Mogadishu: Starving women and children wait for food aid in the hot sun at a camp on the outskirts of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu. They have lasted for days, fleeing a drought ravaging a large part of rural Somalia. Their rising rank is expected to rise in the coming months as the Horn of Africa region faces its worst drought in a decade.
This week the United Nations World Food Program warned that 13 million people in the region, including parts of Ethiopia and Kenya, face severe hunger in the first quarter of 2022.
Urgent assistance is needed to avoid a major humanitarian crisis, the agency warned. The Horn of Africa has long been hit by drought and hunger is often exacerbated by armed violence.
Somalia’s government declared a state of humanitarian emergency in November due to the drought that affected the worst-affected parts, including the south-central areas of the Lower Jubba, Geddo and Lower Shabele regions.
“The impact on households is being felt more severely this season, as multiple, prolonged droughts cause quick succession, a deteriorating security situation, desert locust outbreaks, souring food prices, reduced remittances – and donors. Because of the little money made by them,” aid group Save the Children said earlier this week after the drought in Somalia.
A survey in November covering 15 of Somalia’s 18 regions found that “the majority of families were now regularly going without food,” it said in a statement.
In Somalia, 250,000 people died of hunger in 2011, when the United Nations declared famine in some parts of the country. Half of them were children.
The WFP has said it needs $327 million over the next six months to meet the urgent needs of 4.5 million people, including Somalia.
Somali leaders are also trying to garner local support, and many have responded.
A task force set up by Prime Minister Mohamed Roble earlier this month collects and distributes donations from Somalis in the business community as well as the diaspora. Some of these support hundreds of families living in camps such as Ontorley, where some 700 families live.
Abdullahi Osman, head of the charitable Hormud Salaam Foundation and a member of Prime, said, “There are (many) humanitarian agencies working on the ground and these people need immediate help and assistance such as shelter, food, water and good sanitation.” the wanted.” Minister’s Drought Task Force.
According to camp leader Nadifa Hussain, about five to 10 desperate families arrive at the Ontorli camp every day.
Faduma Ali said she traveled more than 500 km to Mogadishu from her home in Sako, a town in central Jubba province.
“All the problems I am facing are due to drought,” she said. “We didn’t have water and our cattle were dead and when I lost everything, I walked on the road for seven days.”
Amina Osman, a blind woman from Sakko, said two women with her on her trip to Mogadishu died of starvation on the way.
“We faced many difficulties including lack of water and food,” said the mother of four. “We covered the way from our village to this settlement. We spent eight days on the road.”
Mogadishu’s Martino Hospital is receiving more patients with acute malnutrition, and some have died, said director Dr. Abdirizak Yusuf. He said that free of cost treatment is given to malnutrition patients.
“Due to rising cases of severe malnutrition, the hospital now employs specialist doctors and nutritionists to help those most affected,” he said. “A large number are from remote areas of Somalia and now live in camps (of displaced people).”