04 July 2022; MEMO: Somalia on Monday called on international donors to help the Somali people who are affected by the deadly drought as the funding gap widens, Anadolu News Agency reports.
Somalia's Presidential envoy to drought response, Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, made the call on Monday afternoon after paying a visit to the drought-stricken town of Bardhere in the Gedo region that hosts thousands of families who fled from surrounding areas in search of food and humanitarian assistance.
Warsame called on Somali people, international donors, as well as "Arab brothers" to come to the aid of the Somali people affected by the drought.
The Envoy, accompanied by the Qatari ambassador to Somalia and officials from a Qatar charity, visited the camps for internally displaced persons in the town and distributed food packages donated by the Qatari government.
Somalia is witnessing one of the worst climate change-related droughts in four decades that devastated the Horn of African country.
More than 7.1 million people – nearly half of the total population – are facing historic levels of drought in Somalia, as humanitarian groups try to scale up the response and avert famine.
Nearly 800,000 people have been displaced due to the drought since early 2021, according to a statement by the UN last month.
Women and children make up 80 per cent of the displaced population.
Food, water, health care, and shelter remain the most immediate needs with 213,000 people experiencing extreme levels of hunger, according to the UN.
