The number of people in need of emergency humanitarian assistance in Somalia has dropped from 4 million to 2.3 million, or 31 per cent of the population, according to a new [report](http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=41133&Cr=somalia&Cr1=famine) by the United Nations and the United States Government. Additionally, 325,000 children are acutely malnourished, it says.

“Long-awaited rains, coupled with substantial agricultural inputs and the humanitarian response deployed in the last six months, are the main reasons for this improvement,” José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said in Nairobi on Feb. 3, after visiting southern Somalia.

The number of people still requiring emergency assistance in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti, according to FAO, stands at 9.5 million – down from 13.3 million in September last year.

**Rains, Actions and Relief Is All What Is Needed**

“However, the crisis is not over,” he added. “It can only be resolved with a combination of rains and continued, coordinated, long-term actions that build up the resilience of local populations and link relief with development.”

A severe drought ravaged the Horn of Africa last year, causing food shortages that claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people in Somalia and led to the declaration of famine by the UN in six areas of the country. At the height of the crisis, 750,000 people in the Horn of Africa were at risk of death.

A famine is declared when the following measures of mortality, malnutrition and hunger are met: at least 20 per cent of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope; acute malnutrition rates exceed 30 per cent; and the death rate exceeds two persons per day per 10,000 persons.

**“Only” 9.5 Million People Require Emergency Assistance**

The number of people still requiring emergency assistance in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti, according to FAO, stands at 9.5 million – down from 13.3 million in September last year.

The FAO-managed Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit and the Famine Early Warning System Network of the US Agency for International Development attributes the improved situation in Somalia to a combination of adequate rainfall in late 2011 and substantial humanitarian assistance.

This allowed farmers to produce and buy more food, according to a news release issued by FAO, which as part of its emergency response, distributed seeds and fertilizers to Somali farmers. The agency also rehabilitated 594 kilometres of irrigation canals and treated 2.6 million livestock at risk of diseases and infections associated with drought.

**Fragile Progress**

In the last six months, FAO, the UN Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme and international non-governmental organizations have also operated cash-for-work and food-voucher programmes, instead of relying only on food and input handouts.

“While sustained humanitarian efforts and a good harvest have helped to mitigate the crisis, we must not forget that the progress made is fragile,” warned UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos.

“Without continued and generous support from the international community, these gains could be reversed. Continued conflict and lack of access to people in need remain major operational challenges,” added Amos, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.

“We also need to focus on building up people’s ability to cope better with future droughts and food crises. We must keep our attention firmly focused on Somalia and ensure that we do not fail the most vulnerable.”

**Somalia Could “Easily Slip Back into Very Severe Conditions”**

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, voiced similar concern that the country could “easily slip back into very severe conditions,” unless the current levels of assistance and support are maintained, the UN says.

“We mustn’t give the impression that we’ve solved the problem,” he told UN Radio. “What we’ve done is actually reduced the very high levels of mortality and malnutrition which caused so much suffering. And we are now in the position to make even further progress to help people get back to normal lives. But we’ve still quite a long way from a return to normal and secure situations.”

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that expectations of upcoming seasonal rains and improved farming prospects in parts of Somalia have prompted some 7,000 Somali refugees in Ethiopia and Kenya to temporarily return home, according to UN.

“Some told us they were going back to Somalia to take advantage of upcoming seasonal rains to resume farming in their villages,” UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards said in Geneva.

**Women, Children Left in Refugee Camps**

“They also say they left their women and children in the refugee camps but plan to rejoin them once the harvest is over, as they fear it is not safe to stay in Somalia.”

UNHCR stressed that any return to Somalia must be well-informed and voluntary, and that the country’s situation is not yet conducive for organized repatriation. “While famine and drought conditions have eased across Somalia, insecurity continues to cause displacement within the country,” noted Edwards.

More than 293,000 Somali refugees fled conflict and famine into the neighbouring countries of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen since January last year.

**Increasing Violence against Women in Refugees Camps**

Meanwhile, cases of sexual and gender-based violence, as well as domestic violence, are increasing in camps for internally displaced persons in Hargeisa, capital of the self-declared independent Republic of Somaliland, with social workers attributing the trend to hard economic times made worse by recent drought in the region, according to another UN [report.](http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94775)

“Numbers of the displaced have increased in recent months, with many families coming to town to escape drought; lack of a police presence within the camps and inadequate lighting have contributed to the increase in some of these cases,” Shukri Osman Said, an sexual and gender-based violence coordinator for an NGO, Comprehensive Community-Based Rehabilitation Somaliland (CCBRS), told IRIN at the Stadium camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) camp in Hargeisa.

The Stadium IDP camp, home to an estimated 5,000 families (30,000 people), is one of several IDP camps in Hargeisa where humanitarian organizations such as CCBRS have ongoing programmes aimed at addressing sexual and gender-based violence among vulnerable communities….

**500 Cases of Domestic Violence**

According to Said, the NGO has been running the sexual and gender-based violence programme in the IDP camps since 2006 with funding from the UN Refugee Agency.

On average, the NGO handled between 15 and 20 cases of sexual and gender-based violence per month; however, we have noticed that the cases of domestic violence have increased dramatically; in 2011 alone, we had over 500 cases of domestic violence,” Said told [IRIN](http://www.irinnews.org), a humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“Our sexual and gender-based violence prevention programme has helped somewhat because the sexual and gender-based violence cases have started reducing; our concern is the rise in domestic violence, which is mostly due to men not coping well with economic hardship and ending up venting their frustration on their wives.”

The programme, she said, had a component targeting those with physical disabilities and provided orthopaedic aids – such as wheelchairs – to some of the affected IDPs.

“Most of the victims of sexual and gender-based violence are poor and cannot afford treatment in private hospitals; some cannot even afford the transport to public hospitals, so we help by referring them to the Sexual Assault Referral Centre in the main hospital in Hargeisa,” Said told IRIN. “We also refer those requiring legal aid to organizations that help women seek justice.”

Hawo Yusuf, a member of the management committee at the Stadium IDP camp, said the committee supported sexual and gender-based violence survivors by helping them be accepted by society.

**Livelihood Projects**

“We help construct shelter for those in need of a place to stay, especially those who become pregnant; we help by tracking and [apprehending] the perpetrators, although our efforts are frustrated when these people are freed without being charged with any offence.”

According to UNHCR Somaliland, Hargeisa is home to approximately 85,000 displaced people who have fled their homes mostly from south and central regions of Somalia, due to various reasons, including drought, limited livelihood opportunities and increased violence.

“IDPs often live in difficult conditions, more often than not with limited access to basic facilities such as adequate healthcare, good shelter and clean water and sanitation amenities, ample security as well as employment opportunities,” the agency said.

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2012 [Human Wrongs Watch](http://human-wrongs-watch.net/)