Région du Bas Shabelle, Aw Dheegle. Distribution de nourriture aux personnes déplacées et aux résidents par le CICR et le Croissant-Rouge somalien. Lower Shabelle region, Aw Dheegle. Food distribution to internally displaced persons and residents by ICRC and the somalian Red-Crescent. Press Release 17-03-2006 : The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is stepping up its emergency operation to assist more than 1,200,000 drought-affected people in Somalia over the next four months. Relief is being delivered to the most conflict-ridden areas in the southern part of the country in order to avert a potential famine. The ICRC has increased its estimated expenditure in Somalia for 2006 by 61%, from 26,118,000 to 41,951,500 Swiss francs. Severe drought following up to four years of insufficient rainfall has resulted in acute shortages of water and food, withered grazing lands, a sharp drop in cereal production and vast numbers of dead cattle in the parts of southern Somalia that have been hardest hit. The drought has aggravated an already appalling situation in humanitarian terms. In 15 years of internal conflict, thousands of families have been forced not only to flee their homes but also to endure lawlessness and cope without basic health and education services. In a crucial partnership with the Somali Red Crescent Society, the ICRC will deliver aid at least until the next harvest, in July, and may further boost its assistance if rains continue to be scarce. The ICRC has been working in Somalia since 1977. It carries out over 300 water, health, agricultural and veterinary projects in the country each year.