MOGADISHU, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations humanitarian agency on Thursday provided 17 million U.S. dollars to provide immediate assistance to communities in areas at highest risk of famine in Somalia.

Adam Abdelmoula, the UN deputy special representative of the Secretary-General and also UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said the new allocation from the Somalia Humanitarian Fund (SHF) will fund immediate life-saving activities at a time when humanitarian operations are struggling to keep up with the scale, scope, and severity of needs.

The SHF is a multi-donor country-based pooled mechanism that allocates funding for the most urgent life-saving.

"Famine is knocking on the door in Somalia, and millions of people are at risk of starvation unless humanitarian assistance is scaled up and sustained," Abdelmoula said in a statement issued in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

He said the new allocation is critical because the number of people affected by drought has more than doubled since the beginning of 2022, and humanitarians urgently require additional funds to meet increased needs.

The UN relief official said the funds will complement the ongoing SHF reserve allocation of 9.5 million dollars launched in July and supplement resources from the Central Emergency Response Fund that are providing unconditional cash transfers in tandem with emergency livelihood inputs, health, camp coordination and protection activities.

According to the UN, the crippling drought in Somalia has affected at least 7.8 million people, including more than one million displaced from their homes in search of water, food and pasture. Enditem

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