On 27 July, a girl carrying a smaller child in a sling pouch on her back drinks water during a distribution in a camp for people displaced by the drought, in Mogadishu, the capital. Other children are behind her. The water is being distributed by troops from AMISOM (the African Union Mission in Somalia) from their base supplies. AMISOM was established by the United Nations to support peace, stability and the safe delivery of humanitarian aid in the country. Its mandate is presently extended until 30 September 2011.
By 27 July 2011, the crisis in the Horn of Africa affecting primarily Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti continues, with a worsening drought, rising food prices and ongoing conflict in Somalia. More than 11 million people are threatened by the worst drought in the region in 60 years. Over 500,000 severely malnourished children are at risk of dying; a further 1.6 million moderately malnourished children, and the wider-affected population, are at high risk of disease. Somalia faces one of the worlds most-severe food security crises, exacerbated by two decades of civil war. In the southern Lower Shabelle and Bakool areas of the country, some 270,000 people are facing famine conditions. Across the country, as many as 1.85 million children (in a total population of 3.7 million) need urgent humanitarian assistance; some 780,000 of these children are also acutely malnourished. As many as 100,000 displaced people have sought improved security and assistance in Mogadishu, the still-embattled capital, in the last two months. Tens of thousands are fleeing to Kenya and Ethiopia. UNICEF is working with UN, NGO and community partners to expand blanket supplementary feeding programmes to reach 300,000 Somali families, including 360,000 under-five children, in the next three months. UNICEF is also supporting a range of other interventions in all affected countries, including feeding programmes, immunization mass vaccination campaigns against measles are now underway in drought-affected parts of Kenya and Somalia and other health outreach, as well as access to safe water and to improve sanitation. UNICEF now requires US $300 million for humanitarian assistance for vulnerable children, women and families in the Horn of Africa region.
