UN Emergencies Agency Directs $18.7Mln In Humanitarian Aid To Flood-Stricken Somalia

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th November, 2019) Humanitarian aid reaching $18.7 million has been pooled from donor countries and allocated to help flood-stricken Somalia, a statement by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said.

"These funds come at a critical time, enabling humanitarian partners to scale up the delivery of life-saving aid to the most vulnerable flood-affected people in need of shelter, clean water, food and health care assistance. It is crucial that we urgently deliver assistance to the people that have been affected by this crisis," Adam Abdelmoula, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia was quoted as saying in the statement.

Heavy rains triggered flooding in Somalia at the end of October, leaving more than 370,000 people displaced, according to the UNOCHA.

The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) will provide $8 million to help scale up the ongoing distribution of food, water and health assistance.

The fund will also support air service to deliver aid to inaccessible areas. The Somalia Humanitarian Fund, which has gathered $10.7 million from donor countries, will work closely with CERF and will operate in the most severely flooded areas to deliver what it called integrated and cluster-specific interventions, according to the statement published Thursday.

The Hiiraan region in central Somalia has seen the most devastating damage, the group said, and the district of Beledweyne is completely flooded.

A Doctors Without Borders team on the ground has reported seeing medical conditions like diarrhea, respiratory tract infections and vector-borne diseases and also expressed concerns regarding the possible increase of malnutrition among Somali children.