UN agencies launch drought response package to avert famine in Somalia

Mogadishu: UN agencies have launched the minimum response package (MRP), a critical life-saving project that will address urgent needs of more than 100,000 people displaced by the escalating drought in Somalia.
Through the MRP, the World Food Programme (WFP), Unicef and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and partners said the package will help them avert famine by addressing the most pressing needs of those displaced by severe drought.
“With Somalia on the brink of famine, we need to act now, and act together, to avert a humanitarian catastrophe,” El-Khidir Daloum, WFP Country Director for Somalia said in a joint statement issued in Mogadishu.
Daloum said the MRP opens new pathways for partner agencies to work together in an integrated response, collectively empowering some of the most vulnerable people to meet their essential needs, not only food and nutrition but also shelter, hygiene and water.
“This is a very important pilot that will pave the way to scale up multi-sectoral responses into the future,” the WFP official noted.
Some 7.1 million Somalis, close to 50 per cent of the population, are facing extreme hunger due to historic drought conditions.