Famine at Somalia's door
AxiosSep 09, 2022
More than 43K people may have died in Somalia last year from the record drought that crippled large parts of the country, according to a Somali government and UN report released on Monday. Half of the recorded deaths were among children under the age of five.
The report estimates that the highest death rates occurred in south-central Somalia, including the Bay, Bakool, and Banadir areas — from January to December 2022.
The current humanitarian crises in Somalia and the larger Horn of Africa region are due to multiple factors — including prolonged drought, climate change, the prolonged conflict caused by an insurgency led by the al-Shabaab armed group, and soaring food prices due to the war in Ukraine. With the world's attention focused on the Ukraine war, protracted humanitarian crises have been exacerbated due to funding shortfalls. Donors need to support the continued vital work of the international humanitarian aid system.
An estimated 60M children under five years are experiencing acute malnutrition globally, and each year 2M children die. In Somalia alone, half of all children, nearly 2M, are suffering from acute malnutrition. The international community must mount a far more effective global response overall that will break the cycle of chronic and recurrent humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa.