U.N. FAO, WFP, Oxfam launch joint appeal for Horn of Africa drought aid

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program and Oxfam issued a joint appeal on Friday asking the international community to provide the "political, moral and financial means" necessary to fight the severe drought affecting more than 10 million people in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Uganda, the Associated Press reports (7/8).

On Saturday, Valerie Amos, U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, "called for long-term solutions to curb the effects of a severe drought in Ethiopia" and "cited better access to water, health care and education as key after spending the day in Ethiopia's Somali region, one of the worst-affected areas of the country," Agence France-Presse writes (7/10).

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres on Sunday visited the Dadaab refugee camp, where more than 380,000 now live, "appealed to the world to supply the 'massive support'" necessary for those in need, and said "Somalia represents the worst humanitarian disaster in the world," according to the Associated Press (Muhumed/Van Kemenade, 7/10).