Following the recent severe drought that hit the Horn of Africa, Muslim Aid announced stepping up assistance to the millions of people threatened with starvation and suffering food and water shortages in the region, Reuters news agency reported Friday.
UK’s office of Muslim Aid contributed additional £37,500, while Muslim Aid Australia announced donating more than £12,000 for the distribution of food, water and medical supplies to the drought-hit areas in Somalia.
The United Nations has appealed for $426 million to save victims of drought in Horn of Africa, where 40 percent of population suffers malnutrition and thousands already lost their lives as a result of hunger.
"Millions of people are threatened with starvation following the recent severe drought," Jan Egeland, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said.
Egeland, who launched the appeal on Friday to aid 8 million people threatened with starvation in Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti, estimated that "thousands, perhaps tens of thousands" had died already due to complications from hunger.
"We don't know, because these children dying of diarrhea, these women dying from preventable diseases, these elderly dying too early, die because they have been weakened by malnutrition, they have been weakened by lack of water, lack of sanitation and preventable disease kills them at intolerable levels," Egeland said.
Currently Muslim Aid provides more than £124,000 to those suffering from famine in Somalia and Kenya.
“There have been some more instances of animal deaths in regions like Gedo, on the border of Kenya,” said Ahmed Muhammed, country director of Muslim Aid Somalia.
“Cattle and goats have been most affected, and predictions indicate that the situation is likely to worsen unless April rains bring some hope. Muslim Aid is planning early food distribution for communities to the west, near the Bakool border, if the hoped-for rains fail to materialise.”
After the success of recent distribution of relief supplies, Muslim Aid’s Somalia offices decided to extend the programme with a second phase of emergency relief.
According to Ahmed Muhammed, there were a number of challenges that faced those carrying out the distribution of aid in Somalia, including lack of good boreholes for wells and poor transport infrastructure.
Muslim Aid will be distributing food, water, medicine and nutrition biscuits to 35,000 people in the southern Somalia regions of Gedo and Bay, where 1.7 million people are in desperate need of food aid.
“When there is no water, and you cannot get farm or animal products, nomads and villagers are reluctant to stay at empty, dry and barren spots in the country,” Ahmed Muhammed explained. “As a result, huge numbers of families are moving away from their homes to unknown destinations.”
117 tonnes of food will be distributed to 7,500 families.
Muslim Aid together with Kakamenga Muslim Teachers Welfare group and the Mandera Islamic Centre are working on trying to bring emergency food, water and medical relief to Wajir and Mandera in north-east Kenya.
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