The UN humanitarian agency says urgent funding is required to avert worsening malnutrition, disease in Somalia.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cautioned that without an immediate infusion of funding, the already grave malnutrition and disease levels in Somalia will reach alarming rates.
According to UN news release, the Office in its alert to donors has highlighted the need for assistance for emergency nutrition as well as Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programs in two regions in north and central Somalia, reported Xinhua.
OCHA warned that more people could become vulnerable to water- borne diseases, which are responsible for 20 percent of deaths among children under the age of five in the Horn of Africa nation.
More than one-quarter of the over 200,000 acutely malnourished children are in need of immediate treatment to survive.
Over 20 million U.S. dollars is required for nutrition needs for the next four months, while six million dollars is needed for WASH needs, including improving emergency water and sanitation services.
The nutrition situation is critical in Gedo and Central regions, and has been exacerbated by limited funding and a water shortage.
Both areas have reached Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates above the 15 percent emergency threshold, topping 20 percent in some parts.
Last month, a UN analysis found that more than three million people in Somalia, a third or more of the total population, will remain dependent on humanitarian assistance this year.
There have been several encouraging developments over the past month for Somalia, which has not had a functioning central government since 1991, including the election of the new President in what the UN has hailed as "a fair and open manner" and the creation of an enlarged Parliament.
...