His Excellency the President of the Republic of Somaliland, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud ‘Siilaanyo, today, received at his office a delegation led by Mr. Peter de Clercq, the United Nations Deputy Special Representative & Coordinator for /Somaliland & Resident Representative.

His Excellency the President outlined to the large, visiting delegation how dire and foreboding the drought situation was on the ground, here in Somaliland.

The President spoke, according to Minister Osman Abdullahi Addani of Information who, later, briefed the press on how the meeting at the President’s office went, of  the muli-dimensional relief efforts the government of Somaliland, together with the public and the business community mounted to avert early deaths of pastoralists whose livestock was fast disappearing in sizeable herds.

“Without this effort which reached down to school children donating their brunch allowances, the President informed Mr. de Clercq’s delegation, very little would have remained intact to talk of at this stage,” Minister Addani reported.

Mr. de Clercq, speaking to the media, stated that he was here, along with ‘a big delegation of the United Nations and NGOs colleague to discuss with the government the very serious drought situation here in Somaliland’.

Mr. de Clercq stated that he and his delegation had very good discussions with the President, members of the Cabinet of Ministers and the national drought relief committee present at the meeting on outstanding issues.

“Now we are in a situation where a large stock of animals have died and, also, we are seeing increasing signs of malnutrition with the risk that if very quick action is not being taken, we will find ourselves in a full-fledged famine very much similar to the situation we had in 2011,” Mr. de Clercq said.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator stated that resources in hand were not enough and that he has appealed to the international community for 300 million Dollars for the next three months to avert a disaster, adding that as soon as these funds or part of it arrived he will put it into the drought relief effort.

“I am making 32 million dollars immediately available to Somalia and Somaliland which comes from OCHA, New York, and from Somali humanitarian funding under my disposal,’ Mr. de Clercq said.

“I wish to praise the government – and in particular the President – for raising this issue very early on and aI appeal on everybody to cooperate on this respect and to all Somalilanders to come together with the international community to avert this disaster he added.

Mr. Peter de Clercq tweeted of his visit to Somaliland and the meeting with the President and the drought committee:

Mr. de Clarcq, earlier on Monday, posted on his Twitter page on the appeal his office made to the international community as below: