The UK\u2019s Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford MP, today [17 January] announced a $10.7 million
\npackage of UK support for Somalis affected by extreme drought.
\nThe funding will provide vital assistance, such as cash to buy urgent food supplies, and water
\nto help vulnerable families across Somalia that are desperately suffering from relentless
\ndrought. The support is part of the \u00a316.5 million package of UK support to countries in East
\nAfrica affected by extreme drought and flooding.
\nThe drought severity in Somalia continues to worsen, with over 90% of the country
\nexperiencing drought conditions. There are close to 5 million Somalis who are hungry, and a
\nfurther 3.5 million in need of urgent humanitarian assistance this year due to successive poor
\nrains and failed harvests. A further 2.6 million people have fled their homes due to conflict.
\nThe funding is expected to support almost 500,000 people in Somalia to access clean water
\nand afford food supplies. This kind of early preventative action is crucial, as was learned
\nfrom the 2016\/17 drought in Somalia when early action and funding led by the UK helped to
\nnarrowly avoid a famine.
\nClimate change is driving extreme weather events across the region, worsening pre-existing
\ndrought, while poor governance and ongoing conflicts in Somalia are displacing vulnerable
\ncommunities and destroying livelihoods.
\nOn a visit to East Africa, UK Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford MP, said:
\n\u201c\u201cFor countries in East Africa, climate change is not a future problem \u2013 it is driving a
\nhumanitarian emergency right now. Catastrophic droughts and floods, paired with ongoing
\nconflicts and poor governance in Somalia, South Sudan and Ethiopia, are creating a perfect
\nstorm in East Africa which risks pushing hundreds of thousands of people into famine.\u201d
\n\u201cThe UK\u2019s commitment to supporting our partners in East Africa is unwavering and we know
\nthat early action now can prevent mass loss of life. This funding package will provide vital
\nassistance to almost a million people across the region, helping those affected to access clean
\nwater and healthy food.\u201d
\nBritish Ambassador to Somalia, Kate Foster, said:
\n\u201cThe situation is extremely worrying, with millions of people in desperate need of lifesaving
\nfood and clean water. The UK is moving quickly to provide support as experience has shown
\nthat early, preventative action is vital to avoiding mass loss of life.\u201d
\n\u201cSo far, the UK has provided \u00a332 million in humanitarian funding this year, reaching over 1
\nmillion people with a combination of emergency and longer-term assistance.\u201d
\nThe UK prioritised supporting communities affected by extreme weather events such as
\ndroughts as host of COP26 in Glasgow. As part of the historic agreement reached at the
\nsummit, wealthy nations committed to double the overall climate finance available for
\nadaptation programmes.
\nThe UK is a long-standing supporter of Africa\u2019s adaptation to climate change, with around
\nhalf of the UK\u2019s \u00a32.7 billion adaptation budget between 2016 and 2020 spent in Africa.
\n–ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UK\u2019s Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford MP, today [17 January] announced a $10.7 million package of UK support for Somalis affected by extreme drought. The funding will provide vital assistance, such as cash to buy urgent food supplies, and water to help vulnerable families across Somalia that are desperately suffering from relentless drought. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":409836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-409835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409837,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409835\/revisions\/409837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}