OCHA PRESS CONFERENCE ON HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN HORN OF AFRICA

John Holmes, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator; Mark Bowden, Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia; and Aeneas Chuma, Resident Humanitarian Coordinator at the United Nations Office at Nairobi, Kenya, briefed journalists this afternoon on the humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa. Mr. Holmes said that the Humanitarian Coordinator for Ethiopia should also have joined them but that he had not been able to make it due to flight delays.

Mr. Holmes said that today’s press conference was about the Horn of Africa and particularly the overall food security situation in that region. This was of course not a new issue; it had been a significant issue last year, and they wanted to address this topic today because it would continue to be an issue this year. This was mainly because of the continuing drought in many areas in the region as well as the continuing very high prices of food. Although global commodity food prices had fallen, in many countries of the region the local food prices still remained much higher than their 2007 level. In several counties of the area, these problems were also compounded by conflicts.

The United Nations believed that overall there were more than 19 million persons in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia that were in urgent need of food and other humanitarian assistance, including water. Mr. Holmes said that significant resources were needed in order to meet these needs all throughout 2009. He was also aware that it was not the easiest international economic context in which to be asking donors for extra resources, but he believed that the seriousness of the situation did warrant this.

Turning to the situation in Ethiopia, Mr. Holmes noted that the country had faced for many years the combined impact of drought and arid areas as well as, more recently, the increases in the prices of basic food commodities. That situation had not changed, however, so far this year it was a little better than it had been in 2008. The worst fears had not been realised last year. Nevertheless there were fears again that the situation could deteriorate over the year. The so-called “belg-rains” which should be happening during the current period were patchy. There were concerns that in some areas, the harvest would be poor and that there would be an increased need for food aid and for pockets of therapeutic feeding where malnutrition was present.

In “normal times” some 12 million people were in need of food aid in Ethiopia, which were partly addressed by a governmental programme. The World Food Programme was also currently assisting almost 10 million people a year. Mr. Holmes said that there was no consolidated appeal for Ethiopia but there was a joint humanitarian response plan agreed with the Government, which would expire in June of this year and would need to be renewed. The World Food Programme had already calculated that they were in need of an additional $ 236 million to cover the rest of the year.

Mark Bowden, Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said that Somalia faced problems of drought and a major conflict, as a result of which 50 percent of the population were being provided with general food rations. The prognosis for the rains this year was worsening. The current drought was one of the worst in the last decade. Around 24 percent of the child population had, in some areas of the country, global acute malnutrition. This meant that they now also had to start general supplementary feeding for children.

Somalia also had a major problem of displaced population as fighting had just started again in Mogadishu. People had left the city over the weekend and 1.1 million persons were currently displaced. The needs for humanitarian assistance in that particular context were increasing dramatically. Mr. Bowden noted that they had been able to increase access to the population in need over the last months.

The response to their appeal had been so far disappointing said Mr. Bowden. The appeal for Somalia, which was of $ 900 million, had so far only been met at 35 per cent. They had areas of acute shortage, in particular the ability to provide water was severely constrained by the lack of resources. The appeal needed to be met more rapidly.

Aeneas Chuma, Resident Humanitarian Coordinator at the United Nations Office at Nairobi, Kenya, said that in Kenya they were facing a complex humanitarian situation due to the food crisis, as a result of the drought and the high food prices. The country had also been affected by the global economic downturn as major sources of revenue such as tourism had declined by about 30 per cent. Remittances from families abroad had also declined by 40 per cent.

An estimated 10 million people were currently affected by the food insecurity. Very serious shortages of cereals were expected over the next months. The situation affected Kenyans but also Somali refugees that were hosted in Kenya, noted Mr. Chuma. A second problem Kenya faced was related to the internally displaced persons as a result of last year’s violence in the country. The refugee situation also remained worrying. The camp in Daddab was overcrowded; they were working with the Kenyan Government and the humanitarian community to ensure the development of a new site.

Mr. Chuma noted that they had launched a Humanitarian Appeal last year and the Government had made an emergency appeal in January, thus they had revisited their Humanitarian Appeal and had updated it this March. So far the response had been slow and only about 25 per cent had been provided. Also most of the support had gone to food items but other items such as water and sanitation had not received much support.

Tuning to the questions asked by journalists, Mr. Bowden said, on their collaboration with the newly elected Government in Somalia, that all sides involved in the conflict had recognized that they needed to allow for humanitarian assistance and food distribution. The new Government also recognized that it had to supply the population that was also living in the parts of the country they were not controlling.

Turning to a question on the situation in Sri Lanka, Mr. Holmes said that the situation remained worrying. It was an awful situation. The Government wanted to continue its offensive until the end and the LTTE did not show any willingness to surrender and the population was stuck in the middle. The LTTE was clearly using the population as human shields. The Government had said that they were not using any heavy weapons, but evidence showed apparently the contrary.

They continued to talk to both sides to urge them to find a peaceful way out of the conflict, to allow humanitarian aid to have more access to the area, said Mr. Holmes. The population was at risk from lack of food, medical supplies and water. The International Committee of the Red Cross was making huge efforts to bring that aid in, but it was not sufficient enough for the population they believed was still stuck there. “The situation is profoundly alarming” said Mr. Holmes.

A journalist asked whether he endorsed the “blood bath” description of the situation in Sri Lanka and Mr. Holmes said that there was no dictionary definition of what a blood bath was but there was a huge amount of bloodshed in that area. They clearly wanted to avoid a situation that would be worse than the current one. It was important to find some way out.

Another journalist asked questions on the situation in Pakistan. Mr. Holmes said that it was clearly a major problem. Some 500,000 persons had been displaced since last year and they were probably up to 1 million persons now. UNHCR was airlifting in supplies, other NGOs and the Government were helping out and OCHA was trying to coordinate that as best they could. A Pakistan Humanitarian Response Plan had been launched last year for about $ 160 million. It had been well funded until now but they would have to revise the number to cover the immediate needs.