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Somalia

UN envoy calls for timely support to rising food crisis in Somalia

NAIROBI, Jan 20, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A top United Nations envoy on Friday appealed to international donors to respond quickly and generously to the humanitarian drought crisis now engulfing Somali communities.

In a statement issued in Nairobi, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia (SRSG) Francois Lonseny Fall lamented that many communities especially those in the central and southern regions are facing severe nutritional deficit.

"Time is not on Somalia's side. Many communities, especially those in the central and southern regions are already in deep nutritional deficit. Dams and other watering places are running dry," said Fall.

"Crops have failed, rangelands and animal herds are depleted. Measles and other barometers of crisis are taking their toll on the young. The international community must move now to avoid a massive loss of life," the envoy urged.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization's Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) estimates crop production in Somalia for this year to be just 50 percent of the average -- the lowest cereal production in over ten years.

According to the FSAU, cattle deaths in the worst affected areas are already reaching 20-30 percent and could reach 80 percent by April.

Malnutrition rates are above 25 percent in some areas and are expected to worsen in the coming months.

The current emergency is complicated by some 14 years of fighting between warlords and chronic insecurity in much of the Horn of Africa country.

Continued conflict and piracy on the coast have prevented delivery of humanitarian food shipments to Somali ports while rival militia controlling roads and checkpoints demand payment for safe passage.

"We must have unimpeded access everywhere and at all times for humanitarian supplies and for those who accompany them," Fall said.

"It is unacceptable that a nation in crisis should be held hostage to bandits demanding tribute from the humanitarian organizations and workers who are sent to assist," he added.

The humanitarian crisis was among issues discussed during individual meetings in Nairobi this week between the UN envoy and Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi and Speaker of the Parliament Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan.

Fall said he was encouraged by local Somali efforts to combat the drought and by the support given by the Transitional Federal Institutions to the humanitarian efforts already underway.

"Each of the leaders assured me this week of their commitment to work with the international community to meet the needs of their people. There is no way for me to overstate the importance of their word or their ability to deliver peace and safe transit for aid in the face of the current emergency," Fall said.

"I implore everyone concerned to recognize that we are facing a humanitarian challenge of historic dimensions. We must all pull together if we are to avoid extraordinary suffering and loss of life," he stressed.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Thursday urged the donor community to strongly support the humanitarian appeal for Somalia already issued in December.

An increased appeal will be considered at a later stage. The failure of seasonal rains at the end of 2005, added to chronic civil unrest, has left some 1.7 million Somalis in need of urgent humanitarian assistance until June 2006.