Somalia calls for urgent life-saving aid as millions face hunger

As the situation was alarming, the U.N. said an estimated 4.3 million people in Somalia are estimated to be affected by the drought which displaced 271, 000 families due to lack of water, food, and pasture.

News Keydmedia Online
21 February 2022

MOGADISHU, Somalia – After facing a severe drought, Somalia’s PM Mohamed Hussein Roble opened a meeting in Mogadishu on Monday that calls for urgent action to avert famine risk in the country.

In his opening remarks at the national drought response conference, Roble said millions of people in the country grapple with high levels of acute food insecurity as the drought situation is worsening in Somalia.

As the situation was alarming, the U.N. said an estimated 4.3 million people in Somalia are estimated to be affected by the drought which displaced 271, 000 families due to lack of water, food, and pasture.

Members of the presidential candidates’ union, business people, clerics, and officials from the regional states are attending the Mogadishu meeting on the drought that seeks immediate humanitarian action.

Last year, the Somali Prime Minister has declared drought as a humanitarian emergency.

Approximately 1.4 million children or over 44% of the population of children under the age of five are likely to be acutely malnourished due to the non-availability of food, according to Save the Children.

The drought came after the failure of three consecutive rainy seasons coupled with the ongoing conflict in many parts of Somalia that has left a quarter of the population in urgent need of food aid.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO] warned the upcoming rainy season could be below average, risking Somalia to face the fourth consecutive season of lack of enough rainfall.

The people hit by the drought are mostly farmers and pastoralists who lost their crops and livestock in the catastrophe that claimed the lives of several children who died from hunger and lack of water.

KEYDMEDIA English