AFRICA – An unnamed UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s representative in Kenya has said to the Associated Press that the situation in Somalia could become “simply unbearable” in the coming weeks if people continue to abandon their homes in search of food.
The food crisis in the Horn of Africa is escalating, with 12 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda requiring emergency assistance, said FAO.
Parts of southern Somalia are suffering from famine.
Over the past year, the region has faced two poor rainy seasons, resulting in one of the driest years since 1950. In addition, high local cereal prices, excessive livestock mortality, conflict and restricted humanitarian access in some areas is worsening the situation for Somalis.
A high-level operational meeting has been called for 18 August 2011 at FAO’s Rome headquarters to agree on urgent measures in response to the worsening crisis in the Horn of Africa.
Links to: FAO, the Associated Press
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees FRiday 8 July called on governments and other donors to come up with $136.3 million in emergency funds to help the rapidly growing number of Somali refugees. The funds should cover the needs of some 90,000 new refugees heading to Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. They are fleeing what the UNHCR calls “deteriorating conditions and growing displacement from Somalia” due to drought and fighting.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, is flying to Ethiopia for a two-day inspection of one of the areas where Somalis are fleeing: 25 percent of the population of 7.5 million is now displaced, the UNHCR warns, with 54,000 people fleeing violence compounded by severe drought, in June alone. Most are fleein to Ethiopia and Kenya.
“Malnutrition rates among Somali refugee children arriving in Ethiopia and Kenya are alarmingly high and on a scale not seen in decades,” the Geneva-based organization said in a statement 6 July.
An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 jet with 92 people on board has crashed into the sea south of Beirut, Lebanon airport just minutes after take-off. Among the 83 passengers en-route to Ethiopia was the wife of the newly-installed French ambassador to Lebanon. Witnesses speak of seeing a ball of flames going into the sea. Lebanese sources say the site of the crash has been located and a search and rescue operation is underway. The plane took off in stormy weather that has plagued Lebanon over the past few days, causing flooding and damage.
Links to other sites: Al-Jazeera, France Info
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ethiopia’s Urgessa Weyessa has won the Lausanne marathon in 2h 21’00, and beat his countryman Girma Woyasa by 1’09. Weyessa, 26, ran his first marathon ever Sunday 25 October. He is the cousin of seven-times Lausanne winner Tesfaye Eticha. Lucien Epiney from canton Valais came in third with 2h 33’14.
A two-year drought across the countries of Eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa is taking its toll on the most vulnerable people: subsistence farmers and pastoralists. In Kenya’s northwestern Turkana region, the worst drought in 40 years is forcing people to sell weakened animals at below market rates in order to survive. Others are moving into emergency feeding centres.
The UN’s World Food Program is feeding one in six Kenyans, almost 4 million people, and says it needs $300 million to feed them for the next six months. Ethiopia’s government has launched an international appeal for $175 million in aid to head off the crisis. AllAfrica, BBC, Wall Street Journal
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Weltklasse meeting saw a world record: but not in the event that the crowd was hoping for. Usain Bolt won the 100m, but his time of 9.81 seconds was some way off his Berlin record of 9.58. His fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell was second in 9.88. Jamaica showed the depth of its talent with a win for Dwight Thomas in the 110m hurdles sprint, and victory in the 4 x 100m relay but Kerron Stewart could only manage second in the womens’ 100m.
The record came in the women’s polevault, where Russian Yelena Isinbayeva beat her own record by one centimetre with a 5.06 metre vault.
Kenyan runners took the 800m, 1500m and the 3000m steeplechase. Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele won the 5000m.
Related: swissinfo
Somalia’s already difficult security situation is under more pressure after a suicide bomber killed the country’s security chief, Omar Hashi Aden, and 10 other people including Somali diplomats, at a hotel in Beledweyne, 400 km north of Mogadishu, near the border with Ethiopia. Al Shabab, presumed to have links to Al Qaeda, claimed the attack. They are one of several militant groups fighting the fragile government, which has United Nations support. Aid agencies say one-third of the population is unable to feed itself and needs outside help, reports the BBC. All Africa
