribution to over 10,000 vulnerable people. WFP had to withdraw some staff from the town.
As a protective measure because of a spate of security incidents in southern Somalia, WFP was forced on 4 March to temporarily relocate three Norwegians and one national WFP officer from the southern town of Buale, where they were building a new WFP sub-office.
An aircraft from the UN Humanitarian Air Service, which is managed by WFP, picked up the four aid workers as well as three international staff working for World Vision from Buale.
In past weeks, several international and national aid workers have been killed or taken hostage in Somalia, including the leader of a convoy of WFP-contracted trucks shot dead at an illegal checkpoint in February, and three MSF staff killed in an explosion in Kismayo in January.
An assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organization's Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) found that that more than four-fifths of those who fled Mogadishu took refuge in areas already hit by dire food shortages - in Lower and Middle Shabelle and Hiran region. Between 70 and 90 percent of displaced people are unemployed and 80 percent receive no remittances from friends or relatives, leaving them reliant on food assistance or host families.
Crop failures and hyperinflation mean that food prices have rocketed. In February, FSAU said in central Somalia, rice was 171 percent more expensive than the five-year average. In the Shabelle regions, the price of maize was 145 percent more than a year ago, and 92 percent above the five-year average.
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: this year, WFP plans to feed 73 million people in 70 countries.
For more information please contact (email address: [email protected]):
Peter Smerdon, WFP/Nairobi, Tel. +254-20-7622179, Cell: + 254-733-528911
Marcus Prior, WFP/Nairobi, Tel +254-20-7622 336, Cell +254-733-528-912
Brenda Barton, Deputy Director Communications, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39-06-65132602,
Cell. +39-3472582217 (ISDN line available)
Christiane Berthiaume, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41-22-9178564, Cell. +41-792857304
Jennifer Parmelee, WFP/Washington, Tel. +1-202-6530010 ext. 1149, Mob. +1-202-4223383
Bettina Luescher, WFP/New York, Tel. +1-212-9635196, Cell. +1-646-8241112, [email protected]SOURCE: Relief Web, March 27, 2008