January 09, 2025 07:39 pm (IST)

Make this your homepage

Foreign

Los Angeles wildfire leaves 5 dead, forces 1 lakh including celebs to flee, Hollywood hills ablazed | PM Modi condoles death of six people in Tirupati stampede incident | Days after condemning Pak airstrikes, India in a first engages with Afghanistan's Taliban regime | 6 dead in stampede near Tirupati temple during token distribution to offer prayers | Prominent journalist-film producer Pritish Nandy dies of cardiac arrest at 73 | Thousands, including Hollywood stars, flee Los Angeles upscale neighbourhood as wildfire engulfs homes | Sheesh Mahal row: AAP leaders who were denied entry into CM's residence turn towards PM's house | Anna University sexual assault accused is a DMK supporter, not member: MK Stalin | Ajit Doval, Raja Dato discuss bilateral cooperation during India-Malaysia Security Dialogue | US President-elect Donald Trump threatens to use economic force to make Canada 51st US State, Justin Trudeau retorts sharply

Somalia: UN boosts El NiÃ±o preparedness and relief, urges more funding

India Blooms News Service | | Oct 13, 2015, at 02:19 pm

#Somalia # El Nino # UN # aid

New York, Oct 13 (IBNS): Efforts have been ramped up recently to mitigate the impact of floods and draughts in Somalia driven by the El NiÃ±o phenomenon between now and December, which may worsen the food security and humanitarian situations, the United Nations has said, while stressing the urgent need for more financial support to continue its relief work in the country.

“Humanitarian partners have developed contingency plans and are scaling up preparedness activities,” said Peter de Clercq, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Somalia, adding that these operations include “pre-positioning aid supplies and boats in areas most likely to be affected by flooding.”

El Niño could cause devastating effects in Somalia, such as heavy rains and flooding along Juba and Shabelle rivers, flash floods in central Somalia and Puntland, and worsening droughts in parts of Somaliland, which will put over 600,000 people at risk, according to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

These impacts, however, might be severe for the vulnerable communities already facing dire humanitarian situations in Somalia. Over 3 million people need humanitarian assistance, 1.1 million of whom are internally displaced.

“Since communities in the flood-prone areas will be the first to respond, partners are working with local authorities and community leadership to strengthen local response capacity, reinforce river embankments and raise awareness, including through distribution of climate monitoring information,” said Peter.

“An initial $30 million is required to strengthen preparedness and kick start immediate response in 2015,” said a news release issued by OCHA Somalia office, while citing some received donations for the contingency plan as aid agencies continue to monitor the situation.

Previous El Niño events have caused massive flooding in Somalia. Some 900,000 people were affected in 1997-98 and over 440,000 people were affected in 2006-7. The effects this year could extend several months into 2016.

AU-UN IST Photo/Tobin Jones

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.