Food distribution in the Somali region of Ethiopia continue due to recent donor contributions

A mother with her child is waiting her turn to get drinking water at Keroma Kebele where a water truck is distributing to the people in Gewane woreda (district), Afar region, Ethiopia. © UNICEFE Ethiopia

On 18 November 2015, the World Food Programme announced that they were able to continue food distribution to the Somali region of Ethiopia. The support will be able to scale up nutrition to help more than 700,000 children and nursing mothers in the most drought affected areas although, even with the new contributions, WFP announced it only reaches 7 per cent of the $228 million budget required for food and nutrition interventions until June 2016.

The United Nations agency stressed that the scaling up of food and nutrition support is crucial to prevent vulnerable people falling into a deeper crisis and that the dramatic increase in the number of people in need of relief assistance, from 2.5 million at the beginning of the year to 8.2 million in October, led to a serious funding gap. The recent contributions from Canada, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) meant distributions could continue. The United States Agency for International Development also confirmed a contribution equivalent to $17 million.

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