UN agencies warn of looming famine in Somalia, call for more funding

Drought and increasing food prices are putting millions of people in Somalia at risk of famine, several United Nations agencies have warned, and the country is not receiving the amount of aid it needs to address the crisis, as other global emergencies are being funded.

People assemble a makeshift shelter in the Iftin Camp for internally displaced people outside Baradere, in southern Somalia's Jubaland state, which is hosting people fleeing a terrible drought in the region. © Feisal Omar/Reuters

Six million Somalis, or about forty percent of the population, are “on the brink”, said the World Food Programme, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the OCHA humanitarian agency and UNICEF Tuesday, calling the coincidence of poor rainfall and increased global food prices a “perfect storm that could very quickly lead to famine”.

Somalia is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, and has been facing a drought and poor rainfall projections, with the failure of the April-June 2022 rainy season.

The drought has affected the entire Horn of Africa region, which is facing its driest conditions since 1981, but the UN agencies, warned in a statement that Somalia also faces a “critical gap” in donor funding to address the crisis, as it competes with other global emergencies, like the war in Ukraine, for funds.

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Humanitarian agencies had been able to supply aid to almost two million people in Somalia, but the agencies say only 4.4 percent of the 1.2 billion euro 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan has been funded.

The agencies are calling for “an immediate injection of funds” to provide assistance, to avoid a repeat of the 2011 famine in Somalia, when 260,000 people died of hunger or hunger-related disorders – half of them children under the age of six.

“The funding we need to respond to a crisis of this magnitude has simply not come,” said Etienne Peterschmitt, the FAO Representative in Somalia, adding that it is not too late for funding to have an impact.

“Funding received today can still prevent the worst, but it has to come at scale and it has to come very soon,” he said.

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The UN agencies warn that children under the age of five are the most vulnerable, and access to food and milk is difficult because of the increase in commodity prices and the loss of livestock.

About 1.4 million children face acute malnutrition through the end of the year, with around one quarter facing severe acute malnutrition, the statement said.

(with AFP)