UN says about 2.6 million Somalis in food crisis

KENYA: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said Thursday that at about 2.6 million people in Somalia are in food crisis and warned of a looming humanitarian crisis sparked by skyrocketing food prices.

A statement from FAO's Food Security Analysis United for Somalia (FAO/FSAU) confirmed that the humanitarian situation in Somalia is deteriorating at a accelerated pace due to sky rocketing food prices, a deepening drought due to an abnormally harsh dry season.

"As result the number of people in need of assistance has increased to 2.6 million in Somalia (35 percent of the total population), which is an increase of more than 40 percent since January this year, FAO said in its latest food security analysis.

The UN agency said the increase is mainly due to the addition of 600,000 urban poor, who now face conditions of Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis and Humanitarian Emergency.

"In addition, the number of pastoralists in crisis and the number of internally displaced people from Mogadishu has increased, " it said.

Last week, two UN agencies appealed for renewed global support for assistance to a new wave of refugees from Somalia fleeing violence in the nation.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the UN World Food Program ( WFP) said an estimated 1,000 new arrivals have crossed south into Kenya every week, and nearly 12,000 have arrived in Dadaab camp since the start of the year.

The UN agencies said the majority of them are from Mogadishu, Kismayo and middle and lower Juba region.

The UN agencies said although the border between Somalia and Kenya is closed, the Kenyan government has granted access to Somali asylum seekers.

They said the three camps around Dadaab in northern Kenya are very congested - the current population in each is already three times the recommended level.

WFP said it requires a further 13 million U.S. dollars to feed the current caseload of refugees and the expected new arrivals for the rest of the year. Nairobi, Friday, Xinhua