Iran, Saudi Arabia extend help to Somalia to fight famine
| Arab News / PressTV, | 31 July 2011 |
A 7-month-old severely malnourished Somalia child undergoes treatment at the Hagadera refugee camp in Dadaab, near the Kenya-Somalia border, July 30
Iran's Red Crescent Society (IRCS) will dispatch a 120-ton humanitarian aid convoy to Somalia to help the impoverished people in the crisis-hit East African country.
IRCS Secretary General Zaher Rostami said the convoy consists of tents, food, blankets and medicines, IRIB reported on Sunday.
He went on to say that 40 tons of the aid will be sent by air while the other 80 tons is to be dispatched by sea in a week.
The IRCS official further noted that the society sent some 40 tons of humanitarian aid to Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, in Farvardin (21 March-20 April).
Rostami also expressed the society's readiness to dispatch medical teams and establish a field hospital in Somalia.
Saudi Arabia meanwhile has donated SR225 million (RM225 million) in aid.
Other Gulf states have also come forward with donations to help the African countries, where about 500,000 children are in need of urgent help including food and medicine.
“The countries in the Horn of Africa hit by famine — Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Eritrea — have welcomed the Saudi support,” said Mohammed Ali, charge d’affaires at the Ethiopian Embassy in Riyadh, on Saturday.
The UN has asked for more support from Gulf states to enable UN agencies to rush adequate food supplies to the drought victims.
Appeals for more help for the drought-hit African countries have already been sent to the rulers of Gulf states including Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said a UN official in Riyadh.
More than 1.5 million Somalis have been internally displaced by a tug of war among the armed factions in the African country, which has been without an effective central government since the overthrow of the country's former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.