The United Nations issues a warning to all donor countries, saying: “Please do not forget Somalia.”
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The United Nations warns the countries of the world of a famine coming to the Horn of Africa.
The head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, called on the international community to provide funds to help Somalia, where more than 200,000 people are on the brink of famine due to a historic drought.
“Please do not forget Somalia,” Griffiths appealed to the international community during a video conference from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
He described the tragic situation of the country through the story of a two-and-a-half-year-old girl he met in hospital on Sunday, where he said: “It is an image that is not shown on TV, very thin and unable to communicate because of her desperate situation.” He added, “She passed away today.”
Then, after “seeing what we didn’t want to see” in this hospital, he continued, “the worrying thing is that the situation may be worse in the areas where they come from,” stressing the need to be able to help drought victims right before they begin to flee.
On Monday, Griffiths warned that Somalia is on the verge of famine, issuing a “final warning”, stressing: “We need money.”
He urged donor countries whose aid has declined due to the economic crisis linked to the crisis in Ukraine, by saying: “Please do not forget Somalia.”
He concluded: “It is unprecedented and that is why we are sounding the alarm, and trying to draw the international community’s attention to the atrocity of a famine coming to the Horn of Africa. Beginning with Somalia, and most likely the turn of Ethiopia and Kenya after that.”