Wednesday, October 15, 2014
UNITED NATIONS, (Xinhua) -- The United Nations envoy in Somalia on Tuesday warned that despite some political and security gains, the humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa country has deteriorated, with over 1 million Somalis who do not have enough to eat.
This number is up 20 percent compared to six months ago, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Somalia, Nicholas Kay, told the Security Council as he was briefing the 15-nation UN body on the situation in the long-troubled country.
"The humanitarian situation in Somalia has continued to deteriorate," he said. "Over 3 million people need humanitarian or livelihood assistance in Somalia today. This includes over 1 million Somalis who cannot feed themselves."
By the end of August, twice as many households were assisted per month with food aid. More than 300 metric tons of supplies for tens of thousands of people have been delivered by air due to the lack of secure access to recovered areas. But this falls short of needs on the ground. Air cargo flights simply cannot deliver the quantities required.
A drought has worsened an already grim humanitarian situation in the country which has experienced more than two decades of insecurity. The Al-Shabaab terrorist group has been driven out of a number of cities but has blocked food supply routes in some parts of the country.
Kay told the Security Council that military gains must be consolidated through stabilization. While Al-Shabaab has suffered significant reverses and the political process has moved forward, Somalia's challenges remain significant.
Urgent and coherent action by the federal government and international partners is needed in security, development, political and humanitarian fields, he said, adding that women and youth must participate in the process of reconciliation and the establishment of interim regional administrations.
He said he hoped for a "new map" of a federal Somalia by the end of the year. He also called for faster progress in creating two key constitutionally mandated bodies: the National Independent Electoral Commission and the Boundaries and Federation Commission.
"I remain particularly concerned about the risk of political in- fighting," Kay said, pointing out that twice in the past 12 months this has led to bureaucratic paralysis. Somalia's political institutions, including the Federal Parliament should focus on establishing the processes that will pave the way for peace and stability, he said.
"This parliamentary session will be decisive: if key laws are not passed, Somalis will not achieve their dreams for a new constitution and democratic elections in 2016," he added.