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Somalia: Asia and Pacific Come to the Aid of the Horn of Africa

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Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Country: Australia, China, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Japan, Kenya, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Somalia

(Bangkok, 15 September 2011) – Five countries in Asia and the Pacific have donated almost 18 per cent of the total amount of emergency aid provided to date, to the crisis in the Horn of Africa.

Australia, Japan, China, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand have provided US$275 million to the four countries that make up the Horn of Africa crisis - Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.

The number of people in need in the Horn of Africa due to drought, famine and conflict has grown from 12.4 million to 13.3 million. Of the $2.4 billion in assistance requested by the United Nations and its partners, $1.5 billion has been received and a sizeable portion is from Asia and the Pacific.

“This reflects the emerging role of countries in Asia and the Pacific which are looking beyond their regions to how they can make a difference globally,” said Oliver Lacy-Hall, regional head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

In terms of country contributions, Australia, Japan and China all fall within the top ten donors for this emergency. In addition to country donations, there have also been significant donations from the Red Cross Society in China ($1.2 million) and the UNICEF National Committee in Japan ($3.4 million).

“Asia’s contribution has been impressive to date, but we still desperately need more money. This is an extremely complex humanitarian emergency and it is intensifying,” he said.

“This is not a short-term crisis. We expect the situation to get worse and continue well into the start of 2012,” said My Lacey-Hall.

In Somalia alone, 4 million people are in crisis and people are dying every day due to the famine in the southern regions; most of them children. Hundreds of thousands face starvation, with consequences for the entire region.

For more information on the funding status for the 2011 Horn of Africa drought, please visit http://fts.unocha.org/.

For further information, please call:
Kirsten Mildren, OCHA-Bangkok +66 (0) 2288 2856, mobile +66 (0) 819151276, mildren@un.org;
Stephanie Bunker, OCHA-New York, +1 917 367 5126, mobile +1917 892 1679, bunker@un.org;
Elisabeth Byrs OCHA-Geneva, +41 22 917 2653, mobile, +41 79 473 4570, byrs@un.org.
OCHA press releases are available at www.unocha.org or www.reliefweb.int. For more information about CERF, please see http://cerf.un.org


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