07 Jan 2005 14:56:07 GMT
NAIROBI, 7 January (IRIN) - The UN refugee agency is to ship a consignment of shelter materials and other non-food items this weekend to people left homeless in Somalia by the tsunami that also wreaked havoc in South Asia on 26 December.
"UNHCR has taken charge of the shelter aspect of the operation [in Somalia], targeting 5,000 households," the agency's spokesman in Nairobi, Emmanuel Nyabera, told IRIN.
The agency's initial intervention will be a shipload of 32,500 blankets and 2,995 plastic sheets from its supplies in Kenya. A vessel carrying that consignment and other relief materials for other agencies is expected to set sail from the Kenyan port of Mombasa on the weekend, headed for Boosaaso in Somalia.
Another 12,500 blankets and 22,900 cooking sets will follow next week, along with 20,000 mattresses and 10,000 jerry cans, the UNHCR said in a statement.
UNHCR has appealed for an initial US $500,000 to assist the worst affected areas of Somalia through the provision of relief items and shelter materials. That amount will be for an initial three-month period, pending a more comprehensive assessment.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday that it had distributed 218 mt of food aid so far to 12,000 Somalis affected by the tsunami. According to WFP estimates, up to 30,000 Somali survivors of the tsunami are in need of food assistance.
WFP teams on the ground described the destruction caused by the wave and the obstacles that relief efforts will face in delivering aid to these villages. Kulub, a village near Gara'ad, for example, was still partly under water.
"Most of the 1,200 members of this fishing community live in makeshift huts of canvas and wood, all of which were swept away by the water," the WFP statement said.
In Hurdiye - a village of some 1,000 people, mainly fishermen and salt producers - all of the roughly 100 small fishing boats and other fishing materials were washed away, WFP said.
Northeastern Somalia was the worst affected, particularly a stretch of around 650 km between Hafun [Bari region] and Garacad [Mudug region]. Damage extended to other parts of the Somali coast, including the Lower Juba area.
The livelihoods of many people residing in small villages along the Somali coastline, according to relief agencies, particularly in the northeastern regions, were devastated. Reports suggested that 150 lives were lost in the country.