Save the Children has called on donors to urgently scale up humanitarian response to the hunger crisis in Somalia.

New hunger data shows that more than half of children under the age of five in the country are facing acute malnutrition, with one in six suffering from the most deadly form of the condition.

The number of children estimated to be suffering acute malnutrition had risen to 1.8 million, or 54.5 percent, which is an increase of 20 percent from previous forecasts as Somalia is crippled by its worst drought in 40 years.

Four consecutive poor or failed harvests since 2020, escalating local and imported food prices, the deaths of more than three million livestock, drought and conflict-induced population displacement have combined to create a life-threatening emergency.

‘Never has the severity of the hunger crisis in Somalia, which is extending across the Horn of Africa, been so dire’, Save the Children Country Director in Somalia, Mohamud Mohamed Hassan, said.

‘The window of opportunity to act and stop this suffering is continuing to shrink rapidly but surely. Children are already dying.

‘The services set up to combat malnutrition and hunger in Somalia are simply not enough to meet the huge and increasing levels of need’.

The organisation called for an action that addresses the root causes of malnutrition, including finding a sustainable solution to the global climate crisis and supporting the communities most affected to adapt and prepare for climate shocks.

With the number of climate-related disasters tripling in the past 30 years, frequent and recurring climate shocks – such as drought, flooding, and cyclones – are repeatedly decimating farming and livestock, driving population displacement, and pushing millions into acute hunger.

It is understood that in 2022, Save the Children has reached more than 24,000 people through cash programming and treated more than 50,000 children for malnutrition.

Source: Save the Children

Photo source: UNICEF Ethiopia