Nearly one million Somalis face humanitarian crisis, warns UN report

Close to one million Somalis need urgent humanitarian assistance through the end of 2005, including help with food, shelter, health and livelihoods, yet the United Nations appeal to address the situation faces a 57 per cent funding shortfall.

A recent assessment by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)-managed Food and Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) finds that some 919,000 Somalis in most regions of the country will need some form of aid through the end of the year.

The war-torn country has been without a central government for 14 years following the collapse in 1991 of the government of Muhammad Siad Barre, and the report says that in the centre of the country, unresolved conflicts are continuing to delay recovery from humanitarian crises.