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SOMALIA / FAMINE UPDATE
STORY: SOMALIA / FAMINE UPDATE
TRT: 2:00
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 27 OCTOBER 2011, NAIROBI, KENYA / 23-24 OCTOBER 2011, MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
23-24 OCTOBER 2011, MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
1. Med shot, father and child sitting inside their tent, child crying
2. Close up, child’s hands
3. Close up, child’s face
4. Med shot, father with child at Therapeutic Centre
5. Close up, health worker examines child’s feet
6. Close up, child’s face
27 OCTOBER 2011, NAIROBI, KENYA
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Hannan Sulieman, UNICEF Deputy Representative in Somalia:
“In terms of the situation in southern Somalia, we’re still in a situation where over 40 per cent of children are malnourished, and amongst them, 50 per cent of them are severely malnourished, which is really beyond any acceptable level whatsoever. Even before the famine was declared, we were above emergency thresholds for malnutrition. We’re still in that situation today, it is in 6 areas of Southern Somalia where the famine has been declared but again outside the famine areas, the situation is also incredibly difficult for children. We do feel that this is a children’s famine. Large numbers of children are dying on a daily basis.”
23-24 OCTOBER 2011, MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
8. Med shot, women with children in line
9. Close shot, child in mother’s arms
10. Med shot, mother putting child into weighing scale
11. Wide shot, mothers and children sitting at Therapeutic Centre
12. Close shot, child in mother’s arms
27 OCTOBER 2011, NAIROBI, KENYA
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Hannan Sulieman, UNICEF Deputy Representative in Somalia:
“Currently we are in a situation where it is the harvest period in Somalia but we have to recognize that it’s a small harvest. The large harvest will come in 2012. So we don’t anticipate any significant changes in the children’s situation. We still need to continue supporting the children in southern Somalia.”
23-24 OCTOBER 2011, MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
14. Med shot, mother washing dishes with children sitting around her
15. Close up, child in mother’s lap
16. Wide shot, father walking though IDP camp
17. Wide shot, father walking through IDP camp from behind
More than three months after famine was declared in Somalia, the crisis is far from over. Over 160,000 children are severely malnourished with millions still in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.
Amidst the Horn of Africa’s worst drought in decades, UNICEF Deputy Representative in Somalia, Hannan Sulieman, gives an assessment of the situation on the ground.
SOUNDBITE (English) Hannan Sulieman, UNICEF Deputy Representative in Somalia:
“In terms of the situation in southern Somalia, we’re still in a situation where over 40 per cent of children are malnourished, and amongst them, 50 per cent of them are severely malnourished, which is really beyond any acceptable level whatsoever. Even before the famine was declared, we were above emergency thresholds for malnutrition. We’re still in that situation today, it is in 6 areas of Southern Somalia where the famine has been declared but again outside the famine areas, the situation is also incredibly difficult for children. We do feel that this is a children’s famine. Large numbers of children are dying on a daily basis.”
According to UNICEF, some 13.3 million people need assistance. More than 450,000 Somalis have fled to the refugee camps around Dadaab in northeastern Kenya, including 100,000 since June. Another 183,000 Somalis have fled to Ethiopia, including more than 120,000 to the refugee camps in Dollo Ado, 20,000 refugees went to Djibouti.
Thousands of children have already died, and more than 320,000, half of them in Central and South Somalia, are so severely malnourished that they may perish as well in the coming weeks and months, if relief operations are not scaled up rapidly.
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