BLEAKEST MALNUTRITION SITUATION IN SOMALIA IN YEARS - WFP & UNICEF NAIROBI - Recent outbreaks of fighting and the worst drought in a decade have pushed many people in Somalia to their limit, creating the bleakest malnutrition situation in years, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today.
UN LEADERS URGE NEW EFFORT TO END SUFFERING OF MILLIONS IN AFRICA’S GREAT LAKES REGION BUJUMBURA – The heads of three of the largest United Nations humanitarian agencies today urged the international community to match political progress in the Great Lakes region with a new commitment to end the suffering of the millions of people forgotten by the rest of the world.
HARVEST PROSPECTS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA PROMISING BUT LONG-TERM PROBLEMS PERSIST JOHANNESBURG – James T. Morris, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, said on Thursday that southern Africa may be on the cusp of better harvests but the underlying causes of the region’s four-year crisis still remain and must be addressed.
VIOLENCE ALONG CHAD/SUDAN BORDER THREATENS THOUSANDS N’DJAMENA – The United Nations World Food Programme warned today that an escalation of the violence that has forced thousands of people from their homes along the Chadian border with Sudan’s Darfur region could seriously impede humanitarian assistance. WFP currently feeds 207,400 Sudanese refugees housed in 12 camps inside Chad.
WORLD’S FIRST HUMANITARIAN INSURANCE POLICY ISSUED ADDIS ABABA – The United Nations World Food Programme announced today that AXA RE has been awarded the world’s first insurance contract for humanitarian emergencies. The contract provides US $7 million in contingency funding in a pilot scheme to provide coverage in the case of an extreme drought during Ethiopia’s 2006 agricultural season.
KENYA RAINS LOWER NUMBER NEEDING FOOD AID TO NEARLY 3 MILLION PEOPLE NAIROBI - Rains have reduced the number of Kenyans in need of food aid because of drought to nearly 3 million people from 3.5 million, the Government of Kenya and United Nations World Food Programme said today. WFP needs US$44 million to continue feeding them for six months.