Horn of Africa Emergency

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Crisis in the Horn o AricaHumanitarian Action Update, July 2011


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Crisis in the Horn of Africa 1

The countries that make up the Horn o Arica are acing a severe crisis

due to a deadly combination o drought, escalating ood prices and armed

conict. Together, these actors have triggered one o the most signifcantreugee outows to Kenya and Ethiopia in more than a decade.

Erratic and insufcient rainall trends throughout the region have led to

reduced water supplies, disappearing arable land and severe ood insecurity

in a number o areas. The regions pastoral communitiesoten its poorest

and most vulnerable populationsare at increasingly high risk due to these

successive natural shocks and underdevelopment.

High ood prices and prolonged drought are worsening an already dire

situation or countless amilies in need o ood and water. Thousands o

amilies are crossing the border rom Somalia as emergency eeding centers

are being set up by UNICEF and other humanitarian agencies in neighboringcountries. Some 10,000 reugees are arriving weekly in Dadaab reugee

camp, on the border between Somalia and Kenya.

In a region accustomed to severe drought, this crisis is being called the

worst in 50 years. Countries most seriously aected are Kenya, Somalia,

Ethiopia, and Djibouti. In all, the crisis threatens the livelihoods o some

10 million people.

UNICEFs top priority is to prevent death and malnutrition in the aected

population, particularly among the most vulnerable groups: inants, children,

pregnant women and breast-eeding mothers. UNICEF estimates that

over 2 million young children across the Horn o Arica are malnourishedand urgently need liesaving actions. Hal a million o those children ace

imminent threats to their survival, with long lasting consequences to their

physical and mental development.

The consequences o disease or already weakened young children are

o particular concern, and UNICEF is racing to set up child immunization

campaigns. UNICEF, government agencies, NGOs and other UN agencies

will be working in the vital areas o water, ood, health, and sanitation in

the coming days to ward o a massive emergency.

Funding shortalls, however, threaten to disrupt these essential services.

UNICEF is seeking $31,788,131 to provide lie-saving support during the nextthree months to the millions o aected children and women.

UNICEF in Action

UNICEF is directly supporting the rehabilitation o moderately and severely

malnourished children in partnership with government health services,

NGOs and community organizations. Similar partnerships have supported

vital child immunization campaigns, health care outreach, and programs

that ensure access to sae water and improved sanitation, particularly in

camps or reugees and displaced amilies.

Crisis in the Horn o AricaHumanitarian Action Update, July 2011

Cover Photo

Kenya: A Somali woman

and a child wait to register

or ood and other aid in

the Dagahaley reugee

camp in North Eastern

Province, near the

Kenya-Somalia border.

The camp is among three

that comprise the Dadaab

camps, located on the

outskirts o the town o

Dadaab in Garissa District.

UNICEF/Kate Holt


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Full unding will allow UNICEF to ensure that the regions most vulnerable

women and children will:

Receive treatment for severe acute malnutrition through the

provision of Ready- to-Use-Therapeutic Food (RUTF) such as

PlumpyNut at community level or at therapeutic eeding centers;

Gain access to clean water through the repair of pumping

stations, digging o boreholes, chlorination o water

sources, and water trucking;

Receive vaccines against measles, polio and other

deadly diseases; and

Resume schooling through the provision of temporary

learning spaces and School-in-a-Box kits.

While UNICEF concentrates its current eorts on immediate needs, it will

also equally commit to viable, longer-term pro-child approaches in the entire

region to ensure that this kind o crisis never happens again.

The Situation in Somalia

Immediate Needs: $9,364,631

As the humanitarian crisis in Somalia continues to deepen, the country

aces one o the most severe ood security crises in the world. This is

especially true in the south, where humanitarian organizations have not

had sufcient access to prevent urther deterioration o the situation and

where need is now greatest. Since the beginning o 2011, tens o thousands

o Somalis have ed into neighboring Ethiopia and Kenya. The continuing

catastrophe is now aecting 2.85 million people, an increase o nearly

20 percent since January.

In southern Somalia, the lack o ood or general distribution is a major

threat to child survival and one o the main reasons so many amilies

are leaving or Kenya and Ethiopia. Among Somali children in the reugeecamps, particularly the new arrivals, an acute malnutrition rate o up to

40 percent has been reported.

UNICEF remains one o the largest service providers in Somalia. With its

unrivaled access and inuence, UNICEF leads the nutrition; education;

and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) clusters, as well as the child

protection sub-cluster. UNICEF Somalia is responding to meet the pressing

needs o children and women by engaging with government, UN agencies

and NGO partners to maximize the use o resources already on the ground.

Despite serious ongoing challenges to access, UNICEF has ully activated its

emergency response to scale up interventions in the south, and negotiationsor authorization and security clearance to now-inaccessible areas o the

south are underway.

Under severe conditions, UNICEF, along with 100 national and international

partners, continues to implement the great majority o the overall response,

especially in the south. These eorts include:

Cash transfers for the most vulnerable families to

improve access to ood;

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ETHIOPIA

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Given the extreme crisis in the Dadaab camp, UNICEF has responded to a

request from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to assist

with technical oversight, logistics support and therapeutic eeding supplies

or the Dadaab camp. With UNICEF providing 100 percent o therapeutic

oods, the nutrition section is bringing in a ull-time surge capacity ofcer to

be based in Dadaab to provide technical support.

Population movements and ood scarcity are linked to greater risk o

disease. UNICEF has already responded to polio and measles outbreaks

in the drought-prone areas by organizing three rounds o polio and one

round o measles immunization campaigns. In addition, emergency medical

supplies have been distributed in several aected areas. As part o a high-

impact integrated health response, planning is underway or a July 2011

launch o a special measles campaign, including deworming and vitamin A

supplementation, in drought-aected districts and in the Dadaab camp.

For the duration o the crisis, UNICEF will bring onboard additional surge

sta dedicated to WASH cluster coordination. The UNICEF WASH sector

is engaging with the UNs High Commissioner for Refugees to support the

provision o clean water in host communities and in the Dadaab camp, and

to strengthen partnerships in Marsabit and Wajir or drilling new boreholes

and maintaining existing water points.

UNICEF Kenya is seeking more than $9.3 million over the next three months

to respond to the needs o children.The Situation in Ethiopia


The number o Ethiopians in need o emergency ood assistance increased

rom 2.8 million at the beginning o 2011 to 3.2 million by April. The

combined eects o drought, ood price increases, and insufcient

resources or preventive measures have resulted in increased malnutrition

among children. During the frst fve months o 2011, increased admission

rates o acutely malnourished children into Therapeutic Feeding Program

sites were reported. In total, UNICEF estimates that 312,740 severely

Addis Ababa

SOM

ALIA

ETHIOPIA

SUDAN

KENYA

Photo

Kenya: A Somali boy is

fngerprinted as part oregistration procedures

in the Io reugee camp in

North Eastern Province,

near the Kenya-Somalia

border. UNICEF/

Kate Holt


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malnourished children will require lie-saving nutrition treatment in

2011. This represents a 33 percent increase rom projections made at

the beginning o the year.

Since January, the number o reugees rom Somalia into Ethiopia has been

increasing, with current levels estimated at 2,500 reugees per day being

registered by UNHCR, which reports the pre-existing refugee caseload

at 110,000. High levels o moderate acute malnutrition and severe acute

malnutrition are reported among this population.

UNICEF Ethiopia has increased its nutritional surveillance in the drought-

aected areas and continues to support the governments emergency

nutrition coordination unit. To increase awareness o the nutrition situation

and the need or additional resources, UNICEF advocated with both ederal

and regional government ofcials and convened donors and partners. To

enhance access to basic social services or the conict-aected areas o

eastern Ethiopia, UNICEF supported our new mobile health and nutrition

teams to supplement the existing 20 teams supported by UNICEF and

18 supported by NGOs.

From January to April, 460 additional Therapeutic Feeding Program sites

were established, bringing the total number to 8,105 sites. Between Januaryand April, 78,100 severely malnourished children were treated across the

nations six emergency drought-aected regions, and 85,353 cartons o

RUTF were dispatched to vulnerable areas.

In terms o WASH activities, UNICEF and its partners provided nearly

560,000 people with sae drinking water. Additionally, 48 health centers

and 18 schools have each been equipped with enough WASH supplies to

beneft 250,000 people.

Priority emergency activities or the second hal o 2011 include:

Continuous support to the mobile health teams in

the Somali and Aar regions;

A comprehensive nutrition response;

The resumption of water trucking in drought-affected

areas o the Somali and Oromiya regions; and

Preparations for potential outbreaks of diarrhea.

UNICEF Ethiopia requires more than $10 million to carry out these activities

over the next three months.

The Situation in Djibouti

Immediate Needs: $1,970,000Childhood illnesses are oten linked to consumption o insufcient or

unsae water, and these risks are especially acute during an emergency. In

Djibouti, more than 49 percent o people in rural areas do not have access

to a protected source o drinking water, and children are aected by lack o

access to potable water and increased levels o malnutrition.

UNICEF Djibouti is currently leading the sector coordination or WASH and

nutrition, and UNICEF has distributed emergency supplies or children

being treated or malnutrition. At the same time, malnutrition screening and

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case management has been enhanced throughout the country, covering

70 percent o malnutrition cases. Water trucking has brought sae drinking

water to 25,000 people in 20 localities. Water-management committees

were ormed in 20 rural locales and committee members have been trained

to manage, maintain, and protect the water points.

In addition to the humanitarian results achieved so ar, and to urther reduce

risk and vulnerability among women and children, UNICEF will scale up

its response to priority needs in health, nutrition, and WASH over the next

three months. At the community level, 10,000 children suering rom acutemalnutrition will be screened and those having complications will be treated

at health care facilities with RUTF.

UNICEF Djibouti will also continue to support water trucking to

30 communities in water-scarce areas, reaching approximately

25,000 people. Approximately 20,000 people will gain access to

sae drinking water through the maintenance and repair o 20 motorized

water-pumping stations. Some 30 existing traditional wells will be deepened

and reinorced with concrete and draining platorms beore being

equipped with hand pumps. This will ensure potable water or people in

chronically water-scarce areas, saving lives and preventing water shortages

catastrophic eects, particularly on women and children. UNICEF will also

improve Djiboutis overall immunization coverage by supplying vaccines

and enhancing the cold chain or transporting and storing vaccines.

UNICEF Djibouti is seeking just under $2 million or its short-term activities.

UNICEFs Eastern and Southern Arica Regional Ofce


Focusing on enhancing capacity or strategic planning and advocacy, early

recovery, and inormation management, UNICEFs Eastern and Southern

Africa Regional Ofce (ESARO) will continue providing technical support

to its individual country ofces. In the WASH, nutrition, education, and

child protection sectors, dedicated emergency-support sta will help

Photo

Kenya: Somali children

and women receive

mosquito nets rom aid

workers in the Io reugee

camp near the Kenya-

Somalia border. UNICEF/Kate Holt


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sustain quality assurance and oversight or cluster leadership and program

implementation. ESARO is seeking $1 million to support this assistance.

UNICEFs Continuing Response

UNICEF is currently doing whatever it takes to prevent another major

humanitarian disaster rom spiraling out o control. We are working with

the international community and donors to ully support the responses

o governments in the region to stabilize the situation through timely and

eective action.

Your support will allow UNICEF and its partners to carry out liesaving

eorts or children and women throughout the areas threatened by the

drought. Therapeutic and supplementary eeding programs will target

malnourished children and women. Mobile health teams will treat drought-

related illnesses, immunize against diseases like measles, and provide

vitamin A supplements to boost childrens vulnerable immune systems.

Water and sanitation assistance will include emergency water trucking to

schools and eeding centers, borehole drilling, and widespread promotion o

sanitation programs to prevent outbreaks o diarrhea and cholera. UNICEF

will also provide educational assistance, including school tents and School-

in-a-Box kits, to drought-aected communities.

The U.S. Fund or UNICEF is grateul or your interest in the children o the

Horn o Arica. On behal o the children o the region, thank you or your

ongoing commitment to our work. Your support helps to ensure UNICEFs

continued fght or child survival.

UNICEF has saved more childrens lives

than any other humanitarian organization

in the world. Working in over 150 countries,

UNICEF provides children with health

care, clean water, nutrition, education,

emergency relie, and more. The U.S. Fund

or UNICEF supports UNICEFs work through

undraising, advocacy, and education

in the United States.

UNICEF is at the oreront o eorts to

reduce child mortality worldwide. In just

two decades, the number o children under

age fve dying each day has been cut by

one-third. But still, 22,000 children die each

day rom preventable causes. Our mission is

to do whatever it takes to make that number

zero by giving children the essentials or

a sae and healthy childhood. For more

inormation, visit www.uniceusa.org.

U.S. Fund or UNICEF

125 Maiden Lane

New York, NY 10038

1.800.4UNICEF

www.uniceusa.org

To Donate

Visit

www.uniceusa.org

Call

1.800.FOR. KIDS

Mail

U.S. Fund or UNICEF125 Maiden Lane

New York, NY 10038

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Horn of Africa Emergency