Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Bilal Mohamed Othman, accompanied by the Special Envoy of the Federal President of Somalia for Humanitarian Affairs and Drought, Abdel Rahman Abdel Shakour, met in Beirut with Arab League Secretary-General, Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

The meeting came ahead of the consultative meeting of the Arab foreign ministers hosted by Lebanon, during which Abdel Shakour handed Aboul Gheit a written message from the Somali President.

In this connection, Somalia’s Ambassador to Egypt and its Permanent Representative at the League of Arab States, Elias Sheikh Omar Abu Bakr, indicated that the Somali President’s message is a “humanitarian call for a quick move to aid the Somali people affected by drought.”

“The Somali President’s envoy will shed light tomorrow before the consultative meeting of Arab foreign ministers on the deteriorating situation in Somalia due to the aggravation of the drought crisis,” he said, appealing to everyone not to abandon Somalia in its grave circumstances due to the drought it has been witnessing for 40 years, with nearly seven million citizens facing the threat of famine.

“More than 7.1 million people have been affected, including about 700,000 people who were forced to leave their homes in search of food and water, especially in the central and southern regions of the country,” the Somali delegate at the Arab League underlined.

He noted that “the number of internally displaced people in Somalia is currently estimated at 3 million people,” adding that “the situation began to worsen due to the outbreak of cholera and measles in different parts of the country.”

The Somali President’s envoy warned of the exacerbating drought that his country is witnessing and its negative repercussions on the Somali people, calling on the Arab countries to “support Somalia in facing this catastrophic crisis that threatens millions of innocent people.”

He also called on Arab countries to “play an active role in providing urgent humanitarian assistance to those affected by drought in his country,” stressing “the need to strengthen cooperation and solidarity among Arab states to rescue his country,” and “the importance of developing an Arab and regional emergency plan to reduce disaster risks.”

Source: National News Agency