UNHCR urges more aid to Somalia

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres has urged relief groups to increase aid to war-battered and drought-hit Somalis to reduce the exodus to neighboring countries. “We have not yet reached the peak of the crisis,” Guterres told reporters in Kenya after visiting southern Somalia and the country’s capital, Mogadishu. “From the point of view of the food security of the people, obviously, as time goes by, until the next harvest is possible, the situation will become worse and worse,” he said. Rains are not due in rebel-controlled southern Somalia, the worst affected area where close to three million people are at risk of starving, until October, meaning harvest will be in early 2012. The United Nations has declared famine in five zones in southern Somalia.