Somali government delivers food aid to Gedo region on Independence Day

GOOBJOOG NEWS|El WAK: The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Khadija Diriye, accompanied by a delegation from the federal government has today landed in El-Wak, Gedo region for relief efforts. 

Minister Khadija said they were in the Gedo  region at the direction of the President of the Republic, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre to deliver drought relief supplies to the Somali people as the country celebrates it’s independence Day. 

The Humanitarian Minister said the Somali government is scaling up assistance to millions of people on the verge of famine in all areas hard hit by protracted drought, with the food to be distributed today going to vulnerable families in the Internally Displaced camps in Gedo’s El Wak district.

Few days after taking power in mid May, the Somali President promised to “take action” and address a worsening drought in the country after he experienced first-hand the suffering drought had brought to the people when he visited an IDP camp in the town of Baidoa.

Drought has plunged several parts of Somalia including the Gedo region into a food and water crisis leaving tens of thousands of families’ hungry. Rain has not fallen in Somalia for four consecutive seasons leaving agriculture and livestock dependent households destitute. 

Humanitarian agencies have sounded alarm bells that the humanitarian situation could escalate if the rains fail to come, with more than 7 million people, about half of the population, in dire need of food aid.   

According to experts, the devastating drought has been caused by a dramatic shift in weather patterns blamed on climate change.