Day: October 21, 2022

The World Health Organization says hundreds of thousands of people in drought-stricken Somalia may die unless the international community acts urgently to prevent the country from falling into famine.

The U.N. health agency says every single person in Somalia is facing hunger on a scale not seen since the famine in 2011, which killed more than a quarter million people, half of them children.

Speaking from the capital, Mogadishu, the WHO representative in Somalia, Mamunur Rahman Malik, said every night millions of people are going to sleep hungry. He said half of the country’s children, or 1.8 million, face acute severe malnutrition, warning that half of these children may die if they do not receive urgent medical treatment.

“I have seen children dying almost every hour in some of the health centers that I visited,” he said. “Many of them have traveled miles after miles in search of food and water and their weak bodies just could not make it that last mile.”

The WHO reports one out of every 10 children in the country is visiting health centers with diseases that are largely preventable.

In addition, Malik said one out of every seven Somali children is missing out on life-saving vaccines against killer diseases such as measles, diarrheal diseases, cholera, and acute respiratory infections. This, because they and their families are forced to leave their homes in search of food.

“We have seen deaths and diseases thrive when hunger and food crises are prolonged,” he said. “I have visited a number of health centers which I have seen with my own eyes how health workers are struggling to deal with the increased influx of children suffering.… In one instance, as many as 100 children with severe diseases needed to be cared for by only one or two health workers in very difficult working conditions.”

Malik said the WHO is working hard to prevent this dire situation from getting worse. He noted the agency is providing health care in hard-to-reach areas and delivering essential medication and other services for nearly three million people.

But he said this is not enough given the magnitude of the crisis. He warned many more people will die from disease than from hunger and malnutrition combined unless the world takes action to stave off this impending disaster.

Source: Voice of America

The African Union’s Peace and Security Council is meeting Friday to discuss the escalating war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.

The conflict-resolution body is to receive a briefing from AU special envoy Olusegun Obasanjo, who has been leading efforts to mediate talks between the Tigray rebels and Ethiopia’s federal government.

The United Nations Security Council was also set Friday to discuss the conflict in Ethiopia at a private meeting requested by Gabon, Ghana and Kenya this week.

Both meetings are being held a day after Ethiopia announced it will send representatives to AU-sponsored peace talks on October 24. Leaders of the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front have not confirmed their attendance at the talks, to take place in South Africa.

AU-mediated peace talks were slated to begin earlier this month but were postponed for logistical reasons.

In recent days diplomats have stepped up their calls for a cease-fire in Tigray.

Ethiopia said last week it plans to seize Tigray’s airports and other strategic facilities. On Monday it announced the capture of three towns in Tigray.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday that the U.N. and AU meetings “demonstrate the international community’s great concern about the situation.”

He also renewed the U.S. call for the withdrawal of Eritrean troops from Tigray, where they are supporting the Ethiopian government’s offensive.

The AU’s Peace and Security Council last discussed Ethiopia August 4, roughly three weeks before a five-month ceasefire in Tigray ended.

Since then, “the situation in the conflict has dramatically changed for the worse,” said the Amani Africa think tank in a briefing note Friday.

Source: Voice of America