A senior UN Official says Somalia’s humanitarian assistance proportion has “critical gap" that affects the lives of millions of dependents, Radio Garowe reports.

Mark Bowden, United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia is worried that the amount of humanitarian assistance to the war- torn country has gone in proportion to the need of the devastated population.

"Last year we managed to get 650 million dollars worth of assistance to Somalia and there is still that level of need," he told China’s official press agency, Xinhua.

 "But this year it looked a little bit as if we will receive between 300 and 400 million dollars worth of assistance and we have critical gaps in assistance in some of the key areas where people need help," he added.

According to the UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Somalia is probably the world’s largest and worst complicated humanitarian crisis.

"At the moment 35-40 percent of the population are dependent on humanitarian assistance…we have a situation in Somalia where we have 1.2 million displaced people which is one of the largest globally, this are people who have to leave areas of fighting or have to move because of the drought and there people are totally dependent on external assistance for survival."

Civilians in Somalia have always bear the brunt of the fighting that took grip of the horn of Africa country which has been in chaos over the past two decades.

Meanwhile, Bowden said so far piracy hasn't affected the humanitarian response in Somalia because the assistance provided to the country is protected by naval convoys.

"We are very grateful for the protection that is provided to the shipping that goes in. Some of our assistance come through land routes into Somalia and it is not affected in the same way but generally we are concerned by piracy which has effects of making everything we do more expensive," Mr. Bowden said.

GAROWE ONLINE