UNICEF calls for all actors to make saving children's lives the top priority

With an estimated 1.25 million children across southern Somalia in urgent need of life-saving care and 640,000 children acutely malnourished, UNICEF calls for all actors to make saving children's lives the top priority and to urgently support all efforts to reach children in need. 

"Families should not have to face a perilous journey on foot in search of basic necessities like food and water, nor should they be forced to make the unthinkable choice of which child to feed," said President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF Caryl Stern. "Providing food for a child costs as little as $1 per day, but we urgently need support to reach these children in desperate need."

To reach children as quickly as possible, UNICEF, along with its partners, has mounted a massive scale up of its operations and is using all avenues available to get supplies into southern Somalia. The single largest agency delivering therapeutic and supplementary nutrition services in Somalia, UNICEF works in partnership with about 60 non-governmental organizations in the southern part of the country.

So far this month UNICEF has brought in enough supplementary feeding supplies for 65,000 children in the drought-affected regions of southern Somalia.  These supplies are being distributed by partners on the ground. 

Three flights to Mogadishu, two to Galkayo, and a flight to Baidoa, as well as two ships to Mogadishu have delivered life-saving nutritional supplies, including 653 metric tons of nutritious food to feed more than 65,000 vulnerable children and about 230 metric tons of therapeutic food to treat 16,000 severely malnourished children. Most of these nutritional supplies have already reached children in Mogadishu and the regions of Gedo, Middle Juba, Lower Juba, Bay and Lower Shabelle in southern Somalia.

UNICEF plans to further boost its supply pipeline to support the existing 325 supplementary feeding centers, 16 inpatient stabilization centers and 201 outpatient therapeutic feeding centers, as well as expand outreach services to reach children in remote areas.

UNICEF will also begin blanket supplementary feeding for 150,000 households per month over the next two months. In K-50 (Middle Shabelle), 7,000 displaced families received rations of nutritious corn-soy blend. UNICEF is also working with partners to roll out feeding programs to provide 8,000 people with three meals daily in locations where displaced people are arriving.

"Although we have challenges, we are reaching children. For instance, this week, our partners were able to reach 3,550 children with a combination of corn-soy blend and ready-to-use therapeutic food in hard-to-reach areas in Qansadheere, Bay region," said Rozanne Chorlton, UNICEF Representative in Somalia.

Next week a vessel carrying 410 metric tons of corn-soy blend to provide blanket feeding for over 20,000 families is expected to dock in Mogadishu. The ship will also deliver F-75 therapeutic milk and ready-to-use therapeutic food to treat more than 7,300 severely malnourished children.

UNICEF estimates it will need USD $117 million over the next six months to reach children in all of southern Somalia's drought-affected areas with emergency and preventative assistance.