UN says drought uproots 845,000 people in Ethiopia, Somalia
March 9, 2022, 6:51 am

UN says drought uproots 845,000 people in Ethiopia, Somalia

A UN spokesman said on Tuesday that the Ethiopia-Somalia drought has uprooted 845,000 people from their homes and killed more than 1.5 million head of livestock in Ethiopia alone (File photo: Pixabay)

The Xinhua reported, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday that the Ethiopia-Somalia drought has uprooted 845,000 people from their homes and killed more than 1.5 million head of livestock in Ethiopia alone.

Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said: "We and our (humanitarian) partners are scaling up assistance to people affected by the drought and have reached more than 2.7 million people with food assistance" in Ethiopi. "Some 175,000 people have now been displaced from their homes."

Dujarric said that more than 120 metric tons of medicine and other supplies were dispatched last month to the drought-affected areas of Ethiopia. Humanitarians are distributing therapeutic food to treat malnourished children.

He said that in Somalia, 4.5 million people are affected, and about 670,000 fled their homes. In some of the worst affected areas, water prices spiked at a 72 percent increase over November 2021.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (File photo: Facebook)

The spokesman said nearly half of the children under 5 years of age, more than 1.4 million children, are likely to suffer from acute malnutrition due to the continuing drought.

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He said: "Despite support from donors and others, additional funding is urgently needed since needs are expected to further increase." The Humanitarian Response Plan for Somalia, seeking nearly 1.5 billion U.S. dollars to help 5.5 million of the most vulnerable Somalis, is only 3.3 percent funded.

Source: xinhua

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