Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 23:18:13 +0200
Somalia: Number of Hungry Somalis Grows for First Time Since Famine As Rains
Fail - UN
By Katie Migiro,
10 July 2014
Nairobi - The number of hungry people in Somalia will increase this year for
the first time since the 2011 famine as drought is starting to bite, the
United Nations said on Tuesday.
Rainfall was 50 percent below normal levels during the critical March to
June 'Gu' rains which Somalis rely on to grow their crops and water their
livestock.
"In the coming months, for the first time since the 2011
<http://www.trust.org/item/?map=hundreds-dying-daily-as-famine-spreads-in-so
malia-un/> famine, we will see the number of people in food security crisis
and emergency go up again," the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Somalia,
Philippe Lazzarini, said in a statement.
"The food crisis in Somalia will deteriorate in the coming months, with
drought conditions already observed in parts of the country."
Conditions in Somalia echo those preceding the 2011 famine, in which
<http://www.trust.org/item/20130502155415-jviec/?source%20=%20hpbreaking>
260,000 people died, the U.N. said. The famine was caused by drought,
conflict and a ban on food aid in territory held by the Islamist militant
group, al Shabaab.
"Today, we face a stark reality," Lazzarini said. "The elements that could
tip Somalia into an acute crisis now stand before us - drought, continued
conflict, restricted flow of commercial goods, increasing malnutrition and
surging food prices."
In February, 857,000 Somalis were in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.
The revised figure will be known in mid-August.
RIVERS RUNNING DRY
Water levels in the country's two main rivers, the Juba and Shabelle, are
low, the U.N.'s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (
<http://www.fsnau.org/> FSNAU) said on Monday.
"A prolonged dry season is expected before the start of the October-December
rains and this is expected to lead to severe water shortages in areas that
received little or no rains over the past three months," it said.
The Somali capital, Mogadishu, is one of the worst hit areas.
"I am especially concerned about 350,000 displaced people living in
deplorable conditions in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, where acute
malnutrition rates and mortality levels have already surpassed emergency
thresholds, and where the situation is set to worsen," Lazzarini said.
The U.N. is struggling to attract funding for Somalia, given the numerous
crises in the region. It has only received 25 percent of its $933 million
humanitarian appeal for Somalia in 2014.
The U.N.'s children's fund (Unicef) recently received $4 million which will
allow it to keep 91 health facilities serving three million people in
southern Somalia open until the end of the year, spokesman Bismarck Swangin
said.
Some 50,000 children are receiving treatment for severe malnutrition, which
is fatal without therapeutic feeding, and hundreds of thousands are being
screened by community health workers and mobile clinics.
"If this support doesn't continue and we are not able to provide early
screening and identify cases that could become malnourished and provide them
with therapeutic feeding, by the end of the year we could fall into the
situation of having 200,000 children severely malnourished," said Swangin.
Unicef needs $9 million to support local aid agencies with screening and
treatment for malnutrition through to the end of 2015, he said.
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An internally displaced girl holds her malnourished brother at a camp in
Somalia's capital Mogadishu, July 27, 2011. REUTERS/Ismail Taxta
(image/jpeg attachment: image001.jpg)