UN special representative highlights humanitarian situation on visit to Somalia

Somalia’s South West State was the latest stop for the recently-appointed top United Nations official for Somalia, who today met that Federal Member State’s (FMS) leadership for a wide-ranging exchange on collaboration and support.
“We’ve had a very good conversation, including with key members of his cabinet. We started by talking about the ongoing serious humanitarian situation here in South West State – a part of the country that used to be the breadbasket of Somalia, I hear – but now is one of the most vulnerable due to these repeated droughts,” said the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Catriona Laing.
The UN official made the remarks at a joint media encounter with South West States’ President Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed ‘Laftagareen,’ after an earlier meeting with him and members of his administration.
In her remarks, Ms. Laing added that she and the FMS leader also gave particular focus to one aspect of the humanitarian crisis in South West State, that of internally displaced people (IDPs) – with Somalia’s ongoing drought affecting livelihoods, many IDPs are now seeking aid and new opportunities in urban centres like Baidoa.