Aid agencies call for urgent action in Horn of Africa

Jul 2, 2008, 15:25 GMT

Nairobi - An alliance of aid agencies Wednesday called for urgent action in the Horn of Africa, warning that 14 million people are in urgent need of food and other humanitarian assistance.

Nine aid agencies, including the United Nations children's agency UNICEF and other UN and non-governmental organizations, said that a combination of drought, conflict, rising food and energy prices, disease and poverty was pushing people to the brink of disaster.

UNICEF warned that children were particularly at risk.

'The time to act is now to save children's lives,' Per Engebak, UNICEF's regional director for east and southern Africa, said.

'Committed, proactive, and decisive actions on the part of national governments and international partners can mitigate the multiple threats to children and families in the Greater Horn of Africa,' he added.

Ethiopia and Somalia are the worst affected, but parts of Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda show ominously similar signs, UNICEF said.

The World Food Programme has warned that in Somalia, where hundreds of thousands have fled a bloody conflict between Islamic insurgents and transitional government forces, 3.5 million people could be dependent on food aid later this year.

UNICEF said that acute malnutrition rates in Somalia were above 20 per cent, higher than the 15-per-cent rate that indicates a severe nutritional situation warranting emergency responses.

The agencies said that 4.6 million people are in need of emergency food support in Ethiopia, including 75,000 severely malnourished children, Uganda is facing similar problems, and in Kenya an estimated 1.2 million people are in need of emergency food assistance.

The agencies, under the auspices of the Nairobi-based Regional Humanitarian Partnership Team, called on governments and donors to act promptly to save lives and prevent an escalation of the crisis.

'By taking these critical actions, governments and their international partners can make a huge difference in the coming months,' Engebak said.