Internally displaced persons camp in Mogadishu, Somalia. Portrait of a woman preparing peanuts to sell in town. ICRC B Schaeffer

Responding to latest reports from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Somalia, the Secretary General of the Irish Red Cross, John Roycroft said the situation looks increasingly bleak.

"Somalia's increasing violence is a huge burden on people who have already been weakened by the grim forces of hunger, conflict and drought. These latest reports show that although we are helping some people, more people will need our help."

The situation now in Somalia has been described as "the worst tragedy of the past decade in Somalia", by Pascal Hundt, head of the ICRC delegation for Somalia.

In a report, the ICRC note that armed conflict and high prices are causing greater misery than ever. They are appealing for help to expand aid operations to people in Somalia who have been forced to flee their home to escape the fighting.

The Irish Red Cross has already sent \x80200,000 to pay for the food and shelter provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross' (ICRC).

Somalia: Latest reports from the International Committee of the Red Cross

• Expansion of aid programmes needed
• Hundreds of thousands of Somalis face life-threatening food and water shortages.
• Armed conflict escalating
• Severe droughts
• High inflation in Somalia and on world markets for essentials, food, fuel etc
  

  • Family-food parcel costs up by 150% since 2006

• People finding it harder to get
  

  • Food
  • Water
  • Shelter
  • Medical Attention

• Fighting intense in Mogadishu (capital city) and elsewhere
• Hundreds of thousands of people living in the open or in makeshift camps having been forced to leave their homes due to fighting.
• Food shortages are severe and livestock are weakening as pasture land dried up.

Red Cross/Red Crescent Action

The International Committee of the Red Cross, working with local members of the Somali Red Crescent is focussing on displaced families in Somalia and the local people who are helping them.

• Four months worth of dry-food rations to 435,000 people
• Some 150,000 people will receive essential household items such as blankets, shelter materials and kitchen sets
• Half a million (470,000) people around the country given water.
• Quarter of a million (268,000) people given tents, tarpaulins or other things with which to make emergency basic shelters for themselves.
• 100,000 given food.
• 200,000 served by healthcare services

"The Somali people are going through unbearable hardship", said Pascal Hundt. "We continue to urge all parties to the conflict to respect the rules of international humanitarian law \x96 in particular the obligation to spare civilians, medical facilities and staff, as well as humanitarian workers."