UN: 1.3m people displaced in Somalia in 2020

The UN office for humanitarian affairs Thursday said about 1.3 million people were displaced in Somalia in 2020, Anadolu Agency reports.

“Out of a total of 2.9 million IDPs [Internally Displaced Persons] in the country, 1.6 million are most vulnerable and will require humanitarian assistance in 2021,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.

In 2021, humanitarian partners in Somalia plan to help 3.1 million most vulnerable Somalis, including one million children under 5, by fighting hunger, acute malnutrition, health threats, and outbreaks, according to the statement posted on Twitter.

READ: Somalia, UN seek over $1bn for humanitarian assistance

Climate-related disasters, especially floods and droughts, have increased in the Horn of Africa country. In 2020, flooding affected two million people. In November, Cyclone Gati impacted 120,000 people in Somalia’s semiautonomous northeastern region of Puntland.

On Monday, the Somali government and the UN appealed for $1.09 billion to assist Somalis in need of humanitarian assistance in 2021.

The federal government of Somalia and the OCHA have launched the 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan in Mogadishu to assist 4 million people out of the 5.9 million in need of assistance, including IDPs, host communities, and refugees.