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United Nations describes Somali crisis as 'the worst humanitarian disaster'

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
July 12th, 2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Antonio Guterres, the head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees is appealing for "massive support" from the international community for the more than 380,000 people estimated to be living in Dadaab, Somalia. He calls the conditions surrounding drought-hit Somalia as the "worst humanitarian disaster" in the world, after meeting with those affected at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The refugee camp, located in the northeast and the world's largest in the world, is overflowing with tens of thousands of refugees from Somalia, Ethiopia and within Kenya.

"I have no doubt that in today's world, Somalia corresponds to the worst humanitarian disaster. I have never seen in a refugee camp people coming in such desperate conditions," he said.

"I saw a mother that had lost three of her children on the way here."

Guterres describes those at the camp as "the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable of the vulnerable."

The World Food Program estimates that more than 10 million people are already in need of humanitarian aid, with the U.N. Children's Fund estimating at least two million children are suffering from malnourishment.

Guterres also visited the Ethiopian camp of Dollo Ado. "The mortality rates we are witnessing are three times the level of emergency ceilings," he said.

"The level of malnutrition of the children coming in is 50 per cent. That is enough to explain why a very high level of mortality is inevitable."

In spite of the subhuman conditions, hundreds of thousands of people continue to flee the drought, walking for days in search of food and water.

According to doctors in Dadaab, most of the children have severe cases of acute malnutrition and related complications such as anemia.

"The children are presenting with skin complications where their skin is peeling off mainly due to deficiency in micro-nutrients," Dr. Milhia Abdul Kader said. "They are coming in a very bad shape."

"Every morning hundreds turn up at the registration sites, where they hope to get documented and receive some basic essentials," he said.

"But the process is long and people are waiting for days to complete registration and access food, having already walked for days to get here."

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Article brought to you by: Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)