Somalia elected to WFP's Executive Board amid locusts outbreak

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalia will serve in the executive board of the World Food Programme (WFP) for the next three years, the body's executive director has confirmed.

In a letter dated December 20th, Somalia's permanent representative to Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) ambassador Abdirahman Sheikh Isse, was asked to assume the duties.

The term will commence from January 1st, 2020 until December 31st, 2022 and would have Somalia making key decisions in the UN body.

"On behalf of World Food Programme (WFP), I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations on the election of Federal Republic of Somalia to the WFP executive board for a period of three years," reads the letter in part.

David Beasley, the Executive Director of WFP, urged Somalia to accept the invitation, adding that it would also help in strengthening friendship.

"I look forward to strengthening our friendship. Accept the assurance of my highest considerations," he said in a letter to Sheikh Isse.

WFP has been instrumental in helping Somalia curb unprecedented famine and food shortage caused by raging floods in parts of the Horn of Africa nation.

Throughout November, WFP in collaboration with well-wishers donated food and other necessities to Beledweyne town which was the worst hit by floods.

But the WFP and mother organization FAO, are now embroiled in another phenomenon caused by an invasion of locusts which have destroyed thousands of hectares of food crops.

The locusts have damaged about 70,000 hectares of farmland in Somalia and neighboring eastern Ethiopia, FAO confirmed on Wednesday.

The locust invasion, FAO said, was worse than had been predicted and was likely to spread to other nations in the Horn of Africa, including Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, South Sudan, and Sudan.

"As the weather seems favorable for the locust breeding, there is a high probability that the locust will continue to breed until March-April 2020," FAO regional coordinator David Phiri said.

Besides donating foodstuffs to affected areas, WFP also teaches farmers on the best farming practices in Somalia, a country that has struggled for decades on matters of food security.

Somalia will likely use the position at WFP to cement her endless need for proper food security management as a longer-term solution to a stable nation.

GAROWE ONLINE