U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 438
19 - 25 July 2008


CONTENTS:

HORN OF AFRICA: "Urban poor the new face of hunger"
SOMALIA: "Country months away from major crisis"


ALSO SEE:

GLOBAL: Humanitarian futures (part one) - "exponential complexity"
[Full Report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79426]

GLOBAL: Humanitarian futures (part 2) - "the crisis of humanitarianism"
[Full Report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79437]


HORN OF AFRICA: "Urban poor the new face of hunger"

The urban poor in the Horn of Africa are the new face of hunger in a 
region where up to 14.6 million people now require humanitarian 
assistance due to poor rains, high food and fuel prices, conflict, 
animal disease, inflation and poverty.

"The situation of the urban poor has worsened; they are now getting more 
vulnerable; it is no longer just the old caseload of drought-affected 
people, "Peter Smerdon, a senior public affairs officer for the UN 
Nations World Food Programme said.

In Ethiopia, Smerdon said, some 4.6 million people required emergency 
food aid for the rest of the year. The situation in Somalia was worse as 
it had had three consecutive years of drought.

In Eritrea, the likelihood of drought this cropping season was high 
while at least 80,000 people were in an acute food and livelihood crisis 
in Djibouti, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of 
Humanitarian Affairs.

[Full Report: 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79392]


SOMALIA: "Country months away from major crisis"

Drought, conflict, hyperinflation, high food and fuel prices, the 
weakness of the Somali shilling and a succession of poor harvests have 
increased the number of people needing food and other assistance to 2.6 
million - up 40 percent from January.

"WFP needs to double the amount of food it is bringing into Somalia to 
32,000MT per month," Smerdon said: The agency was urgently appealing to 
governments to escort naval vessels to protect ships loaded with WFP 
food from piracy.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization's Crop Prospects and Food 
Situation report released in July forecasts that the main Gu cereal 
crop, due for harvest from next month, is largely expected to fail as a 
result of a late start and poor rains in most parts of the country.

[Full Report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79390]


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Horn of Africa               www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/hafrica