Severe drought and record-high food prices are combining to create a humanitarian disaster in Somalia where chaotic violence is already causing misery and suffering for millions.

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Nearly half of Somalia's population, or 3.25 million people, are now in need of emergency aid, a 77 percent increase since the beginning of 2008.

The International Rescue Committee is responding to the rapidly deteriorating situation by providing urgent water and sanitation for tens of thousands of displaced people and the communities now hosting them.

The IRC's emergency water, sanitation and hygiene programmes - including the rehabilitation of a strategic water borehole that provides for 30,000 people - are situated in the central Mudug region, where thousands have fled Mogadishu.

The IRC's work in Somalia

October 2008