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"Mothers and children are in desperate need of food and water," said UN Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes, who is currently visiting Ethiopia to assess humanitarian interventions undertaken by UN agencies.
Speaking Tuesday with drought victims in Jijiga, Lafa'isa and Kebridehar zones of Somali Region, Holmes pressed home the need to strengthen humanitarian activities.
"A great many Ethiopians have come to Lafa'isa due to the drought, the effects of which are made worse by current high food prices and conflict in the Somali Region," he said.
"In the absence of humanitarian assistance, Ethiopians attempt to adopt the stat us of asylum seekers in the hope of accessing food, shelter and medical care.
"While they may not be asylum seekers, they live in grim conditions and need immediate assistance," Holmes observed.
Lafa'isa has a refugee-screening centre for asylum seekers from the neighbouring war-torn Somalia. Both the Ethiopians and the Somalis in the area are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
Though downpours of the current rainy season have drenched Ethiopia's central and western regions, Somali Region is experiencing the worst emergency since 2001 following the failure of three consecutive rainy seasons.
More than one million people in the region are being assisted through emergency food aid, according to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
"It is critical that the presence of NGOs and other humanitarian actors be expanded as soon as possible in this region," said Holmes, noting that transparency and ongoing assessments will be the key to saving lives.
Holmes visited a hospital at Kebridehar that is getting assistance from non-gove rnmental organisations -- Medicine du Monde and Samaritan's Purse -- to treat malnourished children.
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