​Somalia's President opens drought response conference in Mogadishu

MOGADISHU, Somalia- President of the Federal Republic of Somalia Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has opened a high-level conference on drought response in the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, Garowe Online reports.

President Farmajo chaired the conference attended by Federal government officials, international partners, civil society, NGOs, private sector, religious leaders and businessmen to discuss ways to avert worsening humanitarian crisis in Somalia.

"Preventing famine is our top priority.  No greater threat than famine in Somalia today," said Somali President in his opening remarks at the drought conference in Mogadishu on Tuesday.

Somali President Farmajo has called on International aid agencies and the people of Somalia to extend life-saving humanitarian assistance to those hit by the biting drought in the country.

"The aftermath behind the catastrophic 2011 famine were numerous. We must not make today the same mistakes again," said President Farmajo.

Representatives from Jubbaland, Hirshabelle and Southwest were invited at the drought response conference, to brief the international aid agencies on the current drought situation in their regions.

Somalia's International partners attended  the drought conference included China, Denmark and Switzerland, and urged to increase coordination of aid to avert major famine in Somalia similar to 2011.

Switzerland said the round-table on drought is timely and critical. Deeply concerned about deteriorating situation, and called for doubling humanitarian resources in 2017 for Somalia.

The meeting in Mogadishu is aimed to scaling up of an emergency assistance to Somalia, as UN aid agencies say 6.2 million people are in dire need of an urgent aid due to the drought.

GAROWEONLINE