Summary of major revisions made to emergency plan of action:
This update provides a brief overview on Somali Red Crescent Society actions for the first 6 months of the operation. This Operations Update is requesting an extension to the timeframe of the by 3 months (New end date: 21 December 2016) to enable the National society finalised its planned activities. Appeal coverage at the time of writing is 43%, donors are encouraged to support the appeal to enable SRCS provide assistance to the targeted beneficiaries through the planned activities as detailed in the Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA). A DREF loan of 129,394 Swiss francs was processed at the beginning of the APPEAL to support the startup of activities by SRCS.
Description of the disaster
August 2015: Poor post-GU (long rains) exacerbated drought conditions leading to reduced pasture land, water shortages, and deaths of livestock. This increased the number of acutely food insecure people to emergency levels, with 38% of the Somalia population acutely food insecure, and 304,700 children under 5 years of age acutely malnourished. Reports indicated that 4.7 million people were food insecure with an estimated 930,000 already in IPC Phase 3 (crisis) and 22,000 in Phase 4 (emergency). Without humanitarian assistance the situation would have deteriorated.
January 2016: Governments of Somaliland and Puntland declare the drought situation an emergency.
February 2016: IFRC Surge Capacity deployed to support the Somali Red Crescent Rapid Situational and Needs Assessment
March 2016: Emergency Appeal launched for 1,290,936 Swiss francs. IFRC`s Disaster Emergency Relief Fund (DREF) of 129,394 Swiss francs allocated to support the start of assistance. The 1st Operation update was published on 11 April 2016, while the 2nd on the 25th April 2016 with only a few of the Health and Care activities under the Mobile clinics implemented. Please refer to http://www.ifrc.org/ for more information.
This update provides information regarding the 6 months of the operation since the launch of the APPEAL. The Somali Drought Emergency APPEAL seeks an additional extension of 3 months to enable the completion of the pending activities as it seeks additional funding in view for the extent of activities on the ground.