The United Nations (UN) and its humanitarian partners in Somalia have appealed for $2.6 billion in support to provide assistance to about 7.6 million people in the country.
Development Diaries reports that an estimated 8.25 million people, nearly half of the country’s population, urgently need life-saving humanitarian and protection assistance.
With five consecutive poor rainy seasons, the longest and most severe drought in Somalia’s recent history is devastating the country.
Famine is a strong possibility from April to June and beyond if humanitarian assistance is not sustained and if the next rains underperform, as current forecasts indicate.
‘The efforts of local communities and the scale up of humanitarian assistance prevented famine thresholds from being surpassed in 2022, but millions of lives remain on the line’, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Adam Abdelmoula, said in a statement.
The ongoing drought has displaced more than 1.4 million people and killed at least 3.5 million livestock, destroying livelihoods and reducing children’s access to milk.
Amid an anticipated reduction in funding for humanitarian assistance, 8.3 million people will likely experience high levels of acute food insecurity between April and June, including more than 727,000 who are likely to face catastrophic conditions.
For its part, the Somalian government through Deputy Prime Minister, Salah Jama, said the country was paying the price for a climate emergency they did very little to create.
He, however, added that the federal and state governments, local communities and the Somali private sector and diaspora are working with the international community to assist the most vulnerable people in the areas with the highest needs.
Data from the African Development Bank (AfDB) shows that Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change despite having contributed the least to global warming and having the lowest emissions.
Climate change poses systemic risks to the continent’s economies, infrastructure investments, water and food systems, public health, agriculture, and livelihoods.
Photo source: WFP
