NRC urges more aid to address displacement in Somalia

MOGADISHU,(Xinhua) — The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on Tuesday called on donors to increase emergency humanitarian assistance to help avert further displacements in Somalia.

A deadly combination of drought, conflict and insecurity has forced more than 250,000 people in the first seven months of 2019 to leave their homes, a figure likely to rise further in the coming months if humanitarian aid continues to go underfunded.

“Thousands of Somali people are caught in a vicious cycle of conflict, insecurity and drought that is pushing families over the edge,” Victor Moses, country director for NRC in Somalia, said in a statement issued in Mogadishu.

“Some are forced to flee their homes due to conflict while others are migrating to overcrowded camps in cities to find food and water because of drought,” he said.

Somalia’s crisis is a perfect storm of natural and human-made factors and is rapidly worsening, Moses said.

“This never-ending barrage of problems is not only an assault on the dignity of people in Somalia, but a direct attack on their ability to survive. They have a right of survival and dignity, and it is incumbent on all of us to ensure it,” he said.

According to the charity, this year’s UN humanitarian aid appeal for Somalia has requested 1.08 billion U.S. dollars for humanitarian programs in 2019, marking it one of the largest crises in the world.

“Despite the growing emergency, only 47 percent of the appeal has been funded so far this year,” it said.

The NRC is urging donors and governments to increase emergency aid for the Somalia crisis, warning that an already disastrous humanitarian situation risks deteriorating even further.