The Egyptian armed forces sent a C-130 military transport plane with food and medical supplies to Somalia on Thursday upon the directive of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, state news agency MENA reported.
Over half of Somalia’s population is facing a crisis due to an immense wave of drought.
Save the Children aid group said on Thursday that Life-threatening child malnutrition rates are raising to alarming levels in the country.
The drought has left 6.2 million people in need of immediate lifesaving assistance.
Hassan Saadi Noor, Save the Children’s Somalia country director reported that 8.3 million in Kenya and Ethiopia are also in need of urgent help.
The drought situation comes as Somalia faces the threat of its third famine in 25 years of civil war.
The United Nations children’s agency has previously warned that the severity of drought hit Somalia, will count 1.4 million acutely malnourished children at risk of life threatening diseases by the end of the year, up 50% from late 2016.
275 000 of those children are expected to be so severely malnourished that they could easily die.
The dire drought and food situation has forced more than 615 000 people to flee their homes since last November to neighbouring Ethiopia, in a country where 1.1 million people are already internally displaced.
The UN has appealed for $720 million to provide aid to Somalia this year, of which it so far has received 415 million dollars.
