The United Nations has once again, warned that Somalia stands the risk a severe famine as consecutive droughts have withered crops and killed scores of livestock, while grain imports from Ukraine and Russia have significantly dropped due to the war.
The fresh warning which was given by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Adam Abdelmoula, on Tuesday in the capital Mogadishu, noted that “Somalia is certainly heading toward a famine, if action is not taken now.”
Abdelmoula said if the international community waits until a formal declaration of famine to act, it will be too late as many victims, including children and women, would have died due to hunger.
“We have been there before, in 2011, severe drought resulted in a famine that killed a-quarter-of-a-million people, partly because we were slow to act. We must not allow that to happen again.
“In some parts of the country, food prices have risen by 140% to 160%, leaving poor families hungry and destitute,” Abdelmoula said.
The Humanitarian Coordinator who spoke in a video he shared with journalists, said that nearly half the country’s population, about 7.1 million people, are facing crisis-level food insecurity or worse at least through September.
He added that 213,000 of them would face famine-like conditions as the situation in the south and central parts of the country is especially grim.
“The situation is especially dangerous for children under five years old. Suspected cholera cases are on the rise and at least 8,700 cases of measles have been reported. Malnourished children are much more likely to succumb to those diseases.”
Somalia has endured four consecutive failed rainy seasons, plunging much of the country into severe drought, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency and recent moderate rains have not alleviated the crisis.