360,000 who fled Somalia facing hunger-WFP

[Hiiraan boy]

(SomaliNet) The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday that many of the 365,000 Somalis who fled the capital Mogadishu over the past several months are still battling hunger and even cholera.

But a lull in heavy fighting and help from the government would allow the WFP to more than triple the number of people receiving emergency food rations in the coming days, it said. “We have to help these people now. Women, children and the elderly are sheltering from the rain under trees and cholera is spreading,” WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a statement.

The UN agency said it delivered food to 32,000 people west of Mogadishu last week. It hoped to reach at least 100,000 people soon, including 42,000 people in Merka, who were due receive food today.

It also planned to deliver aid to previously inaccessible areas. It cited Qoryoley, west of Mogadishu, and Brava, some 220 kilometres to the south. -Reuters