June 23 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The World Bank has approved the delivery of 143 million dollars (about 136 million euros) to help in the emergency response due to the drought in Somalia, which has caused a drastic increase in food insecurity and that part of the population is in famine-like conditions.
“The situation is dire and the World Bank is doing everything it can, under current programs, to protect the most vulnerable in this time of great need,” said Kristina Svensson, World Bank Country Director for Somalia.
“We are moving contacts with international actors to alleviate the situation before more lives and livelihoods are lost,” he explained. The funding will add to the Somalia Human Capital Project (SNHCP) Shock Response Safety Network to enhance drought response.
The organization has highlighted that this is the first time in the history of the country in which there is a social security plan at the national level and has underlined its support for the initiative, with financing that it hopes will cover nearly 20,000 households, with cash transfers to another 338,000 in the African country.
“It is very encouraging to see that the SNHCP is able to adapt quickly in response to the crisis. As of early June, emergency financial transfers had been delivered to more than 243,000 households in the country,” explained Afra Alawi al Ahmadi, specialist in Social Protection at the World Bank.
The United Nations on Monday called for a drastic increase in aid deliveries in Somalia due to the drought and warned that more than 350,000 children could die from malnutrition before September if the situation does not improve.
The UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, Adam Abdelmoula, stressed that “1.5 million children under the age of five are malnourished” and stressed that currently “half the population, 7.1 million Somalis, They need humanitarian aid.
The then Prime Minister of Somalia, Mohamed Hussein Roble, decreed a state of emergency in November 2021 and in March he called for the delivery of international aid in the face of the worsening drought in the Horn of Africa, with Somalia as the country with the most affected in the region.
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