Almost eight million people face famine in Somalia as more than 213,000 remain at “imminent risk of dying” amid the worst drought to hit the Horn of Africa country in 40 years, the UN has announced.
A rare declaration of famine in Somalia is expected to be made later in October, with the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF, the World Food Program (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) stressing that the emergency shows no signs of abating in the East African nation.
Formal famine declarations are typically rare because data to meet the benchmarks often cannot be obtained as a result of conflict, poor infrastructure or politics.
Last month, UN’s Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths warned that the latest UN food insecurity analysis had found “concrete indications” that famine may occur in the Baidoa and Burhakaba districts of south-central Somalia between October and December unless aid efforts were significantly stepped up.
“Famine is at the door and today we are receiving a final warning,” Griffiths cautioned.
UNICEF spokesperson James Elder in turn told journalists that during the famine of 2011, 340,000 children in Somalia required treatment for severe acute malnutrition.
“Today it’s 513,000. It’s a pending nightmare we have not seen this century,” he told reporters in September.
Etienne Peterschmitt, a FAO Representative in Somalia, for his part said that the situation of those forced from their homes by hunger in Baidoa town in the Bay region of Southern Somalia is particularly concerning.
“The repeated warnings have been clear: act now or a famine will occur within the next few weeks. […] The drought situation is spreading at an alarming rate; more districts and regions are facing emergency levels of food insecurity as the cumulative effects of multiple failed rainy seasons take their toll, he pointed out.
In July, UNICEF said that at least 500 children had died this year of malnutrition as Somalia deals with record-breaking drought, warning that it is just the “tip of the iceberg” as many deaths go unreported.