The top United Nations humanitarian official in Somalia has commended the drought relief and recovery efforts of the authorities in the northern state of Puntland, while cautioning that the current humanitarian crisis is far from over.
“We took stock, together with [Puntland’s] leadership, of the drought response as it has been so far, looking back to what has been a good year in terms of close cooperation and a very successful drought relief effort,” the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Peter de Clercq, said in Puntland’s capital, Garowe, on Saturday, in the wake of a series of meeting with officials, including the Federal Member State’s President Abdiwali Mohamed Ali.
“At the same time, we talked about the remaining challenges because we are not out of the woods yet by any stretch of the imagination,” he added.
Mr. de Clercq – who also serves as the Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for Somalia and the UN Resident Coordinator – was visiting Puntland to meet with security, planning and humanitarian officials from the local government, as well as representatives of civil society organizations, to discuss the current drought response and other challenges in the region.
He added that, in areas like Sool and Sanaag, there are still massive needs and a strong possibility that famine-type conditions would develop.
“Our discussion was frank and candid, very fruitful,” the President noted afterwards.
“We try to address the underlying causes of the crisis, like food insecurity and livestock depletion, and to think of alternatives for people to make a living and to rebuild their lives,” he said.
In 2017, drought-related famine was averted through the efforts of Somalis and their international partners.
However, the risk is not yet overcome as there are 5.4 million people in Somalia needing life-saving humanitarian assistance.
Work is being done in all regions, including Puntland, to build and sustain resilience in all communities, especially the populations affected the most by the recurring cycle of drought and famine risk, such as pastoralists, displaced persons and fishing communities.

Water scarcity already affects more than 40 per cent of the world’s population and is expected to rise due to global warming. Drought-stricken Cape Town could run out of water as soon as April, but South Africa is not alone in its struggle as ever more world cities battle acute water shortages. Water scarcity already affects more than 40 per cent of the world’s population and is expected to rise due to global warming, with one in four people projected to face chronic or recurring shortages by 2050, according to the United Nations. Already hosting more than half the world’s people, cities are at the forefront of the problem, as population growth increases pressure on reserves, which are already stretched by too little rain and too much waste. Following are some of the crisis cities: MELBOURNE The Australian city suffered the so-called ‘Millennium drought’ between 1997 and 2009. It was one of the worst dry…

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Drought-stricken Cape Town could run out of water as soon as April, but South Africa is not alone in its struggle as ever more world cities battle acute water shortages. Water scarcity already affects more than 40 percent of the world’s population and is expected to rise due to global warming, with one in four people projected to face chronic or recurring shortages by 2050, according to the United Nations. Already hosting more than half the world’s people, cities are at the forefront of the problem, as population growth increases pressure on reserves, which are already stretched by too little rain and too much waste. Following are some of the crisis cities: SAO PAULO The reservoir supplying Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and a metropolitan region of 20 million people, nearly dried up in 2015, as the country faced its worst drought in 80 years, depriving many residents of water for 12 hours a day. The city was criticized by U.N. experts for losing 31 percent of its treated water to leaks and theft, compared to an average of…

17 January 2018 – While Somalia, with the international community’s help, averted famine last year, long-term solutions for drought, conflict and displacement must still be found, the United Nations office in the country said Wednesday, launching the 2018 humanitarian response plan, which calls for $1.6 billion to protect the lives of 5.4 million people.
“I am proud that we averted a possible famine last year.
Lasting solutions […], however, out of our reach, and much more must be done to eliminate the looming threat of famine in this country,” said the Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Peter de Clercq, in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
“If we do not continue to save lives and in parallel build resilience, then we have only delayed a famine, not prevented one,” warned Mr. de Clercq.
In 2017, displacement reached unprecedented levels, with food security needs nearly doubling the five-year average.
An estimated 1.2 million children are projected to be malnourished in 2018, 232,000 of whom will face life-threatening severe acute malnutrition.
To mitigate future crises, humanitarians are working with development partners and Somali authorities to address the underlying causes of recurring crises, including food insecurity and mass displacement.
“With important progress made on the political and governance fronts, Somalia is on a positive trajectory, despite ongoing crises.
However, he noted that these gains are reversible and must be protected.
“With continued international support, we can break the cycle of recurrent crises that undermine the peacebuilding and State-building process in Somalia,” he concluded.

NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – About 6.2 million people in Somalia – half the population – need emergency aid, such as food, water and shelter, due to unprecedented drought and ongoing conflict, the United Nations said on Wednesday, appealing for $1.6 billion.
The drought – spanning four consecutive poor rainy seasons – has forced millions from their homes and left hundreds of thousands of children malnourished.
One in four people in the Horn of Africa nation faces the risk of hunger.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said donors raised enough funds in 2017 to avert famine and stave off an outbreak of cholera, but the situation was set to worsen this year without sufficient aid.
Somalia’s 2011 famine killed 260,000 people, half of whom died before the official declaration of famine, caused by drought, war and lack of access for humanitarian aid.
Its weak, Western-backed government is struggling to assert control over poor, rural areas under the Islamist militant group al Shabaab – challenging the delivery of aid to the most needy.
Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre thanked the international community for the $1.3 billion raised last year, but warned there was no room for complacency.
“We face similar challenges and risks this year and the years to follow,” said Hassan.
“Drought and conflict will continue to affect the lives of millions of Somalis.
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About 6.2 million people in Somalia – half the population – need emergency aid, such as food, water and shelter, due to unprecedented drought and ongoing conflict, the United Nations said on Wednesday, appealing for $1.6 billion.
The drought – spanning four consecutive poor rainy seasons – has forced millions from their homes and left hundreds of thousands of children malnourished.
One in four people in the Horn of Africa nation faces the risk of hunger.
Somalia’s 2011 famine killed 260,000 people, half of whom died before the official declaration of famine, caused by drought, war and lack of access for humanitarian aid.
Its weak, Western-backed government is struggling to assert control over poor, rural areas under the Islamist militant group al Shabaab – challenging the delivery of aid to the most needy.
Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre thanked the international community for the $1.3 billion raised last year, but warned there was no room for complacency.
"We face similar challenges and risks this year and the years to follow," said Hassan.
"Drought and conflict will continue to affect the lives of millions of Somalis.
They will continue to displace thousands more.
I request on behalf of the government and Somali people for continued support from international partners."

KISMAYO – On a visit to the recovering southern port city of Kismayo, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, pledged to continue investing in housing, education and livelihoods for returning refugees, IDPs and the local population.
“We see refugees … as an asset into which we need to invest.” “Refugees should be a force to rebuild the country when they decide to come back,” Grandi said, noting that UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, assisted over 100,000 to return over the past two years, while over one million remain in exile.
“We see refugees not as a humanitarian problem, but as an asset into which we need to invest,” he added.
In a meeting with the President of the State of Jubaland, Ahmed Mohamed Islam, the President spoke of the need for refugees who were educated and trained to come to Kismayo to contribute.
While some 19,000 refugees in the Dadaab refugee camp are currently in the pipeline for voluntary return, most Somali refugees cite security concerns as their top reason to remain in Kenya.
The UNHCR and Mercy Corps project is designed to provide returning refugees, but also a percentage of people who had been internally displaced as well as people from the local community, with a decent living environment so they can focus on educating their children and pursuing work.
What a great result to see young people go from being refugee to being back in their country, contributing to their country.” But the refugees are returning to a country with massive challenges.
Given the country’s current struggles, Somalia’s Federal President, Mohamed Farmajo, told Grandi at a meeting on Saturday in Mogadishu, “We want our people back.
“The best response to violence is education so what can be better that building a school,” Grandi said.
In his meetings with the Somalia leadership, Grandi recalled UNHCR’s work with Somali refugees since the start of the conflict in 1991.

WATCH 150,000 malnourished children in Yemen could die if left untreated, according to the UN A Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemeni rebels eased an air, land, and sea blockade of Yemen a week ago, but it is still keeping commercial ships with food and fuel from docking and unloading their cargo in the country, putting millions at risk of starving, the United Nations said this weekend.
Millions of Yemenis depend on those supplies, and without fuel, health and water facilities can’t run.
So Yemen’s cities are running out of clean water, the chiefs of several United Nations agencies and other top humanitarian officials said in a statement Saturday.
“Urban water networks in seven cities have run out of fuel and now depend on humanitarian organizations to fill in the gap,” the officials said.
“This imminent catastrophe is entirely avoidable,” the officials said.
But continued restrictions on commercial food and fuel imports have devastated markets and driven up prices for millions of Yemenis who do not receive humanitarian aid, putting them at risk, aid groups said.
Yemen imports nearly all of its food.
The average price of diesel in Yemen has risen 99 percent since September, and the average price of petrol had gone up 71 percent in that period, she said last week.
“The people cannot exist alone on food aid.” In some areas, the price of trucked-in water has jumped 600 percent, the price of wheat flour had gone up 30 percent, and the price of wheat flour had risen 30 percent, the UN and aid officials said in their statement Saturday, without giving a timeframe.
“It’s critical that shipments of commercial food continue,” the Yemen country director for the U.N.’s World Food Programme, Stephen Anderson, told ABC News last week, “and it’s also essential that humanitarian supplies are able to flow without delays.” All the partial lifting of the blockade on Yemen’s ports on its Red Sea coast has done, the officials said Saturday, was to “slow the collapse towards a massive humanitarian tragedy costing millions of lives.” The statement was issued by the heads of the WFP, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the International Organization for Migration, as well as the United Nations’ high commissioner for refugees and under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

17 November 2017 – The United Nations relief wing on Friday, warned of famine-like conditions unfolding in Yemen, as a blockade on aid and other essential goods by a Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels there enters its 12th day.
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), sounded the alarm during the regular bi-weekly news briefing in Geneva.
He was responding to a question from a journalist who asked him to clarify a warning yesterday from UN aid chiefs that the closure of air, sea and land ports in Yemen threatened millions of vulnerable children and families.
“It means that these are the number of people in areas where there’s an IPC4 – Integrated Phase Classification 4 – which is the last step before obviously 5, which is famine […] But you are correct, there may be as we speak right now, famine happening, and we hear children are dying.
I mean, there’s excess mortality as a cause and consequence of undernourishment.” Yemen imports up to 90 per cent of its daily needs, including fuel, which has now reached crisis levels.
This has left one million people at risk of a renewed cholera outbreak, just as the country emerges from the worst epidemic in modern times.
Other diseases are also a threat, including diphtheria, a serious infection of the nose and throat, that’s easily prevented with a vaccine.
It’s “spreading fast” and has already claimed 14 lives, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which said that a vaccination campaign is planned in nine days’ time.
In addition to water and sewage problems in Hodeida, Sa’ada and Taiz, the Red Cross warned that the capital Sana’a and other cities “will find themselves in the same situation” in two weeks – unless imports of essential goods resume immediately.
Also at the briefing, Alessandra Vellucci, for the UN Information Service (UNIS) recalled yesterday’s statement in New York from Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the UN Secretary‑General regarding a letter the UN chief sent to the Permanent Representative of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations.

“This means that for the UN, the right to water and sanitation is contained in existing human rights treaties and is, therefore, legally binding.
The right to water and sanitation is a human right, equal to all other human rights, which implies that it is justiciable and enforceable.
Africa has a serious water crisis, despite the continent boasting of having numerous natural water sources such as lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, springs, rainwater, aquifers, and ocean waters.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 40% of Africa’s Sub-Saharan population still lacks access to safe water.
One of the UN’s SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals) includes ensuring all humanity has access to clean and safe drinking water.
Over 300 million Africans lack access to clean drinking water and 700 million are living in poor conditions without adequate sanitation.
Lack of access to water has frustrated poverty reduction efforts and hindered economic prosperity.
In addition, 40 billion hours per year, which could have otherwise been used on productive activities, are spent searching for water.
Sadly, Africa’s water problems have continued to compound and the continent now faces a serious problem.
Experts have pointed out that most people in Africa rely on surface water, yet the continent lacks the financial capability and technology to invest in groundwater harnessing such as the digging of wells.