The United Nations alongside the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) on Tuesday sent a humanitarian assessment team to Marka town the capital of the Lower Shabelle region in South Somalia, one of the regions the UN categorized as famine zones in mid-August 2011.
Almost a year later after the United Nations declared an end to famine in Somalia, UN and other international aid agencies are hoping to return to areas that were inaccessible during the 2011 Somalia famine as a result of the improved security situation in most regions of Somalia.
UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, the UN Children’s Fund as well as AMISOM’s humanitarian Affairs office sent representatives to meet with local administrative officials and visit school as well as hospitals in the region.
On a visit to the Marka district hospital that serves as the regional sole referral hospital, medical professionals said that cases of malnutrition and diarrhea remain high among children despite the end of last year’s famine.
The UN World health organization pledged to refurbish and equip the Marka general hospital that caters for patients from all the districts that fall under the Lower Shabelle region.
The Al-Shabaab fighter group had imposed a ban on foreign aid agencies in its territories in 2009, but has lost a string of towns lately to AMISOM and Ethiopian forces in South and central regions of the country
Marka town, a port city on the coast of southern Somalia, facing the Indian Ocean, had been a stronghold of Al-Shabaab for a long time but was captured four months ago by the Somali and African Union forces.
The United Nations in December launched its three-year humanitarian appeal for Somalia. The appeal for 2013 is $1.3 billion for 369 humanitarian projects targeting 3.8 million Somalis.
Source Press Tv