Somalia tsunami: Up to 30-thousand need food in region crushed by water

FOOD FOR SOMALI VILLAGES SHATTERED BY TSUNAMI

Nairobi, 5 January 2004 - WFP has distributed 218 metric tonnes of food aid to 12,000 Somalis affected by the tsunami. Out of the spotlight but in need of help, up to 30,000 people require food assistance. Most of them are fishermen whose boats, fishing equipment and households were swallowed up by the ocean on 26 December. Others had their homes destroyed by tsunami waves that rocked towns on the Indian Ocean coastline of Somalia. So far WFP has dispatched 277 metric tons of food to provide assistance to 17,000 people. But additional supplies are expected to depart from Mombasa on Friday. A vessel carrying 1,300 tonnes of rice, maize, vegetable oil and corn-soya blend for the relief activities in Puntland, North-east Somalia will be reaching the port town of Bossaso a week later. ASSESSING DAMAGE WFP currently has four teams in some of the most inaccessible areas, assessing the magnitude of the damage and providing aid. 103 tonnes of food was delivered in Hafun district, including Foar and the village of Garan; 42 tonnes of food has been given to 1,400 people in Bander Beyla town, in Dharingar, and in Marraye and Garmaal in Eyl district (350 km south of Hafun); 52 tonnes of food aid has gone to people in Gara'ad town, Kulub, Qorigeesdher, Dhinawada, Ilfosche, Dhabarhagato villages. WFP teams on the ground have described the destruction caused by the wave, and the obstacles that relief efforts will face in delivering aid to these villages. SWEPT AWAY Kulub village near Gara’ad, for example, is still partly under water. Most of the 1,200 members of this fishing community live in makeshift huts of canvas and wood, all of which were swept away by the water. One of the few stone huts collapsed, killing an elderly woman. In Hurdiye, a village of some 1,000 people, mainly fishermen and salt producers, all 100 small fishing boats and other fishing materials were washed away. The salt production area is still under water and they cannot produce anything until the water retreats. FISHING SEASON This is fishing season in Somalia, and many families set up temporary fishing settlements along the shoreline. They were caught completely unaware by the tsunami, and lost all of their personal belongings and the precious fishing equipment that enables them to eke out a meagre living. Fishermen in Somalia will be paralysed by the tsunami for the foreseeable future. Sheep herders and other pastoralists have also been affected, as the waves damaged grazing land. WFP AID Over the next six months, WFP plans to provide up to 30,000 people with US$2.8 million worth of food aid to people whose precarious livelihoods have been devastated. Meanwhile, the agencywill continue to assist another 120,000 people in Puntland, victims of recurrent droughts and subsequent floods who were already receiving emergency food aid assistance before the tsunami hit the coast of Puntland.