Somalia: ICRC remains fully committed to helping Somalis
Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00 GMT
"Under the agreement, we provided more than 1.2 million people living in central and southern Somalia with one-month food rations between June and December 2011," said Daniel Duvillard, the ICRC's head of operations for East Africa. "The food distributions helped address severe malnutrition among the population."
Despite adverse conditions faced by the ICRC during this emergency operation, the organization succeeded in distributing more than 17,000 tonnes of rice, beans and oil directly to the neediest people in more than 1,600 different places. As a result of heat, moisture and exposure to heavy rain, six per cent of the food intended for distribution (nearly 1,000 tonnes of beans) was found to have deteriorated. "Those beans were either withdrawn by the ICRC or destroyed by the Al-Shabaab authorities," said Mr Duvillard. "No food suspected to be unfit for human consumption was distributed to aid recipients in Somalia."
In the current circumstances, the ICRC remains unable to retrieve a food consignment intended for distribution to 240,000 people in the Middle Shabelle and Galgaduud regions that has been blocked by the Al-Shabaab authorities in Jowhar. This situation led the ICRC to suspend its food distributions in mid-January.
The ICRC remains fully committed to helping Somalis overcome recurrent humanitarian crises, improve their livelihoods and enhance their access to health care, as it has done for the past 30 years.
For further information, please contact:
Anna Schaaf, ICRC Nairobi, tel: +254 722 512 728
Jean-Yves Clémenzo, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 22 730 22 71 or +41 79 217 32 17
Leave a comment:
IMPORTANT: Your comment will not appear immediately as we vet all messages before publication. We don't publish comments that are racist or otherwise offensive. Nor do we publish comments that advertise products or services. Please keep your comment concise and do not write in capitals.
Post a Comment
Post a Comment