UN calls for urgent humanitarian support to drought-hit Somaliland

By:Xinhua

The United Nations’ top relief official in Somalia on Monday called for urgent humanitarian support to drought-affected communities in Somaliland.

Adam Abdelmoula, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Somalia who visited Somaliland to assess the drought situation, noted an increase in the number of displaced families arriving from other drought-hit parts of the country, seeking refuge in Somaliland.

“This is further stretching the thin resources available to the local communities,” Abdelmoula said in a statement issued in Mogadishu,

During the two-day visit, Abdelmoula toured the drought-affected area of Cunaqabad, outside Hargeisa, where he witnessed the effects of the ongoing drought and interacted with displaced families in vulnerable conditions.

“What we need to do is invest more in the areas of origin of these newly displaced communities to ensure that they can safely stay home, and in parallel enhance the social services in the areas that have seen significant arrivals of people because of the drought,” Abdelmoula said.

Persistent failure of rains in the Awdal, Marodijex, Sahil, Sanag, Sool, and Togdheer and regions has led to severe drought conditions that have displaced 810,000 people, and decimated crops and livestock.

The UN in its 2022 Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan, seeks to raise nearly 1.5 billion U.S. dollars to provide humanitarian assistance to 5.5 million vulnerable people, including 1.6 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), 3.9 million non-IDPs, and people with disabilities. ■