CERF allocates $3 million in response to drought in Djibouti.
 |
Somali asylum seekers in Djibouti.
[Photo: UNHCR] |
The World Food Programme (WFP) will receive $880,000 to provide food assistance to 44,000 vulnerable people and refugees. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will use $675,000 to manage acute malnutrition cases among 41,000 people and provide water and sanitation (WASH) services for 60,000 people. Some $500,000 will go to the World Health Organization (WHO) to provide emergency health services for 120,000 people. More than $400,000 has been allocated to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for emergency livelihood support to 60,000 drought-affected people in pastoral areas. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will use $350,000 to provide protection services and multi-sectoral assistance to more than 12,000 refugees and asylum seekers. Finally, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will use $150,000 to provide reproductive health interventions in drought affected areas and Ali Addeh refugee camp.
Djibouti registered rainfall at least 50 percent below average in 2005, 2006 and 2008. The most vulnerable groups of the population have reached a critical point, with pastoralists and rural populations worst affected. Insufficient rainfall has had a direct, life-threatening impact on the most vulnerable, with severe depletion of water reserves, deterioration and death of livestock, decreased milk production, destruction of livelihoods and disease outbreaks.
Increasing violence and instability in South-Central Somalia furthermore has resulted in increasing numbers of asylum seekers entering Djibouti. In 2009 alone, the number of refugees in the Ali Addeh refugee camp rose from 9,000 to 12,000. Food prices also remain high and the country’s resistance to international food price fluctuations has been weakened by its reliance on food imports.
[Last Update: 5 November 2010]