MOGADISHU (Halbeeg News) – United Nations (UN) has confirmed that at least 200,000 Somalis are facing famine as much of Somalia is hit by drought.
A joint statement, the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said around 213,000 Somalis are at risk of starvation, a near threefold increase from levels expected in April.
The agencies said some 7.1 million Somalis or nearly half the population face acute levels of food insecurity, meaning they will be barely able to get the minimum calories they need and might have to sell assets to survive.
“We must act immediately to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe,” said El-Khidir Daloum, the WFP’s country director in Somalia.
Last week, UN warned of the devastating outlook for millions of drought-affected Somalis amidst heightened risks of famine.
Adam Abdelmoula, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, called on development partners to act urgently and help scale up resources to match the rapidly increasing needs and save more lives in Somalia.
“With the limited resources that we have, we have only been able, between the months of January and April, to reach 2.4 million out of all those in need of humanitarian assistance,” Abdelmoula said in a statement issued in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, on Tuesday evening.
The UN envoy on Tuesday accompanied Somalia’s newly-appointed Special Envoy for Drought Response, Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame on his first field visit to southwest Somalia.
“The situation is extremely dire and grim. 7.1 million people are going to be affected by this drought situation before the end of this year,” Abdelmoula said.
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