Nearly 8.3m people across Somalia facing food crisis in 2023

1 year ago

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA - MARCH 9: Somali boys wait in line at a World Food program 'wet food' distribution center in central Mogadishu. Hundreds of new arrivals, mostly from the hardest hit drought regions in the south, are pouring into Mogadishu in search of food. According to a United Nations February 2017 report, famine could soon be a reality in Somalia, largely due consecutive and severe drought. There are already worrying similarities to the situation in 2011, when 260,000 died. In the worst affected areas, chiefly rural communities, crops have been wiped out and livestock died, while communities are being forced to sell their assets, and borrow money and food to survive. Some 6.2 million are in need of humanitarian assistance. Of these, 3 million people cannot meet their daily food requirements and need urgent humanitarian assistance. UN humanitarian efforts, from UN agencies such as UN OCHA, World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF as well as on the ground NGO's, are all in overdrive mode providing the a combination of food distribution, access and security as well as medical support and treatment. Cholera has now taken hold in remote areas as water sources become scarce and that available has become expensive to buy. Villagers affected, mostly in the southern part of the country, have resorted to drinking stagnant and dirty water with the last count of cholera victims now past 7,500. With the rainy season due in April, the probability of full-out famine will become a stark reality if the season again provides a lower than needed rainfall amount. (Photo by Giles Clarke/Getty Images)

Approximately 8.3 million people across Somalia are likely to face crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity between April and June 2023, according to a report released on Tuesday, reports Anadolu Agency.

“This unprecedented level of need within Somalia is driven by the impacts of five consecutive seasons of poor rainfall, a likely sixth season of below-average rainfall from March to June 2023, and exceptionally high food prices, exacerbated by concurrent conflict/insecurity and disease outbreaks,” read a joint report by UN and other international humanitarian groups.

Baidoa, the administrative capital of Somalia’s South West state, and the town of Burkahaba are to likely face a famine between April and June 2023, the report said.

These areas are already currently experiencing very high levels of acute malnutrition, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

An analysis by the aid groups in August found a “total estimated acute malnutrition burden in Somalia reaching approximately 1.8 million children, including 513,550 children who are likely to be severely malnourished, through July 2023,” the report said.

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Several areas in central and southern Somalia also have an increased risk of famine between April and June next year “if rainfall turns out to be poorer than currently predicted, leading to more crop and livestock production failures and humanitarian assistance does not reach the country’s most vulnerable populations,” it added.

Areas facing this heightened risk of famine include the central provinces of Hiran and settlements for displaced people in Garowe, Galkacyo, and Dollow, a town bordering Ethiopia.

Somalia is currently experiencing one of the worst droughts in its recent history, which has killed millions of livestock and displaced more than a million people.

The Somali government has declared the drought a “national humanitarian emergency” and appealed for international support to avert a looming famine.