Media Home
UN Web TV
UN PhotoUnifeed
UN / AMOS HORN OF AFRICA
STORY: UN / AMOS HORN OF AFRICA
TRT: 2.21
SOURCE: UNTV / WFP/ UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 1 AUGUST 2011, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
1 AUGUST 2011, NEW YORK CITY
2. Med shot, Amos at the dais
3. Wide shot, audience
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“12.4 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti are in dire need of help and the situation is getting worse. A little less than two weeks ago we declared a famine in two regions in Somalia. Today we are warning that unless we see a massive increase in the response, the famine will spread to five or six more regions. Tens of thousands o Somalis have already died and hundreds of thousands face starvation with consequences for the entire region.”
5. Med shot, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“It’s hard to imagine the horror of mothers forced to leave their infants behind to die as they trek for weeks to reach safety. The sense of loss felt by orphans as they reach overcrowded refugee camps, sick and malnourished, alone and with no future. These stories, these images are a wake up call. They remind us why we cannot spare any effort to ease the suffering while we must do all we can to stop it happening again.”
7. Med shot, reporter
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Ultimately Somalia needs peace. Without peace, our ability to act will remain limited and we risk seeing this happen time and time again. There is a limit in that situation to what we as outsiders can do. As the international community we are the third line of response. The first line is of course national governments, institutions and of course the people themselves. But in Somalia they are weak and malnourished from the situation that they face.”
9. Med shot, journalist
10. Wide shot, dais
FILE - UNHCR - 29, 30 JUNE 2011, MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
11. Med shot, displaced entering camp carrying their belongings
FILE - WFP - 21 JULY 2011, MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
12. Various shots, displaced at a hot meals distribution site
FILE - UNHCR - 29, 30 JUNE 2011, MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
13. Wide shot, crowd
14. Close up, baby sleeping
The United Nations (UN) warned today (1 August) that the famine in two regions of Somalia could spread through the rest of the south within one to two months, if the humanitarian response did not increase alongside rising needs.
Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos told a press conference in New York that 12.4 million people across the Horn of Africa are in “dire need of help and the situation is getting worse.”
Amos stressed that “unless we see a massive increase in the response, the famine will spread” with hundreds of thousands potentially facing starvation, which would have “consequences for the entire region.”
UN agencies and humanitarian partners are rallying to provide life-saving assistance, but needs are rising. The emergency is expected to persist at least three to four months, and the number of people needing humanitarian assistance could increase by as much as 25 per cent.
The Emergency Relief Coordinator said that “it’s hard to imagine the horror of mothers forced to leave their infants behind to die as they trek for weeks to reach safety” or “the sense of loss felt by orphans as they reach overcrowded refugee camps, sick and malnourished, alone and with no future.”
She argued that these examples “remind us why we cannot spare any effort to ease the suffering while we must do all we can to stop it happening again.”
The United Nations has appealed for a further $1.4 billion to save lives in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti and to stop the crisis from becoming an even bigger catastrophe.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that, driven by the worst drought in 60 years, some 1,300 new Somali refugees arrive daily in Kenya, several hundred more flee to Ethiopia and at least 1,000 others crowd into the capital, Mogadishu, fleeing not only drought but continued fighting between Government forces and rebels.
Amos said that “ultimately Somalia needs peace” as without it, the international community’s ability to act “will remain limited and we risk seeing this happen time and time again.”
Drought conditions in Kenya’s northern and north-eastern districts have deteriorated further after the poor March-June rains. The food crisis is expected to peak in August and September.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) reported today that its emergency airlifts were flying tons of specialized nutritional food for malnourished children in Mogadishu and other food supplies in southern Somalia, and it was continuing to feed more than 1.6 million people in Kenya.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said six flights and two ships have delivered more than 653 tons of corn soya blend, and about 230 tons of therapeutic food to treat severely malnourished children. It is also building up its food pipeline which already supports 500 nutrition centres in southern Somalia.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was working to accommodate some 3,000 people who since Monday settled spontaneously on the edge of Dadaab refugee complex, already the world’s largest refugee camp.
Download
There is no media available to download.
