Unicef appeals for $1.28 billion to help 97 million - Times LIVE

One-year-old Shukri Jama watches as his upper arm girth is measured at a clinic. File photo. Some 3.7 million Somalis are at risk of famine in the Horn of Africa country.
Image by: HO / REUTERS

The UN Children's Fund Unicef on Friday launched an appeal for $1.28 billion this year, with a third of the cash needed to help children in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa.

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The aid body said it was seeking nine percent less funds than in 2011, linked to lower funding needs in Pakistan and Haiti, but that its needs for fighting hunger had jumped by nearly 50%.

The East Africa and Southern Africa regions show the largest increase in funding needs, mainly to the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa.

Unicef expects to help about 97 million people in 25 countries and territories this year, it said.

"The list of countries includes many long standing or so-called 'silent' emergencies, but the crisis in Somalia and in other countries in the Horn of Africa accounts for nearly one-third of the total amount," a Unicef report said.

The Horn of Africa countries are Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.

The second highest funding priority is for assistance to the Democratic Republic of Congo, representing 11% of the total, while the amount sought for Sudan makes up 8%, with Pakistan at 7%.

"Although the distribution of funding required between the various sectors has been fairly constant over the last five years," the needs for nutrition in 2012 are up 47% and "now represent 30% of all of these needs compared to 19% in 2011," said the organisation.