UAE attends Arab League meeting to help Somalia tackle drought crisis

Maryam Al-Kaabi, UAE Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt and Permanent Representative to the League of Arab States, attended the Arab League’s senior officials meeting to assist Somalia in addressing the drought crisis, held at the headquarters of des General Secretariat and is jointly sponsored by the United Nations.

The meeting was attended by representatives of Arab aid agencies and United Nations agencies and bodies involved in relief and humanitarian work to coordinate their work plans and actions to address the deteriorating food situation in Somalia, as well as His Excellency Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, and Mr. Abdel Rahman Abdel Shakour, Envoy of the President of the Federal Republic of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud for Humanitarian Affairs and Drought and Mr. Adam Abd al-Mawla, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Somalia – Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia.

In her speech during the opening session, Her Excellency the Ambassador of the UAE reiterated the UAE’s support for Somalia to overcome the humanitarian crisis it is going through. 2.5 million people have been affected by the drought, noting that the UAE Since 2017, more than 629 people have donated millions of dirhams to support Somalia, one of the worst-hit countries in the Horn of Africa.

For his part, His Excellency Aboul Gheit stressed that the invitation of the League of Arab States to a meeting stems from the deep concern of the Arab world and the international community at the plight of the fraternal Somali people in the face of the drought crisis, which is the worst of its kind resulting from the lack of Rain for five consecutive seasons affected about 8 million people, half of the population, most of whom are children, suffering from acute malnutrition and the risk of death.

“They urgently need more support to face the drought heralding an unprecedented, tragic famine that will not only be a repeat of the 2011 famine but could be far worse if we don’t act as needed,” he said.

His Excellency noted that statistics show that the number of people living in pre-famine or famine-like conditions in Somalia has increased five-fold since the beginning of the year, threatening continued internal displacement and the end of the war conflict warns of scarcity of resources, which very seriously threatens social and political peace and security in the country of Somalia.

Abdul Shakour called on the Arab countries and United Nations organizations and bodies dealing with emergency relief and humanitarian work to act quickly and intervene urgently to help the Somali people due to the worsening catastrophic situation in Somalia resulting from drought and food shortages to provide assistance. which heralds a great humanitarian catastrophe.