As many as 855,000 people are facing “acute food insecurity” in Somalia following poor harvests, rainfall shortages and civil strife which has disrupted trade and caused population displacement.
The Food Security and Nutrition Assessment for Somalia, released by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization on Monday, shows the number of people who face a food crisis or emergency has increased by 17 per cent over the past six months, from 731,000 to 855,000 while the number of people in food-stressed situations remained steady at 2.3 million.
The 2011 famine in Somalia saw thousands of Somalis have taken up residence at refugee camps across the border in Ethiopia in camps like this one in Malkadiida. PICTURE: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
The FAO, which oversees twice yearly assessments in collaboration with government and other partners, said that widespread acute malnutrition persists across across the country and large numbers of people will be “acutely food insecure” until the end of the year with the situation likely to be exacerbated by heavy downpours and flooding caused by the El Nino effect.
The FAO estimates that 214,700 children under the age of five are acutely malnourished while 39,700 of them severely malnourished with these figures projected to increase to 343,400 and 63,400 by the end of the year.
In addition, the data shows that 68 per cent of people who need urgent lifesaving humanitarian assistance and livelihood support are internally displaced.
The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said this week that while there had been some improvement since a devastating famine in 2011 in Somalia, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance continues to fluctuate around three million. “The ability to absorb shocks – whether conflict or natural disasters – is very limited,” the organisation said in a statement.
It says food insecurity can “aggravate” concerns over human rights protections and can regularly result in child labour, increased sexual and gender-based violence, and involuntary family separations.
The UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Somalia Peter de Clercq said while humanitarian organisations and donors have prevented the situation from “being a lot worse than it is”, more needs to be done.
“We must continue investing in saving lives. We cannot allow a reversal in the important steps forward made on the humanitarian and development fronts,” he said. “We must simultaneously address the underlying causes of the country”s predicament, and work on durable solutions that will mitigate suffering while also building a more resilient Somalia”.
